Improving the Employee Experience by Bringing HR to the Table

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Much like a customer success team seeks to strengthen relationships with customers, workplace experience teams build solutions that contribute to long-term employee satisfaction. This comes from listening to employees and working closely with stakeholders like human resources (HR). A cohesive workplace experience solution delivers widespread collaboration, engagement and productivity through tailored approaches that help companies attract, engage and retain talent.

In order to design a quality workplace experience solution, HR is a necessary voice to join the conversation. Your HR team understands the specific needs of your workforce. By working closely with them, workplace experience professionals can design everything from experience calendars to individual touch points that create an environment of hospitality and ensure an employee’s day is enjoyable and memorable. These programs support employees' well-being and make their jobs easier so that they’re more readily able to delight customers and, ultimately, achieve better business outcomes.

WHAT'S EMPLOYEE EXPERIENCE?

When considering the broad notion of “employee experience,” most summarize it as whatever relates to the job as a whole. In the modern-day workplace, teams are working in many capacities, including hybrid, on-site and remote. This means the employee experience now spans physical and digital dimensions, which makes understanding employee needs more challenging than ever. Workplace experience solutions can help bridge the digital employee experience with the physical to create synergy amongst remote and on-site workers.

The employee experience is always unique from one company to the next. However, companies that work to improve the employee experience share a common theme—greater success. Jacob Morgan, a leading voice on the future of work, explored this concept in his book on employee experience. In an analysis of 250 global companies, Morgan found that those organizations which scored highest on employee experience benchmarks enjoyed 40% lower turnover, four times higher average profits and two times higher average revenues.

How an organization guides the employee experience is key to achieving successful outcomes. Understanding how to shape a positive experience and create a sense of belonging can be difficult with so many options available. A workplace experience team can help cut through the noise and get to what really matters to an organization’s employees.

The employee experience is still considered an emerging idea, according to the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), an organization committed to elevating HR, maximizing human potential and creating workplaces that work for all. Although many new ideas and strategies are being trialed each day, how to craft meaningful workplace experiences continues to be a question with a fleeting answer.

While workplace experience professionals continue to define the employee experience, determining what works for an organization is exactly why both HR and employees should be involved. In The Case for Employee Experience, SHRM states that 40% of respondents said the “responsibility for creating a positive employee experience belongs to everyone within an organization.”

IMPROVING THE EMPLOYEE EXPERIENCE WITH DATA & FEEDBACK

Curated experiences like surprise and delight initiatives and pop-up events are great ways to engage employees. Additionally, businesses can elevate the employee experience through hospitality-focused service design and implementing user-friendly technology options. However, instead of doing these things blindly, a workplace experience team can help choose the themes of these events, or which touchpoints are critical to ensure that these solutions are impactful. The question arises, however, how can organizations make these strategic decisions and understand whether or not they’re working? Data and feedback will be essential.

Company culture surveys and traditional HR evaluations are just two ways to measure the employee experience. Additionally, measuring attendance and event participation can help gauge engagement. As new ways of working continue to develop, data will continue to be an important factor for companies to truly understand what employees need. By bringing HR to the table during discussions about workplace experience possibilities, a thoughtful solution can be designed based on real evidence.

In addition, consulting HR on a continuous basis as a partner in workplace experience will lead to better outcomes. HR is often at the helm of surveys and employee feedback loops.They have the mechanisms in place to measure employee satisfaction at a given organization. Instead of reinventing the wheel, using existing channels will simplify data collection.

Employees want to work for organizations where they feel valued and needed. Without consulting company metrics, changes and initiatives are a shot in the dark. By working closely with HR, the workplace experience team can help ensure that employees find a sense of belonging through experiences that actually matter to them. Although data is essential, of course, workplace experience teams will also collaborate with employees to understand their needs at an individual level. Overall, working with HR helps take the guesswork out of designing an elevated Workplace Experience Solution.

Successful workplace experience teams aim to harness employee data in consultation with the skills, authority and background of HR to build resilient workplaces where talent can thrive.

INCLUDING HR WHEN DESIGNING THE WORKPLACE EXPERIENCE SOLUTION

In today’s environment, HR leaders are critical to business success. HR is often the guardian of culture and the welcoming committee for new talent. They have a unique perspective of organizations and the people who work there—from entry level employees to vice presidents. With this overarching knowledge of the employee experience, it’s paramount that HR is invited to the table when designing a Workplace Experience Solution.

HR is involved through many aspects of the employee journey including hiring, promotions, leaves of absence, employee-manager relationships and tenure. With HR often at the employee’s side when these significant milestones occur, it only makes sense they’re consulted when the workplace experience team works to cultivate the individual moments that make up the greater employee experience.

Not only does HR bring expertise on an organization's workforce, they can also advocate for workplace experience programs in the boardroom with decision makers. This critical role cannot be understated. Executive buy-in is not only essential to fund these programs, but it also helps ensure company culture is moving up and down the ladder, which is imperative to synergy in an organization.

In healthy organizations, not only should HR have the data and expertise of their workforce, but they should also have the trust of both the employees and of executives—making them crucial partners in workplace experience design.

BRINGING HR TO THE TABLE BENEFITS EVERYONE

When HR and workplace experience teams collaborate to build workplace experiences that effectively support employees, a stronger organization will be built. With improved employee retention and productivity, organizations are more likely to enjoy long-term success. From building trust with both executives and employees, to providing and gathering data and feedback, HR is a critical voice to have at the table.

Connect with our Enterprise Workplace Solutions team to receive more information on HR and workplace experience for your company.

Improving the Employee Experience by Bringing HR to the Table

WHAT'S EMPLOYEE EXPERIENCE?

IMPROVING THE EMPLOYEE EXPERIENCE WITH DATA & FEEDBACK

INCLUDING HR WHEN DESIGNING THE WORKPLACE EXPERIENCE SOLUTION

BRINGING HR TO THE TABLE BENEFITS EVERYONE

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