The upheaval in working practices created by the pandemic has disrupted the balance of how it is possible to work and the needs and wants of leaders. This has created a disconnect in the expectations of employers and employees, one which is most clearly visible in Return To Office (RTO) mandates.
The traditional approach to employee engagement has come from a top-down perspective, with leadership facilitating benefits and activities that they feel will engage employees across the board. However, this has resulted in a one-size-fits-all strategy, with benefits often underutilised. This may be due to a mismatch with employee needs or simply poor communication of what is available to the workforce.
We believe the future of employee experience must lie in a personalised approach. This journey begins with listening to employees and, crucially, taking action to address feedback and communicating the actions taken.
This approach goes far beyond traditional engagement perks and activities and looks at the totality of the employee experience. When employees feel part of this process and can see their contributions are heard and valued, they become invested in an organisation's future.
The research shows that employees at companies who lead on employee experience (or EX) are more inclined to surpass work expectations, with a 40% higher level of discretionary effort, showing that improving the employee experience can directly impact the bottom line.
Prioritising the employee experience creates psychological safety, encouraging employees to speak up when there is an issue and come forward with new ideas.
By listening, responding, and tailoring the employee experience to the individual, you create a highly engaged workforce that is more invested in the future of your business.
Demonstrating thought and care for the employee experience increases your draw for talent. This can be measured by a simple Employee Net Promoter Score (eNPS) question and by tracking the number of applications that come via personal recommendations.
Listening to your employees (and analysing available use data) allows you to strip out any programmes or benefits that aren’t used or valued by employees, reducing direct costs.
Employees regularly cite trust, social cohesion, and aligned purpose and values as important factors in their work.
A clear sense of purpose can be found in a clearly articulated vision, but also in the ability for each employee to see how their work connects to this vision and adds value.
Ensuring the vision and values of an organisation are known and understood is the first step in putting them into action. What’s then important is that organisations act according to those values and encourage their employees to do the same.
Benefits offer a clear opportunity to personalise the employee experience. 63% of employees say their benefits package is a major factor in their job satisfaction. However, benefits are often provided as a blanket solution when priorities for individuals can differ hugely. In one example, 41% of younger employees (aged between 16 and 24) valued a gym membership as a benefit, compared to just 13% of employees over 65.
Reviewing benefits usage across your organisation and combining this data with employee feedback on benefits can help you identify opportunities to improve your offer and remove benefits that aren’t being used.
Allowing flexible working practices shows trust in your team and a balanced approach to work and home life. The level of flexibility you offer is, of course, dependent upon your business needs.
There are a range of options for businesses to consider which allow for a more personalised approach to work; these include:
It’s worth considering that research shows higher performers, millennials and women are least likely to respond well to strict return-to-office mandates. These groups are most likely to value a sense of agency in their work and are most likely to quit in reaction to a restriction on their autonomy. Interestingly, there is also a gender divide on the impact of remote working. Women say hybrid working increases productivity, while men don’t showing the need for diverse thinking at a leadership level.
A lack of career development is one of the top reasons employees give for leaving a role. A recent survey found that only 40% of employees feel their company is upskilling their workforce, and 39% are concerned they are not getting enough training, especially regarding digital and new technologies.
Organisation-wide surveys may reveal the need for customised skills programmes to fill these gaps and help accelerate change, especially where digital transformation is concerned. Recent trends in L&D include an increase in formal training for people managers, support for digital skills, including using AI and data analysis, and training which supports the transition to new platforms.
A personalised approach to L&D creates learning plans driven by a combination of employee goals, potential opportunities within the business, and the trajectory of the existing role. These personalised career pathways show that the business is invested in the employee and enables a positive experience by providing them with the support to succeed. While Personal Development Plans (PDPs) can be viewed in a negative light, often used as a tool to manage poor performance, the same methodology can be used to enhance performance and increase engagement at work. They can also facilitate a culture of Continuous Professional Development (CPD), which allows the organisation to adapt and grow in the face of challenges and new technology. A critical factor in the success and continued relevance of these plans is for employee and employer to align on their goals at the outset and to check in regularly on progress.
Employers can help plot this out by explaining different pathways or the skills that may be needed in their current role in future. They can also help employees recognise their strengths and weaknesses.
These could include undertaking formal learning programmes, shadowing, finding a mentor, or studying self-directed.
This may require some research, which may be the first step-goal!
What could hold the employee back, and what could help them achieve the goals.
Ideas include desktop reminders, printouts or posters. It’s important that the plan is front of mind.
Schedule regular check-ins to check progress against the plan.
Encourage employees to collaborate to reach their goals. This could include finding another person to hold them accountable or someone to act as a mentor.
Recognition and reward are a key part of the employee experience, and they don’t always have to come with a cost. From a simple thank you for a job well done to wider recognition across an organisation and beyond. The act of acknowledging good work is hard to argue against.
Gaining feedback on where and how recognition is appreciated can help improve the experience and ensure employees are comfortable with the process. Consideration should be taken around sharing photos versus names only and the level at which recognition is shared across an organisation for various achievements.
Management must take care to ensure different sections or teams are recognised equally. A process to nominate colleagues can help avoid a situation where employees feel overlooked by a narrow group choosing who to recognise in communications. The same also applies to those put forward for external recognition, such as industry awards.
Rewards can range from small gestures to bigger investments. Finding out what motivates the individual and shaping a reward to suit can contribute to the sense of value in the experience.
Opportunities to recognise employees:
A Employee Experience Board is a group of employees empowered to put forward their own agenda to compare and contrast with
The benefits of a Employee Experience Board are two-fold. Firstly, it provides a fresh perspective for the organisation, bringing a new and often younger voice to the table. This can help businesses keep track of trends, particularly with regard to design and technology. Secondly, it provides a taste of leadership, giving employees a learning experience. Those on the Employee Experience Board must demonstrate an understanding of the organisation's mission and values. In return, they gain insight into board procedures and the decision-making process, giving them valuable leadership experience.
Employee Experience Boards can contribute to business success; one example is the case of Gucci and Prada. When Gucci created a shadow board of younger employees, its profits soared. However, Prada ignored the creative input of its younger employees, failed to recognise the growing power of digital influencers, and its profits fell.
At the time of writing, the TIG team are compiling the results of our third annual engagement survey. What started as a wellness survey to inform the creation of a new employee programme has expanded into a comprehensive review of the employee experience. The insight we’ve gained has led to the development of a tailored wellness programme, the introduction of the 4.5 day week and the launch of our custom Learning and Development programme, the TIG Academy.
Employee engagement seems to be very top-down, whereas shifting to the employee experience filters up, so it’s almost turning engagement on its head. It focuses not only on the employee lifecycle but on employees' lives. What do we need to do to get the best from everyone? What do we need to do as employers to enhance our offering?
We created this programme in 2023 in response to feedback from the previous year’s survey. This highlighted the need for a customised programme of learning that could help our people grow as researchers. There are two sides to the programme: one focused on creating client reports and one on presentation skills. The training uses a true-to-life scenario, preparing a report to a brief from a fictional client, from the research and report creation to a presentation to our board of directors. Throughout the journey, researchers receive feedback and collaborate with other team members to share skills and compare approaches. The programme feedback has been highly positive, and we’re excited to see how it develops in the coming year!
