Employee Experience: Why it’s Absolutely Crucial Right Now

Change, Experience

As we all navigate the impacts of Covid-19, there are a few crucial points to focus on to ensure you and your team make it out stronger. 

The first, of course, is ensuring the business stays afloat. This will require the implementation of a change management process, amongst others, in order to adapt to the sudden changes and remain competitive. The second is retaining invaluable people, and third is protecting your culture. 

Considering each of the above, there is one crucial element that’ll significantly aid in their success: employee experience. 

What is employee experience?

Employee experience accounts for the individual’s entire experience with your organisation, from the recruitment phase to their exit. It encompasses everything from the organisation’s approach to onboarding, engagement, job satisfaction and more. 

The importance of employee experience in crisis

Improving your employee experience has always been important, but in times of crisis, it is absolutely crucial. By maintaining your employee experience, the workforce is guaranteed to show up for you. The reason for this is because employee experience nurtures and maintains employee motivation and loyalty; and so, productivity is less affected.

During times of crisis (and especially now), team cohesion is critical: team members are working remotely and remaining aligned with one another will determine the success or failure of tasks, as well as new implementations set out by your change management strategy. It is also the responsibility of each individual in the organisation to protect the future of the business – remember you’re only as strong as your weakest link, and so reinforcing teamwork and cohesion, and encouraging team unity will help you to avoid any weak links, and ensure the organisation is working as one body to achieve a common goal – survival. 

It’s essential management and leaders continue to uphold the employee experience strategies they set out before the crisis. A time like this puts organisations to the ultimate test, and the workforce will absolutely be sensitive to the way the organisation approaches change; how the organisation treats their staff, what their true values are, and where their loyalties actually lie. 

If an organisation is serious about retaining their talent, they should give no reason for their staff to think/wonder about greener pastures elsewhere.

How to improve/maintain employee experience during this time

Show up for the workforce

If you want the workforce to show up for the organisation, managers and leaders need to show up for the workforce. This can be as simple as attending to their admin or technical demands during this time; being available to them and their work-related needs, and being a pillar of support. Just because the organisation has been fragmented, does not mean practices and processes you’ve taken years to establish (such as employee experience), should be forgotten about.

Manage stress and worry

This is a stressful time, especially for managers and leaders who are trying to navigate business operations in unprecedented times, and lead change, but it is essential that personal stress and worry does not impact the workforce. Relationships are fragile, and building trust with your team can take years. Relationships with managers and colleagues is a core element of employee experience and so should be handled with care.

Set goals, share results and give recognition where it’s due 

Just as you set goals before, so you should be setting them now. Employees always need to work toward a vision and be motivated to meet the goals that will achieve that vision. Setting goals and sharing results will reinforce the team dynamic and the unity that’s so crucial during this time; while also maintaining motivation, and reinforcing the need to keep performing. Giving recognition where it’s due is again, another tool at your disposal that’s sure to improve, or at least maintain results and performance. 

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