Employee Experience

Develop a Happy, Productive and Supported Workforce for Exceptional Individual and Business Performance

Ben Whitter

• Publisher: Kogan Page
• Year: 2019
• ISBN:
  9780749491789
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Commerce
• Subtopic: Gestion des ressources humaines

For organizations to maintain their competitive advantage, their people need to be performing to the best of their abilities. But in a world of increasing stress and pressure, rapid technological change and digital overload, supporting and developing employees has never been more difficult. Employee Experience is a practical guide to achieving this. To develop top-performing employees, HR professionals need to move beyond ad hoc engagement initiatives and instead to design and embed employee experience throughout an organization's processes and culture - from the moment an employee sees a job advert to the moment they leave the company. Employee Experience is full of tools, tips and advice to help HR professionals and business leaders motivate, support and develop their staff to achieve exceptional individual and organizational performance. It includes guidance on how to build experience capabilities in an HR team and on communicating, sustaining and evolving the employee experience, as well as on using networks, nudges and technology.Containing a foreword by Global Industry Analyst Josh Bersin and case studies from companies including Airbnb, Starbucks and Sky, the book shows how focusing on the employee experience improves performance, productivity and profits and how organizations of any size can achieve this success.

05

Designing the employee experience

Designing the EX is a combination of art, science and business. Companies at the leading edge of business are demonstrating a deep empathy in creating experiences that connect to positively impact emotions. It’s no longer good enough to launch a new process or initiative and hope for the best. Whether designed or not, experiences will take place and they make an impression on people. They will inform the perceptions people have about the quality of the company and the people around them. In this chapter, we will delve deeper into how businesses and HR functions are unleashing their potential as architects of experience, and highlight some key techniques alongside in-depth cases of EX being applied in practice (see Table 5.1 overleaf).

Figure 5.1 Designing EX

Table 5.1 Designing EX

EX principles	Human manifesto
Human obsession	Masters of our universe
Long-term orientation	Autonomy
Purpose is a path to prosperity	Purposeful and meaningful work
Fail fast, win big	Failing and flourishing
Community first	Respected, rewarded and recognized
A holistic experience by design	Commitment and care
Evidence-based, data-driven action	A powerful voice
Evolution, not revolution	Enjoy the experience
Sharing is caring	Supported, safe and trusted
Digital lifestyle, digital EX	Tech-enabled

EX principles	Human manifesto
Human obsession	Masters of our universe
Long-term orientation	Autonomy
Purpose is a path to prosperity	Purposeful and meaningful work
Fail fast, win big	Failing and flourishing
Community first	Respected, rewarded and recognized
A holistic experience by design	Commitment and care
Evidence-based, data-driven action	A powerful voice
Evolution, not revolution	Enjoy the experience
Sharing is caring	Supported, safe and trusted
Digital lifestyle, digital EX	Tech-enabled

I discussed the idea in the previous chapter about moving from moment to moment to create positive reference points in the employment relationship, and this is where we start to design them through intentional divergence and development (see Figure 5.1). Positive reference points come in all shapes and sizes. It could be a welcoming first day, a workplace designed and oozing the truth of a business, a progressive set of HR practices that recognize employees are human beings. For example, how an employer supports specific life events like growing a family, taking holidays/leave, interacting with important community events or festivals, or dealing with emergencies or personal issues. Every moment is an opportunity to develop the connection a business has with employees. Team development, business updates, impromptu celebrations, leadership meetings, performance review touchpoints such as 1:1s and quarterly reviews. The list is endless, filled with limitless potential to show, through action, that an employer genuinely believes in and cares about its workforce. We have identified a business and human need to take a stand within an organization’s own context and live by its truth throughout the EX. This is a critical factor in avoiding organizational cynicism, psychological contract breaches and negative perceptions. These things can seriously harm the employment relationship and build over time as a result of poor internal EX practices or poorly designed experiences.

For example, if you preach simplicity to customers, and your EX is complicated and frustrating, then the EX is not in good shape at all. Similarly, if you espouse certain values and the EX doesn’t reflect them, or if the company wants to be known for speed and convenience, and the EX is awkward and clunky, this will directly affect and influence employees’ performance with customers. Therefore, the journey employees experience daily does start from what the brand would like to be known for with customers. To do this effectively, the employee journey will need to closely match that reality or those aspirations first. Companies also need to stand apart from other organizations and differentiate themselves within and outside of their markets. This is an absolute necessity if they want to attract the right people who can grow with and through the business.

The convergence of principles and humans

At this point, leading by principles with a sharp focus on humans is the way to design experiences that count and connect to distinct outcomes. We are always designing at multiple levels so we need to consider the principles and lens of experience, but also design around the clear wants and needs of the humans within organizations. Figure 5.2 puts this more sharply into our view as we incorporate and converge our work on EX for maximum impact. There is always a deal in there somewhere between people and employers. Human nature tends to intervene if one party is getting more from the relationship than the other. Those companies investing heavily in EX expect a return, and that return is high performance and a solid contribution to the business strategy. Likewise, employees have their own expectations as they bring major value to a company. As a result, EX principles will need to meet the human manifesto directly in the way experiences are designed.

We are never just developing the organization nor are we ever just developing people. The reality is that, whether acknowledged or not, we are always developing (or affecting) both simultaneously. The same applies when discussing CX and EX. We can’t talk about one without the other. EX and CX come together in lockstep during the design stage within the more progressive companies. This offers a glimpse of what is to come as the experience economy develops, and the journeys we have within it.

Figure 5.2 A truthful HEX journey

SOURCE © 2019 Ben Whitter/World Employee Experience Institute (WEEI Ltd). All rights reserved.

A flow chart shows various types of experiences around the element truth. The experiences are: Brand/ Product/ Customer experience, Attraction experience, Candidate experience, Welcome experience, Growth experience, Performance experience, and Alumni experience.

The EX journey

Designing around the end-to-end EX journey acknowledges that the stage is set for EX long before the first day in work and it continues long after our last day with an employer. More businesses are acting on this to design in emotional and behavioural responses. Talented people with options, and choices to make, are far more discerning in where they ply their trade and for what reasons. Employee activism is nothing new, but its strength is increasing. Employees, and potential employees, are making choices based on the issues that matter to them. I can’t think of many major brands that haven’t experienced this in the last few years. As a result, we need to challenge our thinking about how we shape the entire EX journey, which consists of the following (also set out in Figure 5.2 above):

Brand, product, service	Direct or indirect experience that prospective employees have with a brand, its values and the promises it delivers to customers/consumers. This also relates to societal and community leadership.
Attraction	Marketing and communicating an organization’s version of the truth to connect with people who strongly align with it.
Candidate	A high-quality experience to candidates with the intent to create a higher number of promoters/brand advocates within the employment market and economy regardless of recruitment and selection outcome.
Welcome	Crafting a strong and coherent welcome experience to new colleagues to enable a smooth and seamless integration into the company. To facilitate a strong immediate relationship with people, teams and the business and develop early performance outcomes.
Growth	Well-designed personalized opportunities to develop skills and capabilities whilst making progress inside and outside of work. Connecting to causes and interests that mean something to each employee, the wider employee community and external, but connected, communities. Growing through challenges in life and work, human-centred HR polices help and enable people to grow effectively through experience.
Performance	A focus on aligned impact through role and relationships with real-time data to inform and inspire targeted actions and behaviours that lead to successful outcomes. Underpinned by coaching and human-centred leadership, performance dialogue is always-on, supporting people to deliver excellent work. Recognition, reward and incentives tied to performance at individual, team and organizational levels.
Alumni	Maximizing the impact and connection with former employees as engaged brand champions and advocates who refer business and people to the organization. A community of colleagues and a talent pool for ‘boomerang’ employees who return to work for the company. A connection for life.

Brand, product, service	Direct or indirect experience that prospective employees have with a brand, its values and the promises it delivers to customers/consumers. This also relates to societal and community leadership.
Attraction	Marketing and communicating an organization’s version of the truth to connect with people who strongly align with it.
Candidate	A high-quality experience to candidates with the intent to create a higher number of promoters/brand advocates within the employment market and economy regardless of recruitment and selection outcome.
Welcome	Crafting a strong and coherent welcome experience to new colleagues to enable a smooth and seamless integration into the company. To facilitate a strong immediate relationship with people, teams and the business and develop early performance outcomes.
Growth	Well-designed personalized opportunities to develop skills and capabilities whilst making progress inside and outside of work. Connecting to causes and interests that mean something to each employee, the wider employee community and external, but connected, communities. Growing through challenges in life and work, human-centred HR polices help and enable people to grow effectively through experience.
Performance	A focus on aligned impact through role and relationships with real-time data to inform and inspire targeted actions and behaviours that lead to successful outcomes. Underpinned by coaching and human-centred leadership, performance dialogue is always-on, supporting people to deliver excellent work. Recognition, reward and incentives tied to performance at individual, team and organizational levels.
Alumni	Maximizing the impact and connection with former employees as engaged brand champions and advocates who refer business and people to the organization. A community of colleagues and a talent pool for ‘boomerang’ employees who return to work for the company. A connection for life.

Businesses are now quickly bringing across all that the...