Where Did Employee Experience Come From?
Jacob Morgan
5x Best-Selling Author, Futurist, & Keynote Speaker. Founder of Future Of Work Leaders (Global CHRO Community). Focused on Leadership, The Future of Work, & Employee Experience
Companies today have to focus on creating a place where employees want--not need--to come to work.
But how did we get to the point of needing to invest in employee experience? The need to create an empowering and engaging environment for employees has evolved for decades.?
A century ago, organizations were focused solely on utility. Organizations only provided employees the bare-bones tools to show up, do their work, and go home.
The utility era transitioned to an era focused on productivity. During that time, organizations were hyper-focused on making employees work better, faster, and more efficiently. Managers were tasked with creating repeatable processes that optimized employees and helped companies get as much as possible from their people.
Then came the era of employee engagement, or when organizations were totally focused on employee happiness. They surveyed employees and offered incredible perks and benefits to ensure employees were happy with their work environment.?
During the era of employee engagement, companies invested more time and resources into engagement than ever before. But engagement scores overall didn’t improve. In fact, some even dropped. Leaders couldn’t see the ROI of employee engagement, which led to our current era of employee experience.
Employee experience moves beyond just perks and benefits to change core workplace practices around people. In this era, companies must focus on the three core environments: culture, technology, and physical space. These environments work together to create an engaged and empowered workforce.?
It’s no longer enough to provide employees only with essentials or just give them perks. Employee experience is the next big battleground for attracting and retaining talent. And that requires creating a place where employees WANT to come to work.
I put together a video which talks about this in more detail. Please check it out below.
Talented writer with exceptional research skills specializing in interior communications and lemon law content ... after countless years of writing news, construction, and design-orientated content.
10 个月A phone, a computer, and a desk? This was up until 1950? ... maybe a typewriter or a pen and a notepad.
So true, we have evolved and for good!
A dedicated nursing student, driven by compassion, committed to acquiring the essential knowledge and clinical skills for delivering exceptional care.
1 年Wow. This a is great summary of org focuses over time. From my experience over the past few decades, training, development and culture has been the secret sauce behind growth and engagement. A person trained well feels confident…developing that person leads to personal and professional growth (ultimately they feel invested in), and the culture connects to their passion and purpose. These are what have attracted the right people to execute incredible work and outcomes all while wanting to show up, be present and make a difference. Thank you Jacob Morgan for this article!!
Director of Project Management at UPPAbaby
1 年I'm interested in culture as a "core environment". What is it about culture that draws and keeps talent? What kind of culture? How do we hold boomers, gen x, millennials and gen z together with a common culture?
Doctoral student in Adult Education / Disability researcher / Content strategy enthusiast
1 年Thanks for sharing this - as someone studying adult education in the workplace, I've been seeing how HRD tends to be really narrowly defined as fostering more compliant and productive employees. In reality it's SO much more than that - it's about establishing a workplace culture and practices that let adults flourish and thrive. I might need to add "aspiring employee experience designer" to my profile now!