Employee Experience (EX) stands as one of the foundational elements within a developed corporate culture.

Just as you take care of your customers through advertising campaigns, marketing strategies, promotions, discounts, packages, support, or any other action that enhances the customer experience (CX), it's essential to invest in improving your workers' experience. After all, they are the ones who will take care of your customers and your company.

In today's labor market, especially among newer generations, factors other than the annual salary amount are increasingly valued. This includes environmental policies, career planning, or remote work conditions that facilitate work-life balance. Caring for your employees goes beyond incentives and rewards. Investing in your employees' experience makes the difference between whether your company is profitable or not.

What is Employee Experience (EX) and Its Impact on Business Success

You're probably familiar with the term "Customer Centric," which means a company places the customer at the heart of its strategy, focusing on offering a unique experience with the goal of differentiating from competitors and increasing profits.

The same applies to your employees. Nowadays, anyone can look for jobs on various portals or simply send applications on LinkedIn, find better salaries, conditions, or even jobs that align more closely with their values.

Employee Experience (EX) encompasses all the factors involved in each team member's work experience within your company: whether it's salary, the workplace atmosphere, or even the customs that are established almost by chance.

The Importance of Considering Employee Experience in Your Company

Strengthening employee experience can have a significant impact on financial outcomes. Jacob Morgan, founder of "The Future of Work University" and author of 3 bestsellers on the future of work and employee experience, states that companies investing in employee experience are four times more profitable than those that do not.

Creating a positive corporate culture involves having a strategy to take care of employees' experience, and the main problem for companies is underestimating the impact of neglecting this area in their human resources department. The well-being of our employees will be a primary indicator of our company's health: productivity levels will be affected (positively or negatively), employee turnover will increase or decrease, and resources and efforts will either go down the drain or bear fruit.

Fundamentals of a Positive Employee Experience

There are many aspects that could be considered to objectively determine whether your company meets the "requirements" for a positive employee experience. What is certain is that for the design of a proper employee experience to work, this movement must start from the core of the company.

This means that leaders and high-ranking officials, such as founders or company managers, must share the feelings, values, and commitment to consciously take care of their employees and accept that the impact of the benefits will take time to materialize.

Positive Corporate Culture

A study by Deloitte revealed that 94% of executives and 88% of employees surveyed consider a company's culture important to its success. Corporate culture includes values, norms, and practices that define a company. It's about the vibes you get from a group of people, whether you see them doing things you like or dislike, whether they dress like you, or if they share thoughts similar to yours.

The same happens in companies. If your organization lacks corporate culture, it's as if it has no personality. And nobody likes to feel ordinary, especially younger generations.

Commitment and Recognition

Research by Gallup concluded that work teams receiving acknowledgments or praises from their peers see a 20% improvement in employee productivity levels. Moreover, recognizing and celebrating colleagues' milestones also impacts your company's customer satisfaction.

What's important is not to force celebrations or congratulatory messages. What matters, as with your partner, is that all interactions of praise and recognition are natural, and this can only happen in an environment that fosters such behavior. When it comes to hybrid or remote teams, there are solutions like virtual workspaces where communication and natural interaction spaces can be created.

Work-Life Balance

The balance between your work and personal life has become a requirement for many of us. When we talk about "balance," we don't just mean working from the comfort of our homes; we're talking about flexibility. According to a report published by FlexJobs, 80% of workers believe that a culture based on work flexibility is sufficient incentive to stay in their job. This means greater commitment, lower staff turnover, and reduced talent loss.

Flexibility means an employee can fulfill their work responsibilities without neglecting their personal, family, and leisure interests. Examples of practices that promote this balance include 4-day workweeks, reduced hours during low work seasons, mental health days, and remote work.

Professional Development: Growing Within the Company

For a corporate culture to develop in the right direction, companies must invest in their employees' development. The opportunity to grow professionally within a company you like is crucial if your goal is to retain talent. According to a report published by LinkedIn in 2018, 94% of professionals surveyed stated they would stay longer at a company if it invested in their career.

Holistic Well-being

Holistic well-being within a company refers to paying attention to the physical, mental, emotional, and social well-being of employees. This approach is necessary as the well-being of employees in all these areas of their life directly influences their performance, satisfaction, and commitment to the company.

Benefits of Investing in Employee Experience

By prioritizing the well-being, satisfaction, and development of employees, you are not only fostering a positive work environment but also creating a competitive advantage in the market; whether in terms of revenue or attracting better talent than other companies.

• Increase in your teams' productivity

• Retention and attraction of talent

• Improvement in customer satisfaction

• Reduction in work absenteeism

• Encourages innovation and creativity

• Ensures long-term commitment

Managing Employee Experience

As you know, the employee experience begins from the moment of recruitment until the employee leaves the company. Just as in any type of relationship: how you arrive and how you leave are equally important. And taking care of this journey, that is, designing this strategy, is your first step.

The first step is to design a comprehensive strategy that covers all points of contact and aspects of the employee's work life with our company: from physical touchpoints, digital tools for work, their onboarding process, to their career plan. Personalization is very important at this stage, as it is fundamental for the employee's growth.

Feedback through continuous feedback from your employees is also important. There are various tools such as surveys, which usually aren't very fun to fill out. You can innovate by using gamified activities or even virtual team-building events, ensuring a unique experience for your team.

The most important thing in designing an employee experience management strategy is to measure the results and use suitable digital solutions. Make sure to use appropriate collaborative or communication tools, and the right KPIs to ensure you are on the right path.

Challenges in Improving Employee Experience

When starting with the management of how to improve the employee experience, it is very likely that you will encounter various challenges that reflect weaknesses within your company. Starting with communication, followed by poor interpersonal relationships, to realizing you do not have a budget allocated or lack personnel focused on improving corporate culture.

And this last point is one of the most important challenges and the least discussed. If we already know the benefits of implementing tactics to improve the employee experience, the friction will be in being able to "sell" these ideas internally so that budgets are approved.

Another challenge that has become a reality for many companies is adapting these strategies to a decentralized work environment. I'm referring to those teams that work 100% remotely or in hybrid work teams, where communication and establishing interpersonal relationships pose a barrier in creating real connections, the main ingredient for healthy mental health within the company.

Continuing with the links and interpersonal relationships, one of the main challenges, especially in decentralized work environments, is creating a positive corporate atmosphere and culture. Without this, it doesn't matter how much money you invest or if you design the best EX plan, the change needs to start from the core, from managers to team leaders.

Figures Involved in Employee Experience

There are 4 main agents in the entire process of the employee experience: the employees themselves, the company's executives and managers, the human resources department, and technology. Yes, digital solutions are as important as the people themselves.

Each of these figures contributes significantly to the employee experience by creating a positive and attractive work environment that fosters commitment and productivity, and therefore, the company's profitability.

Tools to Improve Employee Experience

Each of these tools improves the employee experience and can be used in a global strategy, either individually or collectively.

• Satisfaction surveys and 360 feedback

• Recognition and rewards programs

• Training and development

• Wellness and mindfulness applications

• Virtual workspaces for remote teams

• Employee Experience Platforms (EXP)

Strategies for Starting or Enhancing Employee Experience

Depending on the level of involvement a company has concerning improving employee experience, various strategies can be implemented.

For instance, organizations just beginning on this path might start with simple actions that don't significantly disrupt the company's internal operations. Implementing satisfaction surveys to collect direct feedback from employees through anonymous surveys will allow for the identification of areas for improvement.

If your company already has initiatives focused on enhancing the employee experience but you want to go a step further, you could consider designing personalized career plans aligned with their interests and objectives. You could also look into improving internal communication or incorporating team building activities for remote teams or virtual events that bring together all teams.

Finally, if your company is performing all the mentioned actions and seeks to adapt to new generations and offer better inclusion for all employees, you might explore the possibility of implementing employee experience platforms or using virtual space tools to promote collaboration and communication. For example, at Spacecreator, you can find a solution in the form of a virtual office.