A positive employee experience is a competitive advantage
Employee experience might sound nice and fuzzy, or even a marketing term for engaging employees, but that is not the case.
Employee experience is not a new concept. It traditionally sat within the human resources function of a business and has generally been about the time an employee has been with the company or their entitlements. From an HR (Human Resources) perspective, it has been mainly about the interaction with employees like recruitment, performance review and personnel discussions.
Throughout an employee's career, all interactions and touchpoints determine their experience. More recently, we have learnt that employee experience is far more than interaction with HR. The extent of the employee experience encompasses their work life, home life, way of working and work environment.
From their offer letter to their last day at work, every interaction your employee has with your business influences their employee experience.
Experience plays a crucial role in employee retention.
As with customer experience, every interaction with an employee directly impacts the company's profitability. Companies with a high-touch employee experience have a competitive advantage as employees are more likely to talk about the company positively. Generally, the more engaged employees are, the more committed they are to the organisation, and the more they feel a sense of belonging there.
According to Gartner's research, employees with a positive employee experience are more likely to stay at their current organisation, and 69% are more likely to be high-performing employees.
Disengaged employees have 37% higher absenteeism, 18% lower productivity, and 15% lower profitability.
What can employers do to create a positive employee experience?
Employees expect the same kind of work experience they have come to expect as consumers due to advances in digital technology. Including:
Information on tap
Service, processes, procedures, and personal information should be available to employees online with seamless software solutions. Access to information anytime and anywhere. Every employee finds it frustrating when they cannot find information on booking leave or clocking in and out of a system that should be easy and not time-consuming.
Transparency
Organisations must be transparent if they want to maintain employee trust. Transparency is a leading cause of dissatisfaction among employees. In the workplace, transparency goes beyond strategic direction; employees want clear role performance and expectations, advancement opportunities, and processes to achieve goals. Transparency builds trust and engagement, which increases productivity and performance.
Self Service
Information on tap anytime anywhere is key to employee engagement and experience. With the advancement of technology, humans have become impatient we do not want to wait for any information. Employees do not want to wait a week for a response from HR. Employees should have access to all information they need when they need it since it impacts them as individuals and as they crave transparency. This can be achieved through employee self-services or commonly referred to as ESS software.
Connectedness
Feeling engaged, connected, and meaningful at work are important to employees. Systems and processes that welcome, connect and appreciate employees create a sense of connection and inclusivity for employees. Employees feel detached and alienated when they do not feel a sense of inclusion and connectedness.
The 3 key challenges to overcome for an employee-friendly experience
The challenges for companies to deliver a great employee experience include:
- Managing administration-heavy tasks like onboarding, rostering and scheduling, time and attendance, payroll and reporting.
- Regulatory and legislative compliance.
- Offering an employee self-service system to help manage workforce needs, expectations, and requirements.
If you implement segmented solutions, you will have to spend additional time entering data, which may have to be duplicated across different platforms, which means extra time spent on data entry. The processing will also be more manual because you will have several records for one employee across several software platforms.
Access Payroll Software and Workforce Management Software offer your employees an experience that meets all their needs and provides valuable insight for your business to improve and grow, from payroll processing to comprehensive reporting and valuable insights.
