Employee experience (EX) is getting its due attention thanks to the ‘great resignation.’ Additionally, the number of resignations has risen to an all-time high: More than half of the American public is saying they want to hunt for employment within the next 12 months.
Understandably, for companies, great resignation is a critical issue that needs to be addressed, or they may lose their finest talent.
But why is EX important and linked to employees quitting increasingly around the world? This blog post seeks to find it.
What Led To The Great Resignation?
The Covid-19 outbreak fundamentally altered society, causing individuals to reevaluate their personal priorities: What they anticipate from their employers and how much time and effort they want to put into their work.
People did not just suddenly realize what their genuine priorities in life were as a result of the pandemic; It only reaffirmed their views on the type of careers they want to pursue and the level of time and energy they want to put into their work.
So, the needs of the employees may be the foremost reason for their exit since people often change their priorities if these demands are not met.
So it won’t be wrong to assume that when employees are dissatisfied and do not have a positive working environment (precisely a positive experience), they frequently change their behavior.
What Did Exacerbate The Great Resignation?
1) Employee Viewpoints
Employees were forced to adapt to the new norm of remote work or working from home once Covid-19 hit the economy.
Employees suddenly had time to think about the unnecessary things they had accepted as routine because they were no longer troubled with the drive to work: Long commutes, interruptions at work, waiting for the shift to end even though finishing the work early, and so many other things.
After experiencing all the unpredictability and workload, several people started to think about what they actually desired from their work life.
Others came to the realization that their enthusiasm would be sparked if they pursued the very same career or job.
In essence, people are unwilling to leave where they were during the pandemic-compelled work culture.
2) Changes in Workplace Culture and Policies
In addition to identifying new difficulties, putting new work practices into place for the hybrid workplace, and preparing the workplace for a potential return to work, HR managers have been handling a number of activities.
But the real concern here is whether or not the workforce is prepared to adjust to the new shift.
The hard-and-fast-based policies may not be effective for all employees because they have different needs. For example, some employees must take care of additional responsibilities, such as their children’s online studies or a sick loved one.
3) Employee Experience
So why is employee experience important in terms of great resignation?
To begin with, a positive EX is essential for every modern employee. Their happiness directly affects whether or not they wish to continue in their current position.
Nevertheless, we now need to comprehend what is meant by EX when we use the term: Based on their encounters with the company, it is the views that employees hold concerning their work experiences. For instance, if your employees don’t feel treated fairly, that affects their perception.
Most often than not, better pay and benefits, a focus on work-life balance, a supportive workplace environment, and respect are essential. All of these elements have a significant role in the overall EX.
In conclusion, managers must foster a culture of growth and provide excellent service in order to retain the greatest staff.
4) The Recent Hiring Boom
When an organization loses workers, it hires more, and workers from other organizations replace the resulting vacancies. It is a cycle that keeps occurring naturally.
However, the epidemic has sparked a new recruiting pattern for businesses that are already primarily or entirely remote-based.
So, due to the reason to effectively bridge the communication gap, companies are keener on applicants that have some prior experience working in a physical work setting.
Read: Using Employee Experience for the ‘New Possible’
Using Employee Experience to Beat Great Resignation
1) Adapt to the needs of your employees
The covid-19 pandemic has essentially changed every element of our life. As employers, we must be flexible and adaptable in our people operations since these significant changes are directly affecting our employees.
Given the ongoing uncertainty, it is more crucial than ever to prioritize and invest in the EX.
As more employees quit their employment, take early retirements, switch jobs, and look into alternative career options, it’s critical for businesses to:
- Pay attention to new EX demands like work-life balance, safety, belonging, and mental health.
- Remember that staff will always need opportunities for learning and improvement, as well as constant gratitude and acknowledgment.
- Instead of treating employees like objects, put your energy into serving them.
Lastly, a relevant study highlights how crucial it is to comprehend employee preferences and accommodate them, particularly when it comes to workplace flexibility.
In fact, in the same study, 49% of workers said they would be very likely to look for a new job with a different company at some point in the upcoming year if their preferred work environment is not available.
2) Prioritize the employee experience across the entire organization
Strategies for improving the EX must be shared by several departments. And a key finding from a relevant report suggests the same.
This report discussed EX programs at more than 600 organizations to understand the relationship between effective experience practices and favorable people outcomes, such as employee satisfaction and engagement.
Additionally, the report suggests that the best leaders for the EX:
- Make it an overall business strategy and not just an HR issue.
- In the entire organization, establish relevant goals. The report found that over half (49%) and 9% of EX experts and underperformers respectively say they prioritize the empierce of their employees.
- Engage the entire organization in initiatives to improve the employee experience.
Also, the report also found that team leaders and people managers are heavily involved in their organization’s EX initiatives in about seventy-two percent (72%) of the companies with top relevant strategies, compared to only 18% of the companies with lagging strategies.
3) Establish a base for extraordinary employee experiences
Designing programs for the EX is both a science and an art.
The key steps that employers should follow while developing employee experience programs are listed below.
- Your employee experience paradigm should incorporate design thinking techniques.
- Use function-based journey for different teams, including employees who work remotely or non-remotely. Also, define employee personas across your organization.
- Identify the issue that has to be fixed first. After that, decide how to listen, who the key players are, and where to convey the info so that it may be used to take action.
- Continue to listen and speak because employee experience needs constant attention since it is organic and always changing. Furthermore, constant hearing and continuous responding are not the same. So, you need to ask, listen, and take action if you want to be efficient, dependable, and creative.
Read: 5 Benefits of an Employee Experience Strategy for Travel & Hospitality
4) Get input and do something useful
When businesses not only listen but also learn from their mistakes and take action based on data that improves employee outcomes, they may drive change initiatives.
Employers who are successful in this:
- Consider balancing the points of view and seeking input; think about what inquiries your business would like to make. Also, make sure your people have the chance to discuss their ideas with one another as employees.
- Don’t aim for a perfect survey response rate, as achieving perfection might prove difficult. Even with incomplete data and feedback, you can still do a lot.
- Choose a prominent and reliable leader to communicate the survey’s objectives and timetable in order to foster confidence and boost response rates. Also, don’t forget to describe the value of employee engagement and input, as well as the intended use of any information gathered.
- Along with requested feedback gathered through surveys, gather and analyze unprompted feedback.
- According to a relevant report, 31% of high-performing businesses use outsourcing technologies, while 43% observe public channels and 43% collect and evaluate text-based open feedback. Furthermore, 36% examine external brand websites, and 40% examine contact center calls.
- Essentially, such organizations combine a variety of information sources with this feedback to gain a comprehensive picture of the employee experience.
- Display responsive behavior: When conducting a survey, including earlier ones and state, “Here’s what activity we performed based on your comments from the last survey we conducted.” Importantly, taking action will encourage follow-up reactions.
5) Evaluate yourself, again
Concentrate on internal benchmarks rather than comparing your company’s employee experience results to those of other organizations. Also, take note of your benchmark and keep track of adjustments to your KPIs brought about by new programs and policies.
Additionally, make sure to:
- Draw long-term trends and standards using annual surveys.
- Build an ever-active listening program that relies on pulse surveys to allow staff to offer feedback whenever they want to and without having their jobs interrupted.
6) Recognize the particular requirements of various segments within your staff.
The experience of employees is not uniform. It can differ depending on the type of employee. For example, those in desk jobs, customer-facing jobs, in-field jobs, and deskless roles may have varying employee experience.
Along with that, how the employee identifies by gender, color, age, etc., also creates a difference.
Employers, to ensure fair listening, should:
- Establish employee personas based on characteristics like ethnicity, age, gender, total years of experience (which is becoming more and more popular), area of function, and employment type (deskless vs. desk staff).
- Utilize segmentation to create listening strategies and programs that are suited to these personalities.
- Comparing experiences across demographic groups will help you better understand how employee persona influences the experience of employees.
- To promote more egalitarian experiences, deal with the underlying causes of the issues. In this regard, you can bring internal stakeholders together, create a plan of action, decide on KPIs and goals, share that plan with your team, and provide frequent progress reports.
What to conclude?
A difficulty that we did not anticipate is the frightening rate at which employees are abandoning their positions, thus making us understand the importance of employee experience.
Additionally, the economy will change in ways that will need more effort and money to stabilize.
Companies must thus make every effort to grasp the phenomena of great resignation better and develop relevant policies that will be advantageous.
It is important to understand that we won’t ever escape the hiring cycle if we don’t change the workplace environment.
It is, therefore, necessary that all managers and leaders create an environment at work that values people because your staff always holds the key to the success of your company and its ability to grow.
How can BRAVO help you counter the exiting of employees?
When it comes to employee experience, one such tool that can be really helpful is BRAVO since it helps you in the long-term development of your strategy for improving the experience of your employees.
While its primary goal is to acknowledge employees’ efforts so that they may keep up their good job, using it brings several advantages, including helping you with your EX strategy by making employees happier, more content, and more productive.
Never forget that an employee’s experience is greatly influenced by their level of involvement, happiness, and satisfaction at work. And everything said above greatly contributes to the development of a solid EX strategy.
So, using BRAVO, you will inevitably accomplish a far better EX strategy by rewarding and recognizing your staff for their efforts and contributions toward achieving organizational success.
And last but not least, BRAVO will become a (substantial) part of your answer to the great resignation.
To understand more about the benefits of BRAVO in this aspect, you may schedule a free demo here.
