Employee Experience Explained: Definition, Importance, and Best Practices

If a company has been nominated for one of the employee experience awards—or even won one—it's safe to say that they definitely know how to take care of their employees.

Understanding the concept of employee experience is crucial for any company's success. But how can it help both employers and employees, and why is it so significant?

In this article, we provide an employee experience definition, talk about the importance of this phenomenon, and give you some tips on how to boost employee engagement. So, if you're interested to learn more about this topic, read all the way to the end!

What is Employee Experience?

Employee experience (EX) is the journey an employee takes from the time they start working at a company until they leave. This may include a combination of business processes, office politics, recognition, salary, commuting, celebrations, and much more. Employee experience management is crucial for organizational success, as it focuses on enhancing how employees feel about their workplace. Incorporating fun activities like happy hours can also play a valuable role in boosting morale, strengthening team bonds, and creating a more positive work environment.

The research shows that there is a connection between EX and CX, or customer experience. In fact, CX shows how customers feel about the product and other systems within the business, like the employees of the supplier. An effective employee experience strategy, which spans the entire employee lifecycle, is essential for enhancing employee engagement and overall satisfaction.

So, how are these two things related? The available statistics seem to conclude that satisfied employees can be more helpful to customers. This is a correlational link, but when it comes to the causal relationship, research shows that a store’s sales would go up by more than 50% if they could move their employees’ experiences from the bottom quartile to the top quartile. Higher sales mean, of course, that customers were happy with the service, not just the product.

If we look at the current workforce, which is made up of Gen Z and millennials, we can see that they want a few things from their jobs. Gen Z wants to work in a place that cares about its employees’ health, has leaders who act ethically, and is both diverse and welcoming.

As it turns out, Gen Z and Millennials don’t look for very different things. The only difference is that millennials don’t put as much emphasis on diversity as they do on how open and honest the company is. Understanding the employee life cycle is crucial in managing each stage of the employee journey to enhance satisfaction and engagement.

Definition and Scope of Employee Experience

Employee experience refers to the sum total of all interactions a worker has with an organization, from job opening to exit. It encompasses everything a worker learns, does, sees, and feels at each stage of the employee lifecycle. This holistic view of an employee’s journey is foundational to business performance and requires listening to employees at each stage of the lifecycle. By understanding and improving these interactions, companies can sustain customer experience efforts, enhance products, and build a strong brand. Employee experience is intrinsically linked to employee engagement, retention, and overall business outcomes, making it a critical focus for any forward-thinking organization. Hence, it is important to take advantage of fun diversity and inclusion activities that foster a sense of belonging, celebrate different perspectives, and build stronger interpersonal connections among team members. 

Interactions with Management, Team, Company, and Technology

Interactions with management, team, company, and technology are pivotal in shaping the employee experience. Managers account for 70% of the variance in employee engagement, and great managers can serve as mentors, driving productivity and inspiring passion in their teams. Team dynamics significantly influence daily work life, and workgroups with positive dynamics foster trust and psychological safety. Organizational interactions, such as CEO town halls and HR communications, impact employee engagement, and quality two-way communication fosters a sense of being heard and valued. Technology is an essential function of the workplace even in enhancing corporate retreat events, and employees use digital tools to find jobs, do their job, communicate with colleagues, and interact with HR and other services.

Significance of Employee Experience

Understanding and working to improve the employee experience and employee satisfaction is important for any company’s success. Since employees are the backbone of any business, making sure they have a good working environment can positively affect a lot of things. An exceptional employee experience, shaped by a positive and inclusive business culture, can significantly enhance performance and engagement.

Having this in mind, here are a few of the things that come with a good employee experience:

Increases Employee Engagement

Employee engagement is closely linked to job performance, and strong leadership helps by encouraging effective communication. This includes supporting team building activities to build communication skills and helping employees connect. Engaged employees are more productive, take fewer days off, solve problems better, and communicate more effectively.

As you can imagine, a company needs all of the above-mentioned factors to be under control if they want to succeed.

If your workers aren’t as productive as they should be or don’t come to work as often as they should, it can cost you a lot of money, time, effort, and progress. That’s why providing a good employee experience is essential for a successful business—it will make your employees enjoy their time at work and boost their productivity to the core.

Improves Recruiting Strategy

The hiring process plays a critical role in attracting top talent. If your employees are happy with their positions, they are more likely to tell people who are actively looking for a job about your company and how good the organizational culture is.

Not only that, but thanks to this, your company will also be known in the area or city—depending on how big and well-known it is—as a good place to work. This means that a lot more people will be looking for jobs at your company, which is great because you’ll be able to get more professionals to join your team.

Enhances Retention

Of course, employees are less likely to leave when they experience good working conditions and feel that their questions about corporate culture are acknowledged and addressed. Why would they want to look for another job if they are happy with their growth opportunities, salary, coworkers, and everything else?

The cost of replacing a worker can range from 50% to 200% of the employee's annual salary, highlighting the significant financial implications of employee turnover. Therefore, another great benefit of a good employee experience is that it helps you keep employees. Retaining workers is important, especially if they have done great work for you, gained your trust, and shown that you could rely on them.

Competitive Advantage and Business Impact

A positive employee experience is a competitive advantage, and companies that invest in their employee experience outperform their competitors. Research shows that companies that invest in their employee experience grow faster, pay better, produce more than double the revenue, and are more profitable. Employee experience investments make great business sense, and a positive employee experience leads to engaged employees, who are five times more likely to recommend the organization than those who are not engaged. Employee experience is a key driver of business outcomes, including revenue growth and profitability. Hence, even incorporating games for team engagement can have a significant impact on the company’s overall performance.

Connection to Customer Experience Outcomes

Great employee experience is critical for delivering great customer experience, which leads to business success. Happy employees deliver great products and provide exceptional service that drives a brand’s reputation. Glassdoor research shows a clear correlation between employee experience and customer satisfaction. Employee experience initiatives can be connected to customer experience outcomes using tools like CrossXM. A positive employee experience boosts engagement, which in turn improves customer satisfaction—especially when interactive tools like sales games are used to motivate and connect teams.

Employee Experience Framework

An employee experience framework should account for every step of the employee journey, from recruitment to departure. Key components of an employee experience framework include recruitment and networking, onboarding, development opportunities, employee engagement surveys, performance reviews, ad hoc check-ins and feedback, and exit interviews. To elevate the networking experience, companies can offer opportunities like retreats, where employees can connect, collaborate, and build stronger relationships. A comprehensive framework should also consider the physical workspace, company culture, and technology environment.

Company Culture and Its Role in Shaping EX

Company culture is the personality of a company, including its values, symbols, and visible behaviors. Culture is about creating an environment where people want to work and can flourish. A company culture that promotes creativity, collaboration, and empowerment cultivates employees who take risks, actively innovate, come up with new ideas, and then collaborate to implement them. A positive company culture is essential for creating a desirable overall employee experience.

5 Stages of Employee Experience

There are five stages in the employee's journey, emphasizing the comprehensive nature of the employee experience. Let’s explain each in more detail and learn how to handle them. It is crucial to maintain a consistent employee's experience during key stages of the journey, as trust in the organization enhances confidence and contributes to overall success.

#1. Recruitment

As you might have guessed, the first step is recruitment. Here, the employee's first impression of your company will come after they check out your website and any social media profiles that link to it. Therefore, you should make sure that the media presence fits with the goals and expectations of the company.

During the interviews, you should show the candidates that you're interested in hearing their opinion, which means you should treat them like clients.

The best way to do it is to ask them questions like: "Do you think you were treated with respect?" and "Do you think the interview was in line with what you were told about the company's values?"

This kind of feedback shows the potential employees that you care about their experience even before they join the company and that you want to improve on anything that didn't go well. There are a lot of questions for adults that you may like to ask during interviews. There are also many thoughtful questions you can ask adults during interviews to better understand their expectations and values.

#2. Onboarding

The next step is onboarding. This step is very important because employees will use what they learn here in their company work. Because of this, you should always talk about the company's values, mission, and plans for the future when onboarding a new worker.

Besides that, your onboarding program should take into account the company's code of conduct, job description, and hierarchy. Employees who know what the company wants from them will feel more at ease and remain well-informed, which will help them do a better job.

At this stage, you can ask questions like, "Are your job expectations clear?" "Do you feel like you belong on the team?" and "Do you know where to get help if you need it?" Your attitude will encourage them to share all their concerns with you and ask for clarifications when necessary.

#3. Development

Development is one of the most important stages. It involves boosting your employees' existing skills and gaining knowledge, which is crucial not only for their own success but also for the future of your company.

If employees feel like they are learning valuable things and growing as professionals during their careers within the company, their employee experience will be relatively high. This means that they will work better, be more productive and creative, and so on.

At this point, you can use a survey to find out how your employees are doing. For example, you might ask: "Do you feel like you have opportunities to grow?" and "Are these opportunities as available to you as they are to other employees?" You can also ask which team building activities they find most helpful for their growth.

#4. Retention

Retention is about keeping employees who have worked for you long enough to earn your trust. These are probably some of your best workers, too, so you definitely want to stick around.

At this stage, the company should make sure its employees stay by recognizing their work, showing care and empathy, and making them feel valued, seen, and heard.

Besides treating them with respect, you can give them gifts when they reach certain milestones. These can be company-wide or specific to each employee's work and preferences and may include coupons, vouchers, free meals, or something similar. You may even arrange a corporate retreat for them and provide a well-planned meal that ensures their satisfaction.

The questions you can use to feel your employees' pulse at this stage would, for example, be: "What made you decide to stay with us for such a long time?" and "What can we do to make your working conditions even better?" Asking these and similar questions can help you get valuable feedback and improve your retention strategies.

#5. Exit

Sooner or later, some of your employees may leave your company for different reasons. Of course, it's not great to lose good workers, but it's good to know that you helped them grow, just as they helped your company prosper.

This is also a moment when most employees will tell you the truth about their experience. Therefore, you should make sure to take advantage of this by asking questions like, "Why did you decide to leave?" and "Did you feel like your work was valued?"

How to Create Outstanding Employee Experience

The employee experience framework looks at the different ways in which you can improve the company’s working culture, HR services, events, and everything else that’s included in the employee experience. Employee experience surveys are essential tools for understanding and enhancing employee satisfaction. Here are a few tips that can make that happen by developing a comprehensive employee experience strategy to enhance employee engagement.

Establish a Strong Company Culture

A company’s culture is made up of all the official and unofficial things that influence the employee experience. Essentially, it’s centered around how things are done at the office.

For a good employee experience, a company’s culture should resemble a positive, caring place where people can grow and aid not only themselves but also the company and its future. Fostering positive employee experiences is crucial for enhancing employee engagement and organizational performance, which can reduce complexity, strengthen collaboration, and ultimately improve customer experiences, thereby driving significant profitability and growth.

You should never force or push a culture. Instead, you should carefully design one that has all the important components, such as harmony, balance, a good work ethic, understanding, and so on.

Instill Company Values & Purpose

No employee can do their job well if they don't know what the company's values and goals are. The mission and vision of the company also relate to this.

Employees who know what kind of company they work for and what kind of work is expected of them will feel more at ease at their workplace. Because of this, they will want to stick around and keep working for you.

Ask for Feedback

It's important to ask for feedback. First of all, it will help you improve your employees' working conditions, which will make their time at the company better.

On top of that, employees will feel more valued if you ask for their input. It shows that you care about their opinions and comfort—an important step if you want to keep improving their experience. Gathering feedback is also essential after they attend corporate retreats, helping you assess what worked and what could be better.

Recognize Employees

Company employees need to be recognized and given credit where it’s due. Involving senior leadership in the development and accountability of exceptional employee experiences is crucial for fostering a positive work environment. You can support this by using leadership activity ideas designed to promote recognition and engagement.

Everyone wants to be appreciated for the work they do, even if it’s just a nice comment or a reward of some kind. People will work even harder if they are praised because it makes them feel even more empowered and motivated.

Provide Comfortable Physical Space

When it comes to making a great experience for employees, the physical space matters a lot. When you work in a comfortable place, you're more likely to feel calm, positive, and focused on your work.

For example, it's great to provide a big office with lots of light, plants, and other greenery or a place to sit and drink coffee or tea. These details will have a big effect on how comfortable and happy a person feels at work and positively impact their productivity. You can even involve them in creating a safe and welcoming space by incorporating mural ideas.

Invest in Technology

These days, almost no work can be done without technology, so it's important to opt for the right kind.

Make sure you give your employees everything they need and that their tools work as efficiently as possible. Nothing is more annoying than technology that is slow and has bugs—and you definitely don't want to make your employees angry, as that will ruin their work experience.

Monitor & Measure

Getting feedback is one thing, but making sure it gets implemented is another. It doesn't help to ask for improvement ideas if you don't use them to actually enhance the workplace.

If people don't see results, they might get frustrated and think that their input doesn't matter enough for you to make changes. Therefore, make sure you do everything you can to change the negative things that have been brought up in feedback and enhance the positive ones even more.

How to Collect Employee Feedback

As mentioned previously, getting feedback from employees is a key part of improving the employee experience. There are a few ways to find out what your employees think, and these include:

• Recruitment interviews. Interviews held during the recruitment stage are a valuable tool for getting feedback from potential employees. You can save some time at the end of the interview to ask some questions that can help you improve your media presence, prepare for further interview sessions, and so on.
• Onboarding surveys. During the onboarding stage, you can distribute a survey to an employee and focus on different aspects related to onboarding, such as the clarity of the explained subject matters, team cohesion, and inclusivity.
• Engagement surveys. You can introduce engagement surveys at different points throughout the employment period—for example, one at the beginning of the year and one towards the end. They focus on employee participation in terms of how they work, communicate with the rest of the team, and similar.
• Performance reviews. Performance reviews are solely based on employees' performance and center around your feedback on their work and overall presence at the workplace. However, you can also use this opportunity to let them express their concerns and dilemmas so that you can figure out where to put your attention to improve their experience.
• Exit interviews. If an employee decides to leave your company, you can utilize this opportunity to have a talk with them and get a detailed idea of why they decided to leave, how they would describe their experience at the company, what could have been better, and so on.
• 360 reviews. This type of review is similar to performance reviews, but it covers a wider range of topics. For example, in addition to an employee's performance at work, you can consider the customers' viewpoints on some other matters as well, which enables you to get a bigger picture when it comes to company work.

The Impact of Positive Employee Experience on The Business

We have already concluded that a good employee experience is crucial to the success of a company. It affects many of its individual aspects, such as productivity, creativity, communication, and overall work performance.

Research shows that there is a direct link between employees’ work satisfaction and productivity rates. It turns out that employees who are less engaged are also 18% less productive, 37% more likely to miss work, and 15% less profitable. In other words, having disengaged and dissatisfied employees will literally cost you money.

Also, employees who have had good experiences at work are more loyal and dedicated to the company they work for. According to the research, these employees are 40% less likely to quit and 69% more likely to do a good job at work.

As you can see, it’s always a good idea to care about how your employees feel, not only for their own well-being but also for the future prosperity of your company.

Out of Ideas on How to Boost Employee Experience? Offsite Can Help!

As an employer, you must find a way to boost employee experience in your company and keep the workers who are most important to your business. In addition to all the suggested improvement ideas, you can also turn to another foolproof option—company retreats!

Work retreats are get-togethers for all the employees of a company that bring various benefits—team building, taking a break from hectic office environments, conflict resolution, and so on.

Yet, corporate retreat planning may be a bit challenging, and that's exactly where Offsite enters the scene. We'll take care of everything, from booking the venue and inviting your team to making a schedule and providing post-retreat feedback.

All you have to do is provide us with some information regarding your retreat goals, budget, and any locations you have in mind. Your ideas and suggestions are very important to us, and they'll help us make a flawless plan for organizing your retreat.

So, don't think twice—get in touch with Offsite to organize your next company offsite now!

Closing Thoughts

Now that you've read this article, you should have a good idea of what the employee experience is and why it's so important for a company's success.

EX affects a wide range of company-related factors—from how engaged employees are to how long they stay with the company. If you think your company's employee experience could use a little boost, you should start by thinking about how to improve your company culture. This could include things like recognizing your employees, getting feedback, creating a comfortable working space, and so on.

Another good way to improve EX is to plan a corporate retreat, as your employees deserve a well-organized retreat that will only boost their positive experience at work. And if you need any help with the planning, don't hesitate to turn to Offsite, as we can make your dream events a reality in the blink of an eye!