When employees have a positive experience in the workplace, they demonstrate a greater sense of belonging or feeling part of a team, group, or organisation.
With workplace trends shifting and ever evolving in the post pandemic era, employers today are focused on attracting and retaining talent within their organisations. This task along with the need to keep teams motivated becomes even more challenging with employees working remotely or hybrid working.
To keep up with the new trends, innovative companies are taking steps towards a new vision of the traditional role of HR, leadership, and internal comms. Meaning, they are redirecting their focus on employee experience which aims to provide employees with positive touch points throughout their employment lifecycle. The goal to generate greater levels of enthusiasm, involvement, and employer brand commitment.
But more than just a decent place to work, what factors make up a great employee experience?
1. Feeling Valued or Acknowledgment.
A survey from the American Psychological Association found that feeling valued at work was linked to better physical and mental health, as well as higher levels of engagement, satisfaction and motivation. All the things that lead to a healthy and productive relationship between employer and employee.
2. Psychological Safety.
Safety needs include comfort, security and stability, so from a work prospective this would include security in having a formal contract of employment and a range of basic benefits such as a pension scheme or sick pay and most definitely would include some emphasis on wellbeing at work.
3. A People-Centric Workplace.
An employer that not only focuses on the needs of their people but that actively puts in place the tools required to achieve this. So more than just paying lip service in internal communications, but actually committing to what employees need and what they care about. By really listening to your employees you are creating positive experiences which will strengthen their commitment to the company and each other.
4. Work-life Balanced and a Flexible Working Environment.
The pandemic has seen a seismic shift in how people work and where people work. With many adopting a hybrid or a WFA approach to their working lives, this allows them more balance in their lives, outside of daily work, and this is ultimately leading to a more satisfied and less stressed workforce.
5. Autonomy.
Self-autonomy is highly valued by employees looking to feel not only valued but trusted to work independently without being micro-managed. Autonomy is an important factor in creating a great employee experience and there are many advantages to employee autonomy from having happier more engaged employees to employees feeling a greater sense of value which in turn leads to higher levels of motivation and productivity.
6. Community.
The importance of community cannot be underestimated when looking at great employee experiences. In a community every individual, team and department plays a role in sustaining their community. Cultivating a sense of community is something that we are passionate about here at Hubex. Our goal is to help every person within a company to feel needed, wanted and happy to be part of their own little community. We help employers achieve this by providing a single digital platform (BenfitHub) for employee benefits, rewards and recognition. Our platform lets you shine a light on what you are doing to build community in your organisation.
Creating great employee experiences comes down to having great leadership and workplace practices. By focusing on how your people experience work every day you form a better understanding of what is important to them and you can dedicate resources to making improvements that will have the most impact.
If you would like to learn more about Hubex BenefitHub digital benefits platform please enquire further at sales@hubex.ie
