How does your culture support your employee experience strategy?  If the answer to the question is an easy one, there’s a real chance your culture doesn’t actually support your employee experience.  If it does, it’s in a very minimal way.

Conventional knowledge of the past has held the employee experience improves the longer the employee works with the company.  The reasoning behind this, according to Carol Patton with Human Resource Executive, is the employee grows his or her social networks, can be and is promoted and, more than likely, receives notice of their contributions in the workplace.

However, results from a survey conducted by ServiceNow would repudiate that conventional knowledge.  The organization found after six months with the company, employee enthusiasm wanes some 22 percent.

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If that is the case the question must be asked:  how can a company or organization transform their culture in such a way that it supports the employee experience strategy?

EX Supported by Culture

Embrace Diversity and Inclusivity

“Diversity is being invited to the party; inclusion is being asked to dance.”

Verna Myers, Diversity and Inclusion Expert

It’s not just enough to diversify, you also have to include people.  A strong employee experience exists as part of a company culture steeped in diverse and inclusive programs.  These don’t just focus on ethnic or gender diversity, though those are equally important parts.  A diverse company culture also looks at all dimensions of diversity including hiring or seeking employees from diverse backgrounds both personally and professionally.  It must also embrace cognitive diversity; the different ways in which people perceive and digest information.  This allows for ideas to be evaluated from multiple angles and can reveal both the pros and cons of an action. 

Promote Transparency

The employee experience thrives when transparency exists at every level of the company.  When looking at it from a cultural perspective, when everyone is ‘in the know,’ they can take ownership of what’s happening inside the company.  When this happens, employees trend toward being more proud to work for their company.  They will be more engaged and willing to do what it takes to support the company’s success.  It also translates to positive experience and an increase in retention.

Increase individual and team collaboration

This is a great way to increase the likelihood of a positive employee experience through a culture initiative.  When collaboration between individuals and teams is made a priority, those employees taking part see an increase in their social presence within the company.  The point of the collaboration isn’t always about success, although that creates a lot of support among people and teams.  The reason for the collaboration is to reinforce the idea that everyone is part of a much larger team.

Give and Solicit Regular Feedback

Give employees regular feedback on performance.  This will help in aligning their performance with the goals of the company.  This cultural initiative also has a positive impact on the employee experience.  HR must also be open to receiving feedback.  As hard as it is to recognize, HR doesn’t always have all the answers nor does it always have the right ones.  Listening to and taking action with regards to employee feedback translates to the reality that HR cares about workers and their contribution to the company.  That doesn’t mean just taking their suggestion and implementing.  Sometimes that isn’t feasible, but at least responding to the person will herald a valuable increase in the employee experience.

Want to Know More?

The above information is just that; information.  In order for it to have an impact on a company, it must be weighed and measured and determined if it is worthy of inclusion in the company strategy.  But these are just a few tips out of a vast array of many.

Many efforts to address the employee experience have fallen short and organizations are left with questions as to where to start the process. Less than 50% of companies have done anything to improve the employee experience in the past year (Aptitude Research, 2019). Just as companies are prioritizing customers to grow their business, they must also focus on their employees in order to ensure continued economic success.

CultureIQ’s next webinar Reviving the Employee Experience with Culture will provide on-point-guidance to achieving this new balance.

Attendees can expect to:

• Understand the current state of the employee experience
• Receive key recommendations on improving the employee experience
• Learn about solutions that enable a better employee experience

Register for FREE here.

Picture courtesy:  Stock Photo Secrets

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