Employee experience is a worker's perceptions about their journey through all the touchpoints at a particular company, starting with job candidacy through to the exit from the company.
There are many stops along the road which can cause low employee experience. I know of friends who finally gave up or were hired by another company due to an unnecessarily long hiring process. This is one of the most prevalent and long standing complaints I hear. These organizations are starting the employee experience in a very negative way.
Employee experience is a company wide responsibility
I have never seen an organization which has a consistent on boarding process across departments. Most organizations have a range from great to non-existent. When the employee who experienced the “non-existent” hears about the “great” it will strongly affect their experience. This is one of the missteps along the road which is grossly underreported. The employee will overlook it until the other missteps start accumulating. I knew a supervisor at one company who would point to a lathe. That was the extent of the employees’ on-boarding.
The differences between the promises of recruiting and the job reality are the next big step. I have seen and heard about major job issues where the employee was misled or the issue was not even discussed. In previous articles, I have told a story about an employee who was misled about safety equipment. When he arrived there was no safety equipment. He called me and begged for his job back. We agreed on the basis of him telling every employee in the branch the story. We never lost another employee to that company.
You can’t have employee engagement and negative employee experience
I could discuss the infinite number of touch points; but the need for employee experience management is clear. There will be points which your organization will be strong. However, you will also have your weak points. If you are currently doing an employee engagement survey, there will be plenty of indications where your weaknesses are. Start there, look for direct or indirect employee experience complaints. But most importantly, do something about the complaints. One of the greatest management mistakes is not doing something when an employee points out a problem. At the very least, talk to the employee and discuss the options. It may be nothing more than explaining why you can’t do what they think is the obvious answer.
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