It cannot be denied: Employee experience is inextricably linked to customer experience and business growth. Are you prioritising it in your business?

For years I have believed that without happy, productive, empowered and well trained employees, you will not have happy customers or a successful business. Simple. I have seen first-hand when employee experience has not been consistently good or failed to meet employees’ expectations. The result has been declining employee morale, low motivation, declining employee survey scores, increasing attrition and sickness (usually highlighting stress or stress related illnesses). The most challenging impact is that you typically lose your most experienced and valuable employees.

Not only does the experience your employees have with your business affect retention, increase costs with turnover, recruiting and training inexperienced staff, the ability for them to do their best work with your company declines which has a direct impact on the experience your customers receive.

The ultimate cost of poor employee experience? Increasing costs, declining revenue, and declining customer metrics. The chart below demonstrates this clearly (see figure one); when employee intent to stay was declining, attrition increasing indicating an unhappy workforce, the impact was on business revenue and customer NPS, both of which are also in a state of decline. This is a live example from an existing business.

Figure 1. Correlation between employee, customer, and business metrics

“If we consistently exceed the expectations of employees, they will consistently exceed the expectations of our customers.” – Shep Hyken, a leading authority on customer service, CX and award winning keynote speaker.

[1]A recent survey by The Financial Times in partnership with Twogether, found that business leaders were prioritising ‘Customer Experience’ and ‘Talent Acquisition and Retention.’ Why? The report highlighted that these areas, whilst leaders admitted they were more difficult to get right, drove the greatest value in their business. Whilst it is very clear what ‘Customer Experience’ relates to (i.e., delivering a consistent experience for your customers at every touchpoint of your business), it’s not as clear on the specific requirements to succeed in ‘Talent Acquisition and Retention’. Of course, simply it is the act of recruiting and keeping your employees. But how do you do this well? The answer lies in employee experience, management (EXM).

What is Employee Experience Management (EXM) and why should it be a priority?

As with customer experience, employee experience refers to the how they feel as a result of every activity/touchpoint they encounter with your business. From initial awareness of your business to the interview process, onboarding, training, to developing an ongoing relationship with your company; one that surpasses transactional (i.e. I work for you as you pay me money) and becomes a partnership where the employee feels able to achieve their potential and deliver their best work consistently. Companies that invest in employee experience and the consistent management of that experience typically see greater improvements in business performance than those that do not.

Forbes reported that businesses in the ‘Best Companies to Work For’ ranking, observed significantly higher stock price listings (14%) than those absent from the list (6%). These figures are significant.

This Venn diagram (figure two) demonstrates how, from my personal experience, EX and CX are linked and what the output is. Employee experience combined with customer experience, will deliver a business performance. It is up to the leadership whether that business performance is good or not.

Figure 2. Business performance is at the cross section of Employee and Customer Experience

To my mind, businesses should be focusing on ‘experience management’ of their people, employees, and customers. When these two assets’ experiences are prioritised alongside business needs, the result is business growth and profitability.

Having a solid Employee Value Proposition will attract and retain employees.

An Employee Value Proposition sets the expectation of the experience an employee will receive from its employers. It is more than merely benefits and compensation. It includes rewards, career development, values, corporate and social responsibility (CSR), work-life balance, organisational culture. An EVP will attract people to your business. Along with your businesses purpose and vision, it will be like a beacon for potential, valuable employees. EVPs used to be about compensation and benefits. However, times are changing. Employees are asking for greater flexibility from ways of working to benefits, having freedom in their work and being trusted and empowered to do so, all of which have become important.

The fact is, happier employees, who are empowered, trusted, have feelings of being part of something great, will be more productive, and more initiative-taking resulting in improved customer experience and revenue.

Let us look at the great resignation of the early 2020’s. Following a period of lockdown and the pandemic, employees were re-evaluating what was important for them. Having had to adapt to new ways of working, new experiences, they started to make choices and expectations became higher. If we investigate the main reasons for resignations during this time (figure three), they include:

Figure 3. The Great Resignation, employee reasons for leaving

The good news is resignations have steadied with open vacancies standing at around 923k according to ONS February 2024. At the height of the Great Resignation, there were 1.61m open positions, so a drop of 700k (this figure is still higher than pre-covid). The most significant factor to consider here is, of all the reasons given for employees resigning, how many are within a business’s control (see figure three)?

Whilst the situation surrounding the pandemic was quite extreme, the one lesson business leaders can learn here, is that understanding how your employees feel, really listening to them, could be incredibly powerful in improving your employees experience and longevity of valuable employees.

Considering benefits over and above compensation is an area of opportunity for businesses to improve their EVP. An example is that traditional working patterns are no longer acceptable to the workforce, particularly Gen Z and Millennials. The five day week was created over one hundred years ago by Henry Ford. His workers had been required to serve his company six days a week however, he noticed increasing levels of sickness, declining morale, and productivity. By reducing the working week by one day, he dramatically increased productivity.

One hundred years in the future, we are still asking people to work five days a week. Weekends are still Saturday and Sunday which are, in many industries, non-working days. Giving people more flexibility, which fits in with their lifestyle, will provide employees that are more committed and value their employer. Who knows, some people may even want to work Saturday mornings rather than Friday afternoons! By providing flexibility, you are also showing you trust your employees (and it goes both ways), a fundamental requirement for a happy workforce. We should learn from Henry Ford and realise that now is the time to review working schedules and be more open to varying practices.

Employee feedback; genuinely seeking to understand and act upon it

As human beings we are all customers, and a large majority are also employees. As such we understand what it is like to be both. We understand the issues we face, how we would like our journey with a business to be in both senses.

But do we as business leaders ever consider this? Do we ever think as an employee or customer? Do we try and empathise with our own employees, do we try to figure out what it is like to be in their shoes? Same with our customers.

Whilst I am sure we would love to be the best employer, with the best inclusive culture and the coolest offices, budget and business needs often restrict us. Understanding employees’ needs will help to distil exactly what employers must do to improve their employees experience and they may be quite simple and low cost to fulfil. Failing to understand their views may send you and your business off in the wrong direction. Without understanding which areas employees feel your business fails to meet expectations on, you will not be clear of the areas that require improvement.

Most businesses have a yearly (some bi-annual) employee survey. Typically, the survey is for businesses to understand how their workforce feels about their culture, how satisfied they are in their jobs, how well they feel the business communicates with them, their views on compensation, benefits, work life balance. Human Resources (HR) are responsible for managing these surveys, in my experience high level reports are shared with all employees, with leadership teams having visibility of a deep dive into responses to each question.

This is noble. The intent is great, very empathetic, and really seems as though the organisation cares. But what is done with the feedback? Usually, the surveys are quantitative. It is a score applied to each question and a cumulative score based on these. There may be areas to provide honest, qualitative feedback, however, how safe do employees feel to be honest? If the survey is anonymous, then yes, though many are not. I would encourage business leaders to look at their own employee surveys. Are they a tick box exercise or does the leadership team really care about how their employees feel and are prepared to use the data to inform future decisions around EVP and employee strategy. Is the data shared transparently across the business?

In past businesses, additional surveys have been run, those that take a deeper look into how the organisation is living its values. I believe businesses should go deeper. Have a look at your employee feedback processes; do you have clear closed loop practices that really, truly look at the data and use that information to improve your employees experience? Do you hold employee forums or internal councils to discuss opportunities for improvement? Many large successful businesses do this well. If not, it may be a point to consider.

Have an inclusive culture with the organisation aligned behind its vision and mission

‘Culture eats strategy for breakfast,’ a quote often credited to Peter Drucker, a business consultant, author, and educator. I have seen firsthand the impact culture has on employee productivity and welfare.

Both are essential. Having an authentic culture that is truly lived through out the business, underpinned by values employees are aligned to, alongside a clear vision of where the business is headed and a path of how to get there, will set a business up for success.

Over the course of my career, I have worked with businesses and clients who have, in some cases, had a clear purpose and vision that all employees knew and understood. For these businesses, it was obvious to me how the vision, mission and values permeated through the organisation. People had been attracted to join the business because of this vision and mission, giving them a sense of purpose.

Conversely, I have experienced businesses that did not have a clear vision, other than potentially a revenue ambition (this is not a mission or vision, but a goal). In organisations with a clear and regularly communicated vision and mission, employees were pulling in the same direction because they clearly understood what the business was trying to achieve. They also understood the role they played in achieving them.

Essential to providing a consistently good employee experience, it is vital that everyone understands the role they play in delivering the businesses mission, they feel included in achieving it and inspired to do so. The whole company must be focused on achieving the same goal/s. They must be pulling in the same direction. To do this, the organisation must work together, creating an environment and culture of collaboration.

Do your employees even know your company vision, its mission, and the path to achieving this? If you ask them what your vision and mission are, will everyone be able to answer you correctly?

Without a culture that supports your values and vision, and connects with your people, they will not be inspired and are unlikely to stay or if they do - will not be invested in company success.

Successful businesses understand the importance of collaboration. They understand the criticality of innovation and creativity in their business, both of which start and end with employee collaboration and shaping a culture that enables this. They proactively empower their employees to do their best work, to have freedom to make decisions with the impact being on continuing positive customer experiences as everyone is pushing in the same direction.

Employee experience and customer experience are inextricably connected, and both have an impact on business performance.

In the words of Richard Branson, Multiple Entrepreneur and Founder of Virgin Enterprises, “Clients do not come first. Employees come first. If you take care of your employees, they will take care of the clients.” Richard Branson.

It starts with employees. When we think of employee experience, businesses have an opportunity to:

• Understand the correlation and impact on performance between their two most valuable assets, employees, and customers.
• Seek to understand regularly how your employees are feeling, understand their expectations and empathise with your employees at all levels (walk in their shoes).
• Continually review your EVP, it does not have to cost a lot of money to provide additional benefits that are meaningful to your employees (e.g., duvet days).
• Check in with your company culture, values, vision, and strategy. Are your employees engaged, do they understand their part in delivering the overall strategy and are they ‘on the bus’?
• Consistently manage and enhance your employees experience with your business. This will require implementing frameworks and including your employees in them.

Where does employee experience sit within your organisation? Is it continually considered and reviewed? Do you listen to employee feedback and use this to inform decisions? If not, this is a good place to start.

A question that needs to be considered is, what organisation will enable effective EX and CX? To my mind, employee experience is so linked to customer experience, that they should both be a responsibility of the Board and central to a business’s strategy, not siloed to ‘Customer Experience Director’ and ‘HR Directors’ and the departments that feed into them. This is a subject for deeper consideration and discussion.

Clare White (CXAD dip) is an author and consultant, having worked in B2B & B2B2C Client and Business Leadership for 25 years. Passionate about customers and employees, Clare and Connected CX help businesses solve problems and excel in Customer Experience Management.

With a deep understanding of the elements required to achieve business, culture and customer experience transformation, Clare applies a truly collaborative approach with her clients. With a Professional Diploma in CX plus her vast experience, Clare is committed to helping businesses transform their employees and customers experience to grow their business. Her latest book ‘You’ve Got the Power. Six Principles for Business Success’ is out now.

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[1] Complexity. Confidence. Consensus. The New DNA in Modern Decision-Making. The FT and Twogether.