How does Employee Experience impact Customer Experience?

ACCORDING TO HARVARD BUSINESS REVIEW, recent research has begun to explore the link between employee experience metrics and customer experience metrics. This research shows that improvements in employee satisfaction can drive improvements in customer satisfaction.

In a study conducted on a large, global retail brand, using three years of employee and financial data from over 1000 locations, HBR analysed whether happy employees drove profits, and the results were unequivocal… a clear and substantial link could be made between happy employees and increased revenue.

So how do we ensure the happiness, or WELLNESS of our workforce, especially in the current world of work with its high demands, high stress and high pace of doing business?

Wellness encompasses more than physical health. There is much that can impact how our people feel and behave on a day-to-day basis. Think mental health, financial health, career health and knowing that we are all living a purposeful life.

There are many wellness programmes and partners available to choose from, but perhaps what our employees really want is to be known, seen, cared for and considered by the people who lead them, who see and experience them every day.

Let’s explore 4 key strategies for boosting employee wellness.

The culture sets the tone of your workplace. One that makes your people feel included and safe to share and engage with you, will always win against a culture driven by fear, secrecy and risk.

A healthy dynamic between leadership and employees is essential for respect to be cultivated, pride in one’s work to be fostered and psychological safety to be a given.

If we want to foster a positive employee experience, we must recognise, applaud and reward the work our people are doing.

A great way to do this is to put the power into the hands of employees, with colleagues noticing and recognising each other’s work, rather than relying on (sometimes removed) leaders to find and recognise the gems amongst your people.

Show that you care by creating ways for people to learn and grow in their roles and careers. In fact, in today’s world this is no longer a nice-to-have but absolutely essential for the good of your people and your business.

Choose your approach to Learning and Development wisely and carefully. Our people are not robots. They are individuals, with individual wants, needs, and approaches to learning.

To build an adaptable, flexible and ever-improving workforce, business must provide opportunities for continuous learning, or risk getting left behind. Training and developing our people ensures:

Make use of carefully crafted employee surveys and customer surveys to measure the link between employee wellness and business results.

Checking the pulse of your customer experience versus your employee experience will tell you a lot. Keep tabs on these stakeholders, recognise how they are linked, identify problem areas, and then formulate strategies to make improvements….. quickly.