Disengaged and demotivated employees cost organisations money. One reason for this cost is when an organisation tries to create a customer experience that isn’t a reality for employees. It’s simple, if you can’t get the experience right with your own people then it’s not going to happen with your customers, partners or anyone else outside.
Organisations are waking up to the opportunity that engaged and motivated employees can and want to deliver more. But they continue to invest in initiatives driven separately by multiple functions, such as HR, Internal Communications and Marketing and others. Sadly, this approach doesn’t deliver the desired returns and is demotivating for the people in these functions.
Short term bursts of employee engagement activity that aren’t consistent and not felt throughout the organisation won’t make the step change needed.
The real benefit comes when these functions organise their efforts around the employee experience, recognising and acting together where it makes sense. They can then deliver a sustained and consistent approach that becomes part of the fabric of all an organisation does.
A productive, positive employee experience has emerged as the new contract between employer and employee
“A productive, positive employee experience has emerged as the new contract between employer and employee. Just as marketing and product teams have moved beyond customer satisfaction to look at total customer experience, so is HR refocusing its efforts on building programs, strategies, and teams that understand and continuously improve the entire employee experience. Our research has identified 20 elements that bring this together, each of which requires focus and attention from HR and management.”
Deloitte University Press (The employee experience: Culture, engagement, and beyond 2017 Global Human Capital Trends)
Like the customer experience, the employee experience spans the lifecycle of the relationship of an employee with the organisation. So, from the point when a person hears about a potential role with an organisation to the moment they leave.
Some organisations are grasping the employee experience opportunity. Heads of the employee experience roles are increasingly appearing on LinkedIn. But what does this new head of employee experience role encompass?
Having reviewed ten roles (with lengths of service ranging from four months to one and half years), there was quite a mix of responsibilities including: employee engagement; internal communication; compensation and benefits; reward and recognition; talent attraction and retention; focus on culture, technology and the working environment; diversity and inclusion; health and well-being; learning and development (including leadership); change management; employer brand proposition; organisational effectiveness; building digital capabilities; and employee journey maps.
People in these roles are coming from: change; HR; organisation design and development; learning; transformation; chief of staff; operations; employee engagement; communication; employer brand; innovation; programme management; recruitment; talent management/acquisition; and marketing.
This is a great opportunity for functions like Internal Communications, HR and Marketing to sit together and discuss how they can combine their strengths for the future, adding greater value. Their joint focus can be on the employee net promoter score (ENPS) mirroring the measure of the customer experience (NPS).
Does your employee experience mirror what you aspire to or do achieve through your customer experience? If so, please share ideas with others in the comments below.
Karen Dempster, LACE Partners Senior Associate.
With a background in Marketing and Public Relations, Karen is a passionate communication expert who has spent the last 20 years helping organisations communicate better. Co-author of ‘How to achieve communication success in your school’, Karen’s also a professional photographer (when she can spare the time).
