Employee Experience is Key to Progressing Your Business

The arrival of new generations of hires to the job market has led employers to re-think how they motivate and retain their new employees. The labour shortage in Canada is likely to continue, and the hiring challenges that come with it require new strategies. Employee experience is now increasingly a key concern for organizations that, like you, want to continue moving forward. In this article, we look at the principles behind creating a better employee experience, the benefits it brings, and the major workforce management trends that can help achieve this.

The importance of re-thinking the employee experience

Indeed and Glassdoor's Inaugural 2023 Hiring and Workplace Trends Report found that Canada is likely to experience long-term labour shortages in the coming years in some key economic sectors. With this in mind, remote working, employee benefits and wellbeing, along with diversity and inclusion, will all become decisive factors in attracting and retaining talent over the next few years.

Millennials are on the way to replacing previous generations and will soon make up the majority of the workforce. They need to feel like they work for a company that values them and that allows them to make a difference. They want to know that they have a future in the company and that their projects help to improve the community. What's more, they won't think twice about changing jobs if a company does not meet their needs. The issue of employee experience has therefore taken on a whole new meaning.

The importance of leaning on collective wisdom and diversity

In a fast-paced, ever-changing world, agility, innovation, and creativity are essential. As an employer, it is now in your interest to encourage initiative and creativity among your employees, to react quickly to events, and to draw on the collective wisdom of a motivated and diverse workforce. Collaborating and exchanging ideas at all levels, and between levels, can push the limits of conventional management. This collaboration can also pave the way for a management style where everybody feels free to contribute. Every employee should be able to ask questions and voice their opinions, but they can only do so if there is a structure in place to receive them.

Mobilized and loyal employees

Tremblay and Wils have defined mobilization as inciting employees to work together to reach a common goal or complete a shared project. Mobilization is therefore, above all else, a collective phenomenon. According to Tremblay and Wils, when the majority of employees combine all their energies to accomplish a collective task, then each of these employees is mobilized because they directed their individual energies toward a common cause.

The employee mobilization model published by Tremblay and Simard in 2005 states that to ensure that employees want to invest themselves in the company and give the best version of themselves, they must feel that they have the power to take action, and that they are progressing in a trusting, supportive, and fair environment. These are the conditions required for mobilization.

One important factor to consider is the importance of having a company culture that encourages employee autonomy.

A sense of belonging

When Canadian employees were asked what makes them happy at work, they said the main indicators of their happiness and wellbeing were:

• a sense of belonging
• having a goal and feeling useful
• feeling motivated

What's more, 34% of respondents indicated that expectations surrounding wellbeing and the workforce are higher now than one year ago.

In their work, Tremblay and Wils (2005) establish that mobilization is distinguished from motivation and individual performance by certain behaviours that focus on collaboration and interaction with others in order to achieve a common goal. They differentiate mobilization from motivation by studying the eight following factors:

1. Customer focus
2. Helping others (cooperation with coworkers)
3. Interpersonal skills (helping and supporting others)
4. Coordination with coworkers
5. Continuous improvement
6. Sporting spirit (solidarity)
7. Taking part in community life (meetings, social activities, etc.)
8. Organizational loyalty (support for and defence of the organization)

These behaviours create a strong sense of belonging at the company, which in turn benefits employee loyalty and retention.

Added value for customers

There is a link between the level of employee mobilization, customer satisfaction, and loyalty rates, and an organization's profitability. This is supported by a study carried out by Heskett et al. on service profit chains. Companies that focus on employee experience, and who are seen as employers of choice, reap real rewards for this:

• An increase in employee productivity from 5 to 15%
• A 20% decrease in absenteeism
• A 30% increase in customer satisfaction
• Talent attraction and retention as mobilized employees become ambassadors for the employer's brand.

Customer experience is thus dependent on employee mobilization and how employees feel about working for your company. The two are intrinsically linked. Motivated, happy employees make for happy customers by giving them a special experience.

A better hiring experience

Employee experience does not only concern employees who have already been hired. Candidates form their first impression of your employer brand during the hiring process. The hiring experience can help to attract and retain the most promising candidates. On the other hand, an ineffective hiring process, or one that is not representative of your company culture, can discourage candidates and drive them to look elsewhere. Or worse, it could cause them to leave the company soon after onboarding.

Let's take a look at the following data compiled by Indeed:

• On average, it takes Canadian companies around 29 weeks to hire a new employee
• Job seekers say they lose all interest in a job if they do not receive a response within two weeks following an interview
• 87% say that they lose all interest completely if they do not receive a response after three weeks

Though it may be a challenge, it is essential to improve this important process. Automating the candidate experience can help. According to some estimates, more than 70% of hiring stages — including searching resumes, shortlisting candidates, and planning interviews — can easily be automated.

Employee experience, customer experience, and profitability go hand in hand. If your employer branding is breaking down and you feel like it's time to re-think your hiring strategies, mobilization, and employee retention, it's probably time to reflect on your workforce management philosophy. You can prepare for the future by setting up a new framework to improve your employees' experience.