Personal Group | Technology and the Employee Experience

Sometimes it’s easier to talk about what the Employee Experience isn’t. Employee experience is not the employee lifecycle, the employee value proposition or talent management, it isn’t free perks for staff, an app or even employee satisfaction. An experience is something an employee has; it’s what former employees will look back on, and what future employees will ask prospective colleagues and what your current employees live every day.

Every organisation has an employee experience, albeit not always a positive one, and improving it means more than just improving processes and tools. A positive employee experience comes into existence when business-led initiatives consisting of authentic communications, appropriate channels, and accessible technology, align to employee expectations, needs and wants.

Too often we see ‘employee engagement’ and ‘employee experience’ categorised in the same way but that simply isn’t accurate. A great way of looking at it, and one a perspective that’s good to refer back to if lines get blurred, is from Jacob Morgan’s book, The Employee Experience Advantage. It says if “engagement is the effect – experience is the cause”. A great employee engagement initiative may be a shot of adrenaline, offering a short-term burst of life, however creating and maintaining a great employee experience is the long-term solution. The experience plays a central role in improving engagement, retention and productivity by encouraging your workforce to become advocates for your business.

To simplify the employee experience consists of three elements: the technological, the physical, and the cultural environments. Historically the physical environment has received the most attention. An employee’s experience of their physical environment might include an employee’s place of work, the temperature of the workplace, their desk, vehicle or production line, the amenities available, or even the food options on offer. It includes start times, work life balance and where employees eat their lunch or take their breaks. In the past decade More recently, we’ve seen huge focus on developing positive organisational cultures. Whilst the cultural element of the employee experience can feel a lot less tangible, technology can be put in place to support the culture you want to encourage within your organisation, but so often these processes are counter-productive to the culture you’re trying to create.