Employer Branding
What is employee experience (EX) and what does it mean for the future of work?
21 AUGUST 2024
What is employee experience?
Employee experience (EX) is everything an employee experiences with an employer, from the first contact as a candidate to the day they leave. It covers culture, leadership, work environment, tools, development and how everyday work actually feels. A strong employee experience leads to higher engagement, lower turnover and more ambassadors, and it is the foundation of a credible employer brand.
Employee experience (EX) is an employee’s experience and feeling of their interactions with their employer, from the first contact in the recruitment process to the end of employment.
EX is shaped by many aspects of both working and private life. It is a long-term approach that is about more than creating happy employees: it is about building an organisation with a mutual exchange of value.
How does EX affect your ability to attract, recruit and retain people?
American psychologist Thomas Gilovich has researched whether people become happier by investing in experiences or material possessions. He found that satisfaction with a material purchase fades over time, while satisfaction with an experience grows. That is the core of employee experience: candidates should not feel they are buying a physical product when they sign their employment contract, but investing in an experience.
Today, however, the relationship between candidate and employer often resembles a transaction between a consumer and a company. On day one, the new hire is excited and curious, and over time motivation fades.
This is where you as an employer can shape your EX by identifying the key moments across the whole candidate and employee journey and making them more positive, fulfilling and enjoyable.
How are employer branding and employee experience connected?
Employer branding is about how a company is perceived externally as an employer by current, former and potential employees. EX is employees’ internal experience of the employer, the culture and the physical and virtual workplace.
A positive employee experience is therefore a fundamental part of a strong employer brand. It leads to higher satisfaction and engagement, as people feel more motivated and loyal when their work environment and experience are positive. By creating a good experience for employees, companies build a positive reputation as an employer, which in turn attracts and retains talent.
People with a positive employee experience have 16 times higher engagement than those with a negative experience, and are eight times more likely to want to stay with the company.
McKinsey, Employee Experience survey 2020.
Three ways to improve your company’s employee experience
1. Gather feedback and fix problem areas
An effective way to improve employee experience is to continuously collect feedback, run surveys and use data analysis to identify and address problem areas.
2. Identify the moments that matter
As an employer you need to understand the moments that matter in an employee’s life. We often divide the journey into stages (attract, recruit, onboard, develop, retain and transition), but employees probably do not see their time with you that way. Their experience is made up of decisive moments, at work and in life. Take the first day: no colleague says hello, system access is missing and they eat lunch alone. The new hire has already formed a negative impression that shapes their employee experience.
3. See your organisation as a laboratory, not a factory
Factories are often linear, process-driven and hierarchical. Laboratories are innovative and data-driven, with room to experiment and fail. That environment is much closer to an experience of continuous development, exciting work and room to grow.
Read more: How are employer branding and recruitment connected? Want help improving your employee experience? Get in touch.
FAQ
Frequently asked questions about employee experience
What is the difference between employee experience and employer branding?
Employee experience is what it is actually like to work for you. Employer branding is how you are perceived and how you communicate as an employer. A strong employer brand needs the promise to match the experience.
How do you measure employee experience?
With engagement and pulse surveys, eNPS, staff turnover, sick leave and interviews at onboarding and exit, followed over time.
How do you improve employee experience?
Start by listening: map what works and what does not in each phase, prioritise a few improvements and follow up. A clear EVP tells you what the experience should deliver.