The Employee Experience Management Platform Explained
Employee experience (or EX as it is often called) platforms have become essential to organisations seeking to improve overall company performance. Executives are starting to realise these platforms play an important facilitating role in employee engagement initiatives and company performance.
To understand the full impact of an EX management platform, we need to look at the total life cycle, from the decision to proceed with implementation, all the way through to the expected outcome – a more engaged and productive workforce.
One also has to be cognisant of the point at which a company is deciding to undertake the implementation. Are they seeking to further ramp up their existing experiential offerings or are they urgently seeking to avoid breaching a tipping point where employee relations are in danger of unravelling?
In light of these different scenarios let’s take a close look at the catalysts for choosing to introduce an EX management platform.
Decision Drivers for Implementation
In recent years, companies have recognised that focusing on improving their employees’ experience will yield a threefold benefit, namely:
- Retention of valued and talented team members
- Increased productivity
- Enhanced overall business performance
In other words, if employee turnover is excessive, if productivity is sluggish, or if the business performance is lacking, then a clear need for a new approach to improving the EX is essential.
Studies show that companies with a successful EX witness fourfold profit increases, twice as much average revenue, and 40% lower turnover than companies that do not.
Before companies move onto the most effective, efficient, and effortless way to improve their EX with a view to improving company performance, they need to understand its meaning.
Defining EX
Global research analyst Josh Bersin states EX is: “the sum total of all touchpoints an employee has with [their] employer.” This includes applying for the position all the way through to the point of departure.
Several factors play a role in an employee to feeling valued, respecting how the organisation operates, and to choosing to stay, these include:
- Company culture
- Organisational processes
- Physical environment
- Leadership approach
Increasingly forward-thinking executives are looking at ways to ensure that EX journeys are purposeful exercises. Thereby allowing employees the space to make a contribution to the company’s overall vision – whilst unlocking energy and enthusiasm amongst their team.
EX versus Employee Engagement
EX and employee engagement are often confused with each other. Although they are related terms, they are distinctly different.
If your goal is elevating employee engagement, then improving the EX is the way you will accomplish that goal. EX means ‘focusing on the worker as an individual’, which means using tools that will make each employee feel that you are speaking to them personally. An EX approach that utilises elements of personalisation plays an important role in keeping workers motivated and mentally engaged, thereby contributing to the company’s economic sustainability in the longer-term.
The Power of Technology
Technology is an important tool for improving EX. In the same way that consumers make purchasing decisions based on the quality of the customer experience, employees partially judge their employer based on the following benefits of employee-facing systems:
- Simplicity
- Convenience
- Clarity
Technology platforms can have a dual purpose and companies that carefully consider how to design and implement their EX systems can reap numerous benefits. For instance, administrative activities related to human resource functions can be streamlined or integrated via technology into EX tools. The important criterion in this regard is finding a balance between control-orientation (administrative functions) and those elements designed to enhance employee goodwill and build organisational trust.
Examples of Employee-facing Systems
- Recruitment and onboarding tools
- Payroll time-tracking solutions
- Benefits management systems
- Task management applications
- Employee feedback software
EX software can help businesses create a better environment for every facet of an employee’s experience, allowing employees to excel at their roles and benefitting employers.
EX Platforms – Basics to Benefits
In a recent study by Symbiosis International University on employee experience frameworks. The researcher, Ashutosh Parida points out that while employee engagement has been a focus area for many years, the value of employee experience has only recently been explored by companies.
Parida’s research highlights six principles that need to be considered when implementing employee experience management systems:
- Understanding your people. Workplaces are no longer simply places where people go to earn a living. They now form an integral part of people’s lives and the expectation of employees is that a workplace and employer has to contribute to their overall quality of life experience.
- Embracing expansive and holistic thinking. Finding a balance between the benefits that in-person collaboration provides companies and the ongoing desire of employees to work remotely as the world enters a Post-COVID 19 phase, is representative of the unfolding situations business confront. These challenges provide fertile ground for EX solutions.
- Making the intangible, tangible. Often business leaders talk up the benefits and advantages of working for their organisation while the day-to-day experience of employees is very different. Matching word and deed is critical.
- Radical, broad, multilevel and egalitarian participation. No EX system can be developed in isolation from employees. To ensure success a company must be prepared to embrace a wide range of perspectives on the development journey.
- Iteration and experimentation are standard. There is no one-size-fits-all approach. Companies need to be prepared to work with industry best practice guidelines and find solutions via an iterative process.
- Build trust in the solutions. Technology systems that are designed to drive the employee experience forward need to be accessible and offer personalised interfaces to start embedding the desired outcomes.
The MIT Centre for Information Systems Research reports that effective EX systems are one of the fundamental keys to creating business value. The Centre’s research reveals that companies who have quality EX systems in place are twice as innovative, with double the levels of customer satisfaction, compared to peers with poor or non-existent employee experience systems.
Improving the overall employee experience of the organisation, is therefore one of the surest ways companies can unlock value for itself and its customers.
Key Takeaways
By reviewing existing processes and levels of employee engagement, both in isolation and within the wider context of operational considerations, a company will be able to introduce a digital EX platform that builds towards a wider impact on the business. This is achieved through the simple application of more agile technology in a guided and systematic manner, with the corresponding outcomes of a better-quality EX and accelerated output, therefore boosting employee productivity.
To talk to an expert about giving your organisation the EX factor, please contact us to set up an appointment.