Sounding Board: How employers can create an effective employee experience program

Read: Employee experience, well-being top priority during pandemic: survey

Employee experience is the day-to-day interactions that individuals have throughout their week, whether working in-office or remotely. These interactions are influenced by various touchpoints and environments in the workplace.

A blended mindset

It’s often said that in order for organizations to be successful, they need to offer employees a strong work-life balance and be able to separate those two factors equally. The reality is that, as individuals spend the majority of their time at work, it’s typical to easily overlook one over the other.

By implementing a blended mindset that considers work and leisure as a combined version of one’s life, it allows individuals to merge the two in a healthy way that ensures they’re getting important work done without overdoing it.

Investing in employees is a priority for many companies. If employees are excited, proud and confident about their work and are constantly engaged with their colleagues via activities, events and meetings, there’s a sense of connectedness, belonging and fulfillment.

Read: Focusing on employee experience helping build new, improved work culture

It’s important for an employee experience program to enrich workers’ overall life experience. When employees are offered diverse opportunities that allow them to make connections with their peers, there’s a greater impact and personal satisfaction that comes out of their day-to-day work—and all of these factors ultimately impact people’s personal lives.

Mental health in the workplace

Organizations are increasingly focused on the mental-health needs of workers, amid a competitive labour market fuelled by economic and financial pressures and the physical and mental toll of living and working through a pandemic.

Employers have an obligation to provide employees with a safe space to work because it all circles back to the blended work-life mindset. If an employee is struggling with their mental health, their quality of work might be impacted resulting in lower business outcomes for the organization. Similarly, if employees come to work every day and aren’t in a good state from a health and wellness perspective, it also impacts their lives outside of the organization.

Read: Sleep Country Canada’s employee experience app taking centre stage amid pandemic

Programs such as virtual or in-person yoga sessions, access to a fitness and meditation app and flexible work arrangements can all contribute to employee mental health.

Small changes go a long way

There are three important factors for employers to consider when establishing or improving their employee experience strategy:

Culture: Employers need to know how employees feel about working for the company. Their feedback will help inform a strategy to create a workplace culture where employees feel valued, respected and supported.

Listening: Company leaders need to keep their ear to the ground. It’s important to be open to experimenting with programs and understanding when certain things aren’t working. For example, employee polls are a great way for workers to share feedback anonymously. In the end, a worker’s experience, whether it’s positive or negative, will impact the way they show up for the business.

Read: Why you should hire a chief employee experience officer

Diverse and local options: Human beings all have different passions. To that end, it’s important for employers to offer events, activities and workshops on different subjects to keep employees engaged. For example, some individuals might enjoy participating in a charity run, whereas others would prefer to attend a lunch and learn. It’s also important to factor location into employee experience programs, as there are certain events that might be more applicable on the west coast versus the east coast or be more appealing depending on the type of community an employee lives in.

A company’s employee experience program is not something leaders invest in once and never revisit — it’s ever-changing, dynamic and requires constant collaboration and improvement. Employee experience programs are proving to be valuable assets for businesses that want to increase engagement, improve retention and create a sense of belonging.

Sarah Wright is the senior human resources director at Capgemini Canada.