Employee Experience Is The New Customer Experience

In the current situation that we are all going through in our work environment, it is extremely important that the human resources area and CEOs do not lose sight of the importance of taking care of the employee experience. If that is set aside, it could cause catastrophic harm to the company and its employees. 

If you or your HR team or business don't know what experience of the employee is, this is your moment to learn a new methodology that will help you transform your organization from the inside. With the assistance of a brief definition of design thinking, I would like to share with you what employee experience is, since it is the basis of this methodology. Design thinking is a methodology for developing people-focused innovation, offering a lens through which challenges can be observed, needs detected and finally solved.

In a nutshell, design thinking is a process for creative problem-solving that is able to detect and create change. It is extremely important for innovating within the HR area, as well as transforming your organization from within. 

But what is the employee experience? It is a general set of perceptions of employees over time and different touchpoints through a collection of environmental factors: cultural, physical and technological. It is extension of traditional human resource functions that recognize the correlation between employee engagement and customer experience.

In my personal point of view, employee experience is the new customer experience, if you had to define it in a simple sentence. Understanding that our employees' experience is related to the service we provide to our employees as a company, and therefore creating a positive environment in which people want to work is essential, especially in these difficult times we are going through.

What many companies and organizations ignore is that the employee's experience begins even before an employee starts working for the company. And while the first 90 days are the most important for a new hire, the employee will always be evaluating the company during his or her stay. That's why a strategic employee experience service design must be established from the beginning. 

Basically, the employee experience is the employee's perception of everything that happens when he or she interacts with the company at all times, from recruitment to hiring, professional development and termination. It is the first and last impression that one leaves as an organization on its personnel, before, during and after their work experience in the company.

Any touchpoint with which employees interact must be strategically designed not only to attract talent but also to retain it, hence its great importance.

There's a book I highly recommend called “The First 90 Days.” The book's first sentence says the following: The U.S. president has 100 days to prove his worth, but leaders and businesses only get 90 days  What does it mean? During those first 90 days, the employee is more likely to leave the company if you do not do something to keep him or her as a leader or entrepreneur. In this situation, it is important that you have a strategy for the first 90 days of the employee in order to create a sense of belonging and commitment to avoid further rotation and thus retain them. 

However, a study by Deloitte this year indicates that the turnover percentage in 2020 will decrease in all companies due to the situation we are currently going through from COVID 19, but this does not mean that we should not be prepared for when the economy reestablishes itself. It has been proven that when the economy is at its best, employees look for the opportunity to leave the organization they are in and even more so if their employee experience was very bad. And it is also worth mentioning that an employee experience design is not only used for the first 90 days, but also througout the employee's entire career. Remember, it is the first and last impression that one leaves as an organization on its staff, before, during and after their work journey in the company.

Are you prepared to carry out an employee experience strategy with a strategic employee journey map and thus improve all the areas of opportunity and touchpoints that employees experience on a daily day basis? 

Today's world is changing rapidly. If you want to continue to be part of this globalization, traditional business models must be constantly renewed and the areas of opportunity identified for each company to provide better service to its employees. Use new human resources methodologies such as employee experience and stand out among other companies. It is never too late to start.