Employee experience

Companies commonly invest in understanding customers' satisfaction with their products or services. Employee experience can be as critical to a company's prosperity as the client experience, and overlooking employee perspectives is a risk. Employees with a positive view of their job and work environment are typically more productive and dedicated to achieving the company's goals.

ADP recognizes the pivotal role that a positive employee experience plays in the success of a business and helps employers enhance this through innovative talent management solutions. By leveraging ADP's expertise, employers can effectively measure and improve workforce satisfaction, fostering a more engaged and productive work environment.

What is employee experience?

The employee experience encompasses an employee's perceptions throughout their tenure at a company, from recruitment to departure. Daily activities, what they observe, listen to, and feel, can be assessed individually and collectively and influence how employees experience the world of work. Recognizing the significance of both viewpoints, companies can cultivate trust with their workforce and ensure employees find their roles meaningful and fulfilling. ADP offers tools that can enhance the employee experience from recruitment to talent management.

Stages of the employee experience

The employee experience is a comprehensive journey that can be outlined in six key stages, beginning even before formal employment starts. Let's explore each stage:

1. Attracting: The first phase involves having an open position that the company wishes to attract the right talent to. It also includes the potential talent's perception and interaction with the company's brand and culture. It could be helpful to enhance and promote brand awareness through events and social media at this stage.

2. Recruiting: The recruitment process begins before the official employment offer. It revolves around the candidate's experience during the hiring process; therefore, companies may benefit from emphasizing open communication and establishing trust with candidates through their interactions with recruiters and hiring managers.

3. Onboarding: The onboarding phase focuses on effectively integrating new employees. Key success factors can include a welcoming environment, inclusion, clear communication about expectations and goal setting.

4. Engagement: Keeping employees satisfied and dedicated is critical when building a strong employee experience. Offering engagement opportunities, soliciting continuous feedback, and fostering a sense of belonging are all factors that may help keep employees engaged.

5. Development: Professionally developing employees is essential for employee satisfaction and company success. Offering growth opportunities, encouraging internal mobility, and investing in learning experiences are all strategies to enhance the employee experience at this stage.

6. Offboarding: The exit stage, marking the end of the employee's journey, may be as important as the initial stages. Conducting exit interviews for feedback, checking in with the team to manage the transition, and maintaining a positive and respectful approach are helpful practices that enable companies to set a positive and lasting impression.

The business impact of employee experience

The ripple effect of positive or negative employee experiences can play an essential role in a company's success. Active employees might share their experiences with colleagues and acquaintances, while former employees could post online reviews about their past employers. These experiences can influence the morale and productivity of the workforce, the company's reputation, and the quality of client service. They can also play a critical role in a company's ability to attract and retain talent.

Employee experience challenges

Developing enriching and meaningful experiences for employees may present several challenges. Companies that struggle with maintaining high levels of engagement may face obstacles such as:

• Insufficient data to truly understand employee feelings
• Technological shortcomings or bureaucratic hurdles
• A one-size-fits-all approach to employee development
• Neglecting to obtain feedback through exit interviews

How to design an employee experience strategy

Developing an employee experience strategy begins with actively listening to employees to identify their needs. Subsequently, companies could articulate their value proposition, emphasizing what distinguishes their workplace culture and the principles, values, and benefits they offer to enhance employee well-being. Effectively communicating these values can help align new hires' expectations with their experiences.

Fostering a positive employee experience may transcend initial impressions. Companies may benefit from being attuned to their employees' needs and desires across various stages of their employment.

How to improve employee experience

Employers can enhance the employee experience by looking at various stages of the employee journey. For each phase, identifying successes and areas of improvement may help elevate employee experience.

Recruitment and onboarding

• Develop a branded, mobile-friendly career website to attract candidates.
• Use analytics to evaluate the efficiency of the hiring process and uncover new talent pools.
• Be aware of the legal requirements for hiring in different locations.
• Implement a digital onboarding process that focuses on the needs of the new hires.
• Conduct background checks and employment verifications smoothly and effectively.

Engagement and retention

• Employ strength assessments to enhance collaboration between leaders and their teams.
• Encourage weekly individual meetings between managers and their team members.
• Provide leaders access to an employee engagement platform that features coaching tools.
• Monitor engagement levels within teams.
• Use tools like ADP's StandOut to improve employee-manager connections.
• Provide transparent communication to build trust, ensure alignment on goals and expectations, and promote a healthy work environment conducive to problem-solving.
• Advocate for diversity, equity, and inclusion within the organization.
• Promptly evaluate team performance and address any concerns.

Turnover and offboarding

• Offer a platform for outgoing employees to enhance their resume and interview skills.
• Give employees exiting the company access to job search facilities and live coaching on a platform.
• Share resources that assist employees in their transition period.
• Keep track of turnover-related costs, such as productivity loss and hiring expenses.
• Tweak retention tactics based on insightful analysis.

Post-employment

• Implement a survey tool to gather and scrutinize feedback from exit interviews.
• Understand the potential public discussions by former employees about the company.
• Act upon any adverse, indifferent, or lack of feedback from the surveys.
• Request online reviews following positive exit interviews.
• Establish a network for company alumni to maintain connections with the organization.

Evaluating the employee experience

It can be important for employers to periodically evaluate the workplace environment they've established to ensure it remains beneficial for their employees. They can do this in several ways, including:

• Metrics: Analyzing data at each stage of an employee's journey with the company to gauge the efficacy of the experience. High turnover rates might indicate employees' dissatisfaction with the organization.
• Surveys: Various employee experience software tools offer customization options for engagement surveys, enabling multiple touchpoints during an employee's tenure with the company.
• Focus Groups: While surveys offer a glimpse into employee sentiment, focus groups allow a more in-depth exploration of their feelings and thoughts.

Types of employee experience surveys

An effective employee experience management program employs various surveys to gauge engagement and feedback at crucial moments. This may include pulse surveys for regular check-ins, ad-hoc surveys for immediate feedback on specific changes, and engagement surveys for measuring an employee's connection to their work and its impact on organizational goals. Here are a few examples of surveys that can help measure employee experience:

• Engagement surveys: These surveys are typically conducted annually and can help support retention by gauging the involvement of employees. High engagement may lead to increased performance, productivity, and revenue.
• Candidate reaction surveys: These surveys assess the effectiveness of a company's recruitment process by considering the experiences of both successful and unsuccessful candidates. They also measure the effectiveness of the marketing efforts during the recruitment process. Since these surveys also focus on the opinions of unsuccessful candidates, they can feel heard, thereby creating advocates for the company.
• Onboarding surveys: These surveys gather initial impressions of new hires, which can be integral for setting the tone for their entire employee journey. They may also influence the key performance indicators for a new employee.
• Training feedback surveys: Feedback taken after training sessions at various stages of the employee life cycle can help map individual growth and identify areas for improvement in learning and development.
• Performance reviews: Regular performance reviews can help foster a culture of continuous improvement and accountability. They offer employees clear insights into their strengths and areas for improvement, guiding their professional development. Additionally, these reviews create a structured opportunity for open dialogue between employees and management, which helps with engagement.
• Exit surveys: These surveys, carried out when an employee is departing the company, can help to understand the reasons behind an employee's departure and identify patterns or issues within the organization that may lead to turnover. Departing employees can be given a voice to express their honest feedback, which can be invaluable in improving the workplace for current and future staff. On the flip side, employers can also conduct stay interviews to gauge why employees choose to stay and what might make them stay longer. This could give employers insight into employee satisfaction and retention drivers, allowing them to act on feedback and create a more engaging and fulfilling work environment.
• Compensation and benefits surveys: Understanding employee preferences regarding compensation packages can help a company align its offerings with what is most valued by the workforce. These surveys can offer insights into market trends, assisting businesses to stay competitive in attracting and retaining talent. By tailoring benefits to meet employee needs, companies can enhance overall job satisfaction and loyalty, positively impacting employee experience.

ADP Voice of the Employee helps employers gather feedback at various stages of the employee lifecycle so they can make better-informed choices to ensure their people feel valued and engaged with their roles.

Leveraging workplace technology for employee experience

Designing a compelling employee experience strategy may be challenging in today's working environment without incorporating the right technologies. Putting the right tech infrastructure in place can help ensure every employee's experience is considered, whether on-site or remote.

Employers could consider an integrated solution for shaping employee experiences. These solutions can be equipped with various tools to accurately capture and interpret the unique needs of the company's diverse workforce. An effective end-to-end employee experience system may encompass:

1. Comprehensive listening tools:
   In the realm of feedback collection, embracing a strategy that goes beyond solicitation to active listening on a variety of platforms can be crucial. By integrating an AI and machine learning-powered platform, employers can tap into a wealth of information, from customer testimonials and service interactions to employee feedback via collaboration tools and social media sentiments. This method broadens the scope of feedback and deepens the understanding of engagement across different digital touchpoints.
2. Advanced predictive analytics platforms:
   Businesses can use AI-driven analytics to examine operational and experiential data to identify key improvement areas. These platforms thoroughly analyze employee feedback systems, uncovering patterns and sentiments in open-ended responses that can help employers understand where they may need to focus during the employee experience journey.
3. Automated employee management:
   Companies can equip their leaders with the power of automation, which offers instant solutions and efficient workflows tailored for all aspects of employee engagement. From time and attendance tools to payroll software, these systems allow for the quick transformation of insights into concrete actions, effectively closing any disconnects within the organization.
4. Enhanced Onboarding
   By implementing onboarding surveys and insights, companies can shorten the adjustment time for new employees, boost their productivity from the outset, and encourage immediate participation. This approach not only enlarges the pool of talent but also cuts costs, streamlines workflows, and helps get the employee experience started on a positive note.

Frequently asked questions

How do you build employee experience?

For an exceptional employee experience, it is critical to understand employee perception and consider their observations, opinions, and feelings. This typically involves leveraging people analytics and survey tools to gather insights. With this information, businesses can refine their strategies around recruitment, orientation, engagement, training, employee retention, and the offboarding process.

What are the core elements of employee experience management?

To successfully navigate through all phases of the employee journey, employers could focus on:

• People, including HR teams, senior leaders, and all employees
• Technology, such as data analysis on workforce, interactive platforms, and self-service tools
• Policies and guidelines, defining workplace culture and performance standards
• Practices, outlining strategies for recruitment, onboarding, and exit procedures

What is an example of employee experience design?

Outplacement is a strategy for employers to create beneficial experiences for exiting employees. These initiatives often assist with developing resumes, facilitate networking opportunities, and offer additional career development tools. The objective is to ensure that employees leave with a favourable and enduring view of their previous employer.

Learn More

Are you aiming to enhance your employees' experience? Benefit from our talent management solutions, which support employee engagement on every level.

Talk to our experts today! Call 866-622-8153 or start a quote.

This guide is intended to be used as a starting point in analyzing employee experience and is not a comprehensive resource of requirements. It offers practical information concerning the subject matter and is provided with the understanding that ADP is not rendering legal or tax advice or other professional services.