How to Design an Exceptional Employee Experience Framework

Employee Engagement Blog
Employees are the backbone of any organization, small or big. The degree of employee engagement is a known factor in influencing critical business metrics. Companies that rank in the top quartile for top-notch employee experience have double the customer satisfaction and innovation-readiness than those at the bottom. They also experience 25% more profit.

This is the reason why future-focused organizations take employee experience seriously; however there is more. People-oriented organizations know that a meaningful employee experience is the key to sustainable success in fast-evolving business landscapes.

Employee Experience Management - the Missing Piece in the Puzzle of HR Management. Employee experience can be designed as an organization’s framework aimedto improve employee experience at work and impact the well-being of both employee and the employer.

In a 2019 Deloitte survey, over 84% of HR respondents said employee experience is a priority for them. However, not many human resources’ officers are ready to address its importance. With multiple studies showing the growing impact of employee experience on all other aspects of business, it just might be a missing piece in the puzzle of human resources management. Organizations with an eye on the future might want to look inwards to unlock the true potential of their business.

So, how do you draft an employee experience strategy if you don’t have one?


Defining the Impact of Employee Experience

Every organization has its own work culture; they care for their employees’ expectations and well-being. This is why defining your organization’s goals from an employee experience strategy is an essential action. Here are just some objectives to tailor your employee experience strategy to:
  • Talent Acquisition: It starts right from attracting talent and interviewing them. From employer branding to a seamless hiring process, candidate experience has the power to make or break your employer brand. Moreover, delivering an effective and fast hiring process improves perception among job seekers and those they recommend your brand to.

Companies are desperate to understand how to find and keep high-performing talent who are the heart of their business, a lack of analytics capabilities has led, however, to many businesses blindly throwing money and resources at problem areas to see what sticks. This is a risky proposition when so much depends on keeping the best employees engaged and productive.

- James Norwood, Chief Marketing &Strategy Officer, isolved
 
  • Onboarding: At different onboarding touchpoints, it is important to keep in mind the interactions and experiences that employees go through. Reducing paperwork and automating form filling can ensure that employees are more productive and less hassled by work irrelevant to their jobs.
  • Retention: While some employee turnover is expected, a positive employee journey can drastically increase retention rates in the first year. As average tenures decrease, a meaningful experience can be the difference between the highly-engaged and barely-engaged employees.


Assessing the Status Quo

Understanding your organization’s employee experience management will allow you to leverage what is working and course-correct if needed. In addition, mapping the employee journey can give you deep insights into employee sentiments and pain points. Some of the questions you should ask are:
  • Do you have all the information you need to understand your employees’ needs, goals and expectations?
  • Have you measured employee engagement?
  • What percentage of your employees show high, moderate, low or no engagement?
  • What are the major hurdles employees face at different touchpoints like hiring, onboarding, performance and departure?


Configuring the Ideal Experience Journey

Once you understand where your employee experience stands, it’s time to get to work. Employee experience requires that same user-oriented approach the customer experience needs. Here, you can engage the same design thinking process that conceptualizes products, services and experiences.

Collaborating with stakeholders is the key. Employee experience goes beyond just the purview of the HR team. Senior leaders and managers have a significant role in identifying gaps, challenges and concerns. However, working backward can help you ask the right questions. For instance, what should be the ideal employee experience at your organization? How do you want your employee to feel at every level of interaction? How can you improve current processes to make them efficient and easy to navigate for employees? These are some of the questions to start answering so you can reverse engineer a strategy that aligns with your employee experience management objectives.


Using the Right HR Technology

The right technology can radically improve the employee experience at your workplace. Integrating technology can make processes faster, delivering a smooth experience at every step, from automating tasks to set up employee feedback surveys.
Improved productivity in the workplace creates a sense of achievement and boosts morale. However, technology alone cannot improve the experience. It is a vital component that needs to fit into your organization without requiring extensive training or a steep learning curve.


In a Nutshell

In addition to introspecting your organization’s framework, exploring case studies and competitor strategy can also give you a leg up in understanding what works and what doesn’t. With that in mind, you can decide whether you need a dedicated employee experience team. In the backdrop of the pandemic, much has changed about how employees approach work.

With a solid framework, you can ensure that employee experience never takes a backseat even when you expand into new markets and verticals of business.


Frequently Asked Questions

What does an employee experience manager do?

An employee experience manager is responsible for drafting employee experience initiatives. It includes conducting employee surveys, mapping employee journeys, having a finger on the pulse of employee conversations, and maintaining a positive work experience for all employees.

What are the main components of employee experience?

Broadly, work culture, technology and the workplace for the three main components of employee experience. Focusing on improving the experiential aspects of these three will develop a well-rounded employee experience strategy.

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TPG HR Services USA is a national leader in full-service HR solutions for small, medium and large businesses. We help companies reach their organizational goals by providing comprehensive hr services to manage payroll, benefits administration, employee relations and to oversee risk and compliance. We invite you to work smarter by partnering with TPG HR Services USA to coordinate all of your HR functions, supplement your current HR department or act as HR consultants.

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Every business process, proprietary tool, and internal procedure represents a custom, internal training need. Platforms like Avature's Learning Hub can tap into this." Avature's learning solution can seamlessly integrate into customers' existing talent technology ecosystem using Avature's mature and configurable REST endpoints and open API framework. Data from other systems can be imported and used by Avature's workflow engine to promote learning activities for individual employees and data can be easily exported to support onboarding and internal mobility processes in other systems. With this release, Avature bolsters its Talent Management Suite, adding yet another best-in-class solution to the portfolio that its Global 2000 customer base can implement from a single platform. About Avature Avature is a highly configurable enterprise HCM SaaS platform for talent acquisition and talent management, and the leading provider of CRM and ATS technology for human resources globally. 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UKG Labs welcomes a second cohort of startups from four countries, all focused on enhancing business cultures. Startups Bites, Denim, Hop In Technologies, and Mo were selected for their innovative workforce technologies and commitment to workplace wellbeing. Despite offering a collaborative platform, UKG Labs poses potential risks, including over-reliance on UKG, intellectual property disputes, and a possible compromise of the startups' original visions. UKG, a leading HR, payroll, and workforce management solutions provider, has introduced its second cohort of early-stage companies to its global startup ecosystem, UKG Labs. The selected startups, from four different countries, are committed to creating high-performing, people-centric cultures in businesses. The new entrants include Bites from Israel, Denim from the U.S., Hop In Technologies from Canada, and Mo from the U.K. These companies were chosen for their innovative technologies that add value to the frontline workforce and their commitment to helping people thrive at work. UKG Labs provides more than just capital to these startups. It offers a platform for co-learning, co-creation, and co-experimentation, allowing startups to gain insights into specific market problems where UKG has expertise. The startups also work directly with UKG customers to explore new solutions and shape emerging HR and HCM technologies. Hugo Sarrazin, Chief Product and Technology Officer at UKG, stated that the goal of UKG Labs is to help businesses become great workplaces by building an ecosystem of technology companies that share its vision. The startup founders have completed a three-month onboarding engagement and will showcase their innovations at the UKG Aspire 2023 conference. While the UKG Labs initiative offers numerous benefits, it does come with potential drawbacks. The startups involved might become overly reliant on UKG for resources and expertise, which could potentially stifle its independence and creativity. There's also a risk of intellectual property disputes, and the startups' original visions might be compromised to align with UKG's goals. On the brighter side, UKG Labs provides a platform for startups to co-learn, co-create, and co-experiment, fostering innovation and helping businesses become better workplaces. It also allows startups to gain insights into specific market problems where UKG has expertise and work directly with UKG customers to explore new solutions and shape emerging HR and HCM technologies. This collaboration ultimately serves to enhance the workplace experience for all.

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PR Newswire | November 03, 2023

Kelly a leading global specialty talent solutions provider, today announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to sell its European staffing business to Gi Group Holdings S.P.A. ("Gi"), one of the largest staffing companies in Europe, for cash consideration of up to €130 million. The transaction is expected to close in the first quarter of 2024, subject to receipt of required regulatory approvals and other customary closing conditions. Under the terms of the agreement, Kelly will transfer its European staffing business within its International operating segment to Gi. Kelly provides staffing services to customers in 14 countries across Europe. The company will retain its managed service provider, recruitment process outsourcing, and functional service provider (FSP) business with customers in the Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) region. Following the close of the transaction, Kelly will maintain its global footprint and continue to provide MSP, RPO, and FSP solutions to customers in the EMEA region through KellyOCG, Kelly's outsourcing and consulting group. As a leading global vendor-neutral provider of talent supply chain strategies and workforce solutions, KellyOCG leverages a network of 3,000 suppliers spanning 140 countries – including Gi – to connect customers across North America, Asia Pacific, and EMEA with top talent to grow their businesses. In Everest Group's 2023 PEAK Matrix®, KellyOCG was recognized as a leader and major contender for its MSP and RPO solutions, respectively, with the latter earning KellyOCG star performer status. Everest Group also recognized KellyOCG as a leader and star performer in statement-of-work (SOW) management. said Peter Quigley, president and chief executive officer. The sale of Kelly's European staffing business demonstrates our commitment to taking bold, transformative action to optimize our portfolio and maximize value creation. This transaction unlocks significant capital to pursue organic and inorganic investments in our chosen specialties. Furthermore, it sharpens our focus on our higher margin, higher growth global MSP solutions, global RPO solutions, and specialty outcome-based and staffing services in North America. Together, we expect these outcomes will accelerate Kelly's progress toward achieving a normalized, adjusted EBITDA margin in the range of 3.3% to 3.5% as we shared in August and drive profitable growth over the long term. [Source:PR Newswire] The transaction is the latest in a series of strategic actions Kelly has executed to unlock capital in pursuit of its specialty strategy and further optimize its operating model, which includes monetizing non-core real estate holdings and businesses; unwinding Kelly's cross-shareholding arrangement with Persol and reducing the company's ownership interest in PersolKelly, its Asia-Pacific staffing joint venture; selling its operations in Brazil and Russia; and most recently, implementing strategic restructuring actions which enhance organizational efficiency and effectiveness. Quigley and Olivier Thirot, executive vice president and chief financial officer, will provide additional details about this transaction as it relates to the company's specialty strategy during its upcoming third-quarter earnings conference call on November 9, 2023.

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