{"id":329,"date":"2020-11-07T10:00:06","date_gmt":"2020-11-07T10:00:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sage-people-scraping.local\/?p=329"},"modified":"2023-12-15T15:05:38","modified_gmt":"2023-12-15T15:05:38","slug":"6-ways-employee-experiences-journey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ie\/blog\/6-ways-employee-experiences-journey\/","title":{"rendered":"Delivering engagement through experiences: 6 ways HR teams can create moments that matter"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\t
\n\t\t
\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tPeople & Leadership<\/a>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t

\n\t\t\t\t\t\tDelivering engagement through experiences: 6 ways HR teams can create moments that matter\t\t\t\t\t<\/h1>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n\t

\n\t\t
\n\t\t\t
\n\t
\n\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t
\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\"\"\t\t\t\tJessica Leyshon<\/span>\n\t\t\t<\/a>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

\u2018What really makes our workforce productive?\u2019 It\u2019s a question many HR and People teams have been asking for a while now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The answer, our research found, lies in workforce experiences. 92% of employees said this is important to them. That\u2019s huge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So how do you create experiences that really matter to your people? Let\u2019s take a look\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Work perks don\u2019t equal experiences <\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Employee perks might be the first thing you think of when you hear workforce experiences \u2013 but perks alone aren\u2019t a motivator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact, 53% say that gimmicks such as ping pong tables are more of a distraction than a performance booster.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s no single right answer to the question \u2018what makes a great workforce experience?\u2019 as your employees will have differing views.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However if you just guess, you\u2019ll likely end up scattering around quirky fringe benefits that cost your organisation money but don\u2019t make a significant impact on your experiences as a whole.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s important to find the common ground and find out what your employees have in common when it comes to what makes them productive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So while helpful, accessible, user-friendly processes may not sound as exciting as dress-down Fridays or free donuts, they\u2019re far more likely to make a difference to your workforce everyday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The good news is there are several areas HR and People teams can look at across the employee journey to create those all-important moments that matter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From the first interaction to the day they leave, workers are forming opinions, sharing views and building their attitude and approach to their workplace and employer \u2013 and these are invaluable to organisations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here\u2019s six proven examples to create excellent workforce experiences throughout the employee lifecycle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. Make onboarding memorable <\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

They say first impressions are everything.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For new joiners, onboarding is the first glimpse into how it feels to work for your organisation, so the experience needs to be a positive one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact, the type of experiences you give to the candidates who are successful could mean the difference between your employees staying or going.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

69% of employees<\/a> are more likely to stay with a company for three years if they experienced great onboarding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Keeping in touch is vital. There\u2019s often a gap of a month or more between accepting a job and their start date so don\u2019t forget them. It doesn\u2019t have to be time consuming, though.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A few personalised emails ahead of the start date is something to consider.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You could even start sharing links to helpful resources so they can find out more before day one. Do you have an onboarding portal? If so, think about adding content on to there so it\u2019s all in one place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After they\u2019ve started, don\u2019t forget to seek feedback so you can continually improve onboarding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Find out what your people thought of their experience and act on it so you can adapt and change ahead of future employees starting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2. Connect with tailored communications <\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Communicating well to your people is an art, and organisations can easily send communications that fall flat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maybe you\u2019re sending them at the wrong time, so an employee simply doesn\u2019t see them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or perhaps they\u2019re so busy that an email is never going to be read in detail.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Organisations need to think hard about how they communicate to their people so the message is heard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As with any experience, it\u2019s all about finding out what works for your people. Personalising emails and portal content means that relevant and well explained information gets to the right people and no one wastes time reading content that they don\u2019t need.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Also, you could step away from the traditional email \u2013 try video messages or interactive quizzes to make communication more engaging and accessible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

No matter how you choose to communicate, it should always be two way. Help your employees to give feedback or voice any concerns they may have via an appropriate channel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

3. Create mobile and agile workstyles<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Worryingly, less than 20% of employees<\/a> say they work for an agile organisation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Agility matters because flexible workstyles are so important to today\u2019s employee experience. With more remote and flexible workers than ever, it\u2019s vital that they have an equally effective experiences as someone who works in an office.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Think about how your employees interact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Make it easy for people to identify, connect and work with other colleagues across the business using smart technologies and collaboration tools to get the job done in real time, as well as to stop the emails from piling up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

4. Develop and nurture your people<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Less than a third of employees<\/a> strongly agree their performance is managed in a way that motivates them to do outstanding work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s time to move from outdated annual appraisals to modern, continuous performance processes and conversations that reflect team and project-based roles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Create space and structure for regular and ad hoc reviews, match individual goals to wider company objectives, and track employee performance to link comprehensive succession and reward planning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Also, help employees to recognise their peers for a good job done.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having a portal or an online recognition board can be a good way to do this to make sure there\u2019s plenty of instant, visible, recognition among teams.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s important to let employees know they\u2019re valued and are praised for the work they do as a result.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

5. Listen, understand and respond <\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Did you know, employees who feel their voice is heard are 4.6 times more likely to feel empowered<\/a> to perform their best work?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Forget the annual engagement survey.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Think about how your team can acquire more personal, emotional and real-time feedback. Pulse surveys<\/a> and continuous conversations keep your understanding up to the minute so you know what your people think at that moment in time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, asking for feedback and not addressing it can be more damaging than asking it all together. Act on the feedback you receive and tell your people what you\u2019ve done to resolve it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

6. Use People data to drive decisions<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Do you make your decisions based on gut feel rather than data? Don\u2019t guess what your employees think \u2013 find out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Use People data to analyse and track what you need and whether it\u2019s working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By crunching the numbers, you can understand what really makes your employees tick, what gets them productive and what they need from you to be at their best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Experiences shape your employees<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Experiences aren\u2019t fixed and forever. The best workforce experience initiatives are created, evolved and redesigned based on feedback.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Companies that do this set themselves up for success, not just in terms of happy and enthusiastic employees but workforce experiences can also directly influence productivity, engagement and customer experience.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n\t
\n\t\t
\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

Subscribe to the Sage Advice newsletter<\/h2>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t

Join 1.5 million subscribers and get the best business admin strategies and tactics, as well as actionable advice to help your company thrive, in your inbox every month.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSubscribe now<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\"\"\t\t\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

How do you create moments that matter to your people? Here\u2019s six ways you can drive workforce experiences throughout the employee journey.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1118,"featured_media":14383,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sage_video":false,"post_featured_image_hide":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[164],"tags":[119,133],"business_type":[4],"lilypad":[],"context":[],"industry":[],"persona":[211,250],"imagine_tag":[325,204,327,205,328],"coauthors":[400],"class_list":["post-329","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-people-leadership","tag-employee-engagement","tag-hr-process","business_type-medium-sized-business"],"sage_meta":{"region":"en-ie","author_name":"Jessica Leyshon","featured_image":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ie\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/13\/2023\/09\/GettyImages-1414263386.jpg","imagine_tags":{"325":"Employee engagement","204":"HR and Payroll","327":"HR processes","205":"HR software","328":"Top HR resources"}},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"Sage Advice Ireland","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ie\/blog","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ie\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/329","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ie\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ie\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ie\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/users\/1118"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ie\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=329"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ie\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/329\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ie\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/media\/14383"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ie\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=329"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ie\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=329"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ie\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=329"},{"taxonomy":"business_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ie\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/business_type?post=329"},{"taxonomy":"lilypad","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ie\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/lilypad?post=329"},{"taxonomy":"context","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ie\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/context?post=329"},{"taxonomy":"industry","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ie\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/industry?post=329"},{"taxonomy":"persona","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ie\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/persona?post=329"},{"taxonomy":"imagine_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ie\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/imagine_tag?post=329"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ie\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=329"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}