Employee experience is an element that has been recognized and catered to for quite some time now. However, with technology and digitization slowly creeping into every aspect of business and millennials joining the workforce, it has become important to make changes and shape the employee experience of the future.

It’s the year 2020, the second-decade post the millennium began. Employees are no longer just individuals that come into work, collect their salary and leave on time. Companies have recognized that employees are that crucial element of business that they need to grow and flourish. The most successful companies in the world are those that believe in taking care of their employees since it leads to them delivering amazing products and customer experience. 

Taking care of an employee’s experience, contrary to popular belief, does not begin when he/she becomes a part of the said company. It is, in fact, when the employee walks in for an interview that his/her experience begins to take shape. It is a journey that stays right through to the exit interview when the employee bids adieu and moves on to the next place. With newer trends showing up featuring the employees of tomorrow, aka the millennials, it is time to take the whole concept of employee experience to its utmost seriousness. 

It’s never too late to start, so let’s look at a few ways that companies can accommodate within their workings to shape the experience of their employees, both current and future. 

Reshaping employee memories

Employees associate their feelings regarding their workplace with the memories that they have attached to the same. Since the employees today are not just individuals working to receive a paycheck, the company must invest in creating an employee experience team. This, in coordination with the HR, can help come up with activities and forums where employees can learn as well as have fun. For a happy and productive employee, it is necessary that the employee feels like they are a valued part of the company. A bad or negative memory that is never addressed can cause much harm both to the employee’s work and the brand image. 

Employee experience equals Customer Experience 

Recommendations no longer do the trick, experiences do. An individual with plans to join a company will first conduct thorough research to check the company’s background and current employee experiences, amongst other things. Today, employee experience is equivalent to having an excellent brand value because your employees are your inhouse customers. A happy customer is the result of a happy and dedicated employee. Employee experience at a workplace is followed by employee engagement. To create a fantastic employee experience, you can have collaborations, building transparency, psychological safety, alignment, and sharing feedback on both ways. 

Reiterating good experiences 

Companies must make an effort to understand the good experiences faced by the employee and bank on them to multiply in the future. Small nudges from time to time that reiterate the good memories within an employee can be a great motivator. The employee turnover is only increasing by the year. The maximum time an employee gives an organization is two years which will lower in the future depending upon their experience. Companies need to help employees untangle their negative emotions and memories because it will only cause more harm than good. Mentors will need to work closely with their team members to help them understand the lessons they’ve learnt from their negative experiences in the past. This will help free any negative memories associated with the company. 

Technology-driven skills

Technology and AI have enveloped and trickled down to every sector of business. It is not only the millennials, but every generation now needs to become equipped with technological skills to combat future challenges. Identifying the gaps and ensuring that the employees are provided with the same is a need to be fulfilled by the HR. This an experience that only companies looking out for their employees will tend to. At the same time, Artificial Intelligence (AI) comes handy not only for sourcing the right candidate but also to understand which team members work best together, or which employees would be well suited to take the lead on a particular project. 

Screening of candidates for future hiring 

Implementing a plan without constantly checking how it is working will only lead to it turning into a disaster. The atmosphere at work and market conditions, too, are undergoing a constant change. Therefore, it is slowly turning out to be a mandate that companies introduce a screening test that helps them understand a client’s mindset about the organization. Similar techniques can be used to understand how employees respond to good, bad and neutral experiences in the organization. If bad emotions have been festering all along, it may deter the performance and also impact the team morale. Bad experiences can also cause employees to walk out of companies which can be put to a stop by checking on them. Retaining the right talent is tough these days and will be even more so in the future. The same can be used while screening talent that you want working for your organization. 

Employee experience is slowly turning to be a core element for organizational development and branding. Employee turnovers are at an all-time high since most employees today jump workplaces after only two years. The function of HR has evolved in more ways than one in the past. However, with the future holding a higher involvement of technology and AI in the working of a company, hiring processes are expecting a massive change. HR’s need to be adept to following a procedure and building a team that looks after the experience of the employee as the overall experience of the employee is crucial to both the company and its customers. 

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