Consider buying a new car. It’s an experience that’s notoriously frustrating — one most people dread. They hate pestering salespeople, haggling over price and interest rates, and signing dozens of documents. By the time they drive off the lot, most people are too exhausted to enjoy their purchase. The overall experience was simply draining. It’s the same concept for an employee’s experience in the workplace.

Unlike the experience of buying a car, you want employees to feel good coming to work! Many employees today work hybrid, and it’s your job to ensure they enjoy coming to the office as much as they enjoy remote work. They shouldn’t dread walking up to the building or feeling tension when sitting at a desk. Employees should leave feeling fulfilled at the end of the day. Research shows a good employee experience can improve the productivity, comfort, and cohesiveness of an excellent workplace experience.

What is employee experience?

Employee experience is a self-explanatory term. It’s how your employees feel about their employment. Only recently has employee experience become quantified as the sum of culture, technology, and workplace —though it’s most often correlated with the workplace since that’s where all these variables come together.

In a genuine sense, employee experience is about making employees excited, proud, happy, and confident in their work. Companies capable of doing this create a positive employee experience; companies that fall short may deliver a negative or unexciting experience to workers, leading to employee burnout. It’s an outcome dictated mainly by the willingness and ability to meet and exceed employee needs, expectations, and standards.

10 reasons why employee experience matters

Every company wants happy employees, but employee experience goes far beyond making people happy. It’s about attaining the benefits of happy, engaged, and productive employees. Here are 10 reasons employee experience is important and why it pays to create a positive one:

Attract and retain talent. Skilled employees want to work in a place that embraces and supports them. From the interview to the onboarding process through all stages of the employee, a good experience provides top talent with a sense of purpose and work-life balance.
Create camaraderie. A company’s workforce needs to function as a team. Bad employee experience can push people apart; good, shared experiences bring them together.
Enable work support. A good experience empowers employees to try their best. This way, employees feel confident about their work and less afraid of failure if their workplace projects an air of support.
Improve engagement. Employees with a positive view of their workplace enjoy a certain level of excitement about their job. They’re attentive, engaged, and ready to do their best.
Foster collaboration. Given a positive experience collaborating with their peers, employees won’t be afraid to ask for help, provide guidance, or work together—especially in an environment that supports them.
Inspire creativity. The ability to think clearly and creatively benefits businesses and employees alike. That creativity fosters innovation, which leads to growth.
Prioritize well-being. If a workplace weighs heavy on an employee, they’ll suffer at work and home. Promoting a positive employee experience encourages higher engagement, which can improve mental health.
Feed the bottom line. An excellent employee experience boosts the bottom line through everything from better efficiency to a higher caliber of work done. Happy employees drive revenue growth.
Bolster company image. People talk. When the topic of work arises and employees say only good things, that word of mouth becomes part of the company’s ethos, and perception is often reality.
Grow professionally. Employees who feel good about where they work grow in their professional endeavors. They do more, learn more, and feel comfortable taking on responsibility.

Remember, these benefits are contingent on a positive experience and can become erased by a negative one. Let’s return to the car analogy from above. If you have a wonderful experience at the dealership, you might be more willing to recommend them to a friend or pay a little extra for features you might not have otherwise. A bad experience may make you leave the lot without even buying a car! From the moment of arrival to the moment of departure, experience means everything — especially to attract and retain top talent.

Reap the benefits of a great employee experience

At the end of the workday, positive employee experiences directly correlate to business success. Employees who feel welcomed, accommodated, and empowered bring that positive energy to their work, the interactions they share, and the company culture. These factors contribute to a business’s bottom line and competitive advantage.

Pay close attention to employee experience in the workplace. Do they show up and leave in a good mood? Can they work efficiently and productively? Do they immerse themselves in the workplace? Look for the hallmarks of a good experience and address facets of the workplace where friction, tension, and other negative sentiments are an opportunity to improve the employee experience.

Keep in mind people will never be happy all the time. But an employee’s workplace experience should never be the reason why they’re unhappy. If it is, it’s time to reshape your workplace and employee experience.

How to Shape the COVID-19 Employee Experience

By Dave Clifton
Content Strategy Specialist
SpaceIQ

Fear. Frustration. Exasperation. Weariness. These are some of the many emotions that define the COVID-19 employee experience. Whether they’re back in the workplace or still doing remote work, employees are no doubt feeling upended and all the emotions that come with it. Not only has the situation grated on employees, it’s caused disruptions to everything from productivity to collaboration. It’s a situation begging for change.

While the world may be at the mercy of coronavirus until a viable vaccine deploys, employers can boost employee experience during COVID-19. Amidst mask mandates, social distancing, sanitizations, and contact tracing, employees need a reason to stay optimistic and positive. Employers should give it to them.

Instead of COVID-19 changing employee experience, employers need to take the reins and affect their own (positive) change. Here are a few suggestions piquing the interest of pandemic optimists:

Make the virtual workplace more authentic

The biggest transition for many employees during the pandemic has been the loss of socialization in the workplace. Messaging on Slack and even the occasional Zoom meeting aren’t enough to replace idle banter in a conference room or the happenstance run-ins at the copy machine. To redefine the experience for remote employees and those living vicariously through digital channels, humanize it.

Host virtual happy hours and encourage off-topic messaging at appropriate times. See who can come up with the best Zoom background. Run trivia through Slack. Employees may lack the in-person interaction, but employers can inject variety into virtual workplaces to rekindle socialization.

Practice social-emotional leadership

A little empathy goes a long way toward improving the COVID-19 employee experience. Encourage employees to take breaks or step away from their workstations to decompress. Institute a policy for mental health days—no-questions-asked time off when the stress is just too much. Managers should also take time to shepherd their flock—check in individually with employees to see how they’re doing or let them vent. Above all, encourage leadership to listen and understand the things employees struggle with so you can take steps to correct them.

Prioritize happiness for all employees

What can you do to lighten the emotional load on employees? Inspiring happiness needs to be a core principle for companies that expect continuing productivity and engagement from their teams. If employees wake up and dread going to sit in front of their computer screen or step foot in the office, the emotional toll will weigh on them throughout the day and become an anchor on their morale.

Managers should dole out praise and support early and often, and find ways to unburden employees of unnecessary stressors. Focus on both sides of the coin: picking employees up and jettisoning the things that put them down.

Destigmatize mental health

Mental health and wellness has become increasingly important in workplaces, with more transparent initiatives to promote a positive culture surrounding it. During the pandemic, significantly more people report a decline in mental health—from anxiety to depression to apathy.

Prioritize mental health initiatives and destigmatize this topic in the workplace. Make telehealth options available to employees, institute mental wellness breaks, adopt a mental health day policy, and make it clear to employees that their mental health is a priority above all else. Affirmation of the mental health woes we’re all facing makes it easier for employees to see the signs and confront them early, knowing they have the support of their employer behind them.

Stay in communication (and provide insight)

Especially for distributed teams, make an effort to check in and keep abreast of individual employees—not only in a managerial capacity, but informally as well. Likewise, maintain consistent informative communication. A weekly memo, timely updates, or emergent messaging show that the company is paying attention and being mindful of employees by keeping them in the loop. Whether it’s commentary on the pandemic at large or a company-specific update about changing processes, employees feel better when they’re in-the-know, as opposed to in the dark.

Listen for and correct problems

There’s no such thing as a totally seamless transition from pre-pandemic work to whatever protocols your company has adopted. It takes time to adjust to change and settle in. As obstacles pop up and problems arise, listen and take note—then find a way to address them. Even small problems will grate on employees and can make them feel like they’re unsupported. Especially when it comes to technology struggles, do everything in your power to help ease the transition and acclimate employees.

Stop normalizing the “new norm”

Learning how to enhance employee experience during the pandemic comes from understanding what’s disrupting your workforce. What, specifically, causes them anxiety or trepidation? How can you ease the frustrations of their new work arrangement? What will give them a reason to smile behind their mask, as opposed to frown?

The ‘new norm’ we’ve been hearing so much about has a stigma attached to it—a sense of inevitable disruption. Employers need to stop normalizing the idea that disruption is here to stay and instead, adopt solutions-driven initiatives that define the future in spite of the pandemic.

Keep reading: Covid-19 Workplace Resources