Employee Experience (Ex)! How Significant It has become?

Have you ever come across an organization without employees? Employees are the primary assets of an organization and over time, as competitiveness increases, Human Capital is becoming more and more critical as well. To stay ahead of their competitors, the rapidly changing business environment, technological changes, focus on innovation, and to be or remain the market leader, organizations are constantly looking for ways to attract, retain and develop talent.

In this entire cycle, the key factor that makes the biggest difference is employee experience. In short, employee experience (Ex) is about all the phases an employee faces in an organization, from the initial sourcing and recruitment process to the final departure.

Ex is based on company culture, work-life balance, learning and growth opportunities, and employee engagement throughout employment. Employee experience is critical for any organization as it directly impacts employee effectiveness, engagement, productivity, value addition, and organizational culture. Strong and favorable Ex leads to heightened involvement, which results in augmented effectiveness and results, innovation, higher SLA levels, and above all less attrition.

Gallup survey results show organizations with a high level of engagement are 20% more productive than disengaged ones. A meticulously planned, designed, and implemented Ex helps enhance trust at a 360 level and loyalty towards the organization. This helps an organization attract, hire, motivate, and retain top performers. Employees with favorable or excellent experience become proponents of the organization while staying in the organization and ambassadors after their employment. This strengthens the employer brand in both ways.

To plan and implement an effective Ex strategy, organizations need to focus mainly on

1. Company Culture: Practices transparency, fair treatment, and unambiguous communication. Making the employees realize the importance of their role in achieving organizational objectives and overall purpose. Appreciating their efforts and results fairly and openly.

2. Work-Life Balance: Employees need flexibility in work timings, locations (onsite or remote), leaves, and workload. Flexibility in all of these areas leads to a better work-life balance, which results in improved productivity, quality, and satisfaction.

3. Development & Growth With the rapidly changing business scenarios and customer needs, employees also require proper learning opportunities for professional and personal development. Also, all employees will have opportunities for growth, to level up in their careers either likely or unlikely depending upon the organizational structure and available opportunities. These opportunities make employees feel valued and appreciated.

4. Engagement: Like any other performer, employees also need on-time and correct feedback about their performances, the value added by them, the constructive aspects of their personalities, and the areas that require improvement. Providing feedback is very helpful to ensure employees know they have not been left unattended and are equally significant parts of the organization. Feedback must be provided in a well-planned manner, focusing on an employee's performance during a specific span of time rather than only showing the recency- effect.?

Saqib Mansoor Ahmed, Author?is a seasoned HR professional with over 25 years of extensive track record of developing and implementing people strategies that include talent management, DE&I, succession planning, learning & development, and performance management across a variety of industries, including finance, logistics, education, pharmaceuticals, recycling materials, information technology, and FMCG. Possess in-depth knowledge and working experience of Pakistan and Middle Eastern markets, monitoring trends in the local labor market, and recommending actions and approaches to addressing challenges/opportunities. An outstanding record of providing robust frameworks for continuous improvement, implementing training and development strategies, and creating career and succession planning systems to develop and retain talent.

As an Integrated Management Systems Certification Lead Auditor, he represented an international certification body in the past and has conducted dozens of audits. This helped him to gain exposure to industries he has not worked with directly.