While businesses have advanced over time, there has been a heightened focus on constructing a workplace that supports both an employee’s experience (EX) and employee engagement. These two factors have emerged as a must-have for any organization since they cut across various areas like productivity, retention, and overall business performance. These two terms, employee experience, and employee engagement, are frequently misunderstood to be the same even if the two concepts improve different but related processes throughout the employee lifecycle. This is the process from recruitment to the exit of the employee when he or she experiences the organization at every point of contact. The emotional tie that the employees relate to their work and organization is what is termed employee engagement. Both are equally important.
In this blog, we will define the concepts of employee experience and engagement, as well as the relationship between them, and present tools for their enhancement and evaluation in your organization for creating conditions for prosperity and achieving satisfaction.
What is Employee Experience (EX)?
Employee Experience keeps track of how employees feel about their company at every stage in the employment life cycle. Not only subscriptions are part of EX but the engagement continues from the first interview to the last day at the company. Today’s workers are looking for more than just a paycheck; they desire rich experiences, personal growth, good employer relations, and career advancement. Organizations that can address the employee experience positively are likely to have active, committed, and high-performing employees.
Key Elements of Employee Engagement
Employee experience is not a one-dimensional concept. It is composed of multiple factors that unfold at various points in the employee’s journey. For example:
- Cultural Environment: The set of values, beliefs, behaviors, and other practices that make up the organizational culture. These values include inclusiveness and openness, and how engaged the employees are towards the company’s purpose.
- Physical Environment: This is the physical location of the work, office design, and facilities made available by the employers. Be it comfortable chairs, or a large open communal area, the physical environment impacts greatly on how productive an employee can be and how satisfied they are feeling.
- Technological Environment: The latest generation also depends on digital gadgets for collaboration and productivity. Correct working mechanisms including those that entail communication, checklist order, and training also adon the employee experience.
- Employee Lifecycle Touchpoints: Recruitment, onboarding, learning and development, performance reviews, promotions, and exit interviews. Each of these factors stands for how the company can impact an employee’s understanding of the company.
Why Does Employee Experience Matter?
Based on numerous international studies, it has been proven that a positive employee experience leads to an increase in employee retention, employee productivity, and employee engagement. According to one research by Deloitte, such organizations outperform their counterparts lacking employee experience by 25% in profits. Organizations that emphasize employee experience strategies realize lower employee turnover and improved satisfaction of employees which significantly contribute to long-term organizational competitiveness.
What is Employee Engagement?
Employee experience speaks of what an organization does while employee engagement evokes deep emotional and psychological investment from an employee for the company’s welfare. When workers are engaged, they put their best into completing their tasks, take positions of responsibility, and care about the growth of their company. When an organization has engaged employees, such employees are active, willing to have more than one task at their capacity, and indulging in activities that affect business outcomes relatively positively.
Characteristics of Engaged Employees
- Emotional Investment. Employees do not just engage but are personally attached to their responsibility. They view their position with great interest and aspire to play a crucial part in the advancement of the organization.
- Proactive Participation: Employees engage themselves at work in an active manner; that is, they just don’t do the work, but also improve the work by iterating on it, working together, or finding ways around problems.
- Loyalty to the Organization: When employees are actively engaged in their jobs, they tend to be less absent. These employees have lower turnover rates and are even more committed to the company over a longer period.
- Increased Productivity: Engaged employees tend to work better, faster, and faster with creative ideas hence more of their work can be done. This leads to greater productivity and consequently improved performance of the business.
Why Does Employee Engagement Matter?
The importance of employee engagement within the organization cannot be understated. Gallup reports, for example, state that organizations having an engaged workforce are 21% more profitable and have 41% fewer absent workers. After all, motivation influences all components, from the satisfaction of customers, through innovations to profit. Higher employee engagement means increasing levels of willpower, commitment, and retention within the organization.
Difference Between Employee Experience and Employee Engagement
In a broad definition, employee experience (EX) is interconnected with employee engagement. Of course, there’s a different angle to both concepts arising out of a long-lasting employment relationship.
EX as the Input, Engagement as the Output: Employee experience refers to all the emotions and experiences an employee undergoes while working for a company. This is reinforced by factors such as the workplace, resources, processes, culture, and; most importantly, management. It is the structural courtesy that companies create for a positive environment. Engagement, however, represents the emotional feeling or consequence, as the case may be, the experiences given evoke. In such cases, when people are recognized and appreciated, they do everything within the scope of the job to keenly extend their effort.
Focus on Environment vs. Emotional Commitment: Employee experience seeks to enhance the processes, focusing on the practical part of the work – whether the employees are provided with the appropriate means, clear procedures, a supportive well-being-oriented, and growth-friendly environment, and so on. It covers the whole spectrum, beginning with the induction of an employee and ending with opportunities for their development and career advancement. Engagement is about how the employee perceives the organization and their work concerning the person’s emotions. Engagement manifests itself by the energy, loyalty, and efforts directed to the aim, which is the prosperity of the business. In other words, employee experience helps to create the fertile ground in which engagement will be able to grow.
Experience Drives Engagement: By default, a well-thought and strategically developed employee experience culminates in increased engagement levels because the staff’s needs are fulfilled and notably, there is some motivational satisfaction or an ownership feeling among them. However, it would be counterproductive to emphasize engaging such employees only through engagement reinforcement programs such as recognition or team building, without tackling the core reason why their experiences are poor in the first place (i.e., obsolete systems, blurred lines of responsibility, or insufficiently toxic culture). It is through such building of an engagement that an employee seeks amongst them – trust, purpose, and satisfaction.
In summary, although the two concepts are relevant to one another in that they give rise to a healthy organization, employee experience is the underlying factor that sets the stage for the improvement of employee engagement. In the absence of a positive experience, engagement initiatives may not achieve their objective.
The Impact of Employee Experience on Engagement
It can be deduced that experience is directly proportional to engagement. If an organization successfully designs such interactions with the employee, this leads to greater engagement rates. Hence, it will ultimately help the organization. Gallup further states that companies with high employee engagement have a 147% higher return in terms of earnings per share compared to their competitors.
The Role of Onboarding in Engagement
Onboarding is one of the major touchpoints in employee experience. Employees who experience a positive onboarding process, feel attached to the organization and hence are more likely to be engaged within their initial periods of roles. According to research by Glassdoor, companies with effective onboarding processes have new hire retention rates which are 82% higher than without the process, and productivity increase rates which are over 70%.
Career Development and Engagement
Another key engagement driver is the career development of the employees. This engagement is more workable for employees especially when they think their organization is interested in their growth. The employees are likely to be engaged when offered avenues for learning, diversification in their skills, and avenues for promotion since this is a clear indication that the employer appreciates their input in shaping the company’s future.
When it’s impossible to provide such opportunities in the workplace, systems like Auzmor Learn, which allows people to follow customized silos or learning paths, make it possible for almost any business to offer a never-ending cycle of employee training and development.
How to Improve Employee’s Experience and Engagement?
As much as it is necessary to note that, ex and engagement are two different attributes, what boils down is how businesses can improve both. Here are some strategies that can work to boost employee experience and engagement:
Prioritize Organizational Culture
A robust, open, and healthy culture within an organization is the core influencer of an effective employee experience. Companies that streamline such aspects as trust, teamwork, and openness have better chances of keeping their workers engaged. Culture is an integral factor in how the employees view the work environment and if there is a sense of community.
Offer Continuous Learning and Development
Career development is a very critical factor as far as enhancing employee experience and employee engagement is concerned. Employees appreciative of the fact that they are acquiring new skills and increasing career status will remain more engaged. Organizations can foster motivation and engagement by providing such platforms as Auzmor Learn whereby training sessions and individual forums will facilitate career progression.
Use Technology to Improve EX
An employee can benefit from technology for better or for worse, as it is an inherent and indispensable aspect of any modern workplace. When employees have the right technology at their disposal, it is easier for them to communicate, collaborate, and keep in touch, especially in a remote or hybrid work situation. User-friendly applications and tools that ease and stream processes are fundamental to improving employee experience.
Recognition and Rewards Programs
Out of all the internal and external factors that catalyze engagement, recognition comes as the most powerful. Employees tend to remain committed to the organization when they are appreciated for the work they do. Regular recognition programs, no matter how trivial and even if not formalized, can help foster a culture of appreciation on the part of the employees.
Managerial Support and Leadership Development
Employee experience, and engagement for that matter, is also influenced by the relationship of employees and their managers. Employees who receive regular feedback and support from their managers are found to thrive within the organization. Training programs that develop managers to be able to engage their teams are essential in sustaining engagement in the long run.
How to Measure Employee Experience and Engagement?
Engagement and employee experience are two areas that can be measured, and tracking any of these metrics is crucial for any strides to be made.
Key Metrics to Measure Employee Experience:
Net Promoter Score (NPS): This score measures the likelihood of employees promoting their place of work. A high net promoter score is indicative of a positive employee experience.
Employee Satisfaction Surveys: Surveys can be used to know what employees feel at every point in the organization from joining the organization to working until they leave.
Attrition and Retention Rates: High rates of attrition within the organization suggest that employees did not have a good experience working with the organization. Tracking these rates aids in understanding the points of an employee’s journey that need enhancement.
Exit Interviews: Insights from exiting employees help to highlight some patterns or challenges that may be present and helpful in enhancing the employee’s experience.
Key Metrics to Measure Employee Engagement:
Engagement Surveys: “Employee engagement” surveys provide a practical understanding of the level and intensity of emotional and mental commitment an employee has, not only to the organization but also to the role they play in that organization.
Productivity Metrics: Monitoring Individual and group productivity regularly may help to estimate the level of employee engagement witnessed among employees. This is more so in the high-performing employees who are engaged and the quality of work output of such employees is unmatchable.
Absenteeism Rates: There is a link between low engagement and increased absenteeism. Absenteeism rates can also be helpful in measuring the levels of employee engagement in an organization.
Recognition Metrics: Employees’ award nominations are also one of the points of measuring employee engagement. Thus, it can be inferred that employee engagement is directly affected by rewards and recognition. According to Vantage Circle, 71 percent of employees are of the opinion that recognition enhances employees` engagement and productivity to quite an extent.
Conclusion
It is important to note the distinction between employee experience and engagement for the growth of the supported workforce. Employee experience concerns itself with the process of an employee within the organization including cultural, structural, and other facets; engagement, on the other hand, is more of how emotionally connected an employee is to the organization. There is a strong interrelation between the two – if the employee experience is enhanced, it is guaranteed that the level of engagement will be high translating into increased production, retention, and success.
How are employee experience and engagement different? To find out, allow Auzmor to help you in formulating an effective employee strategy. [Schedule a Demo]
FAQs
Q: What do you think is the most important difference between employee experience and employee engagement?
A: Employee experience encompasses the entire relationship of the employee with the organization, whereas employee engagement relates to the employees’ level of dedication and willingness to work for the organization.
Q: How do both employee experience and engagement contribute to retention?
A: A positive employee experience leads to satisfaction, and strong engagement leads to employees’ loyalty which subsequently lowers turnover and boosts retention.
Q: Higher retention in return is synonymous with higher engagement but can this retention be brought about through first overhauling the employee experience?
A: Yes, it can, for a well-planned employee experience could lead to boosted engagement, as the workers feel worked up and taken care of.
Q: Why should all these organizational attributes be taken care of concurrently?
A: Focusing on both factors makes sure employees are happy during their time in the workplace, and employees are emotionally attached to their jobs so that there’s increased productivity and retention.
Q: What do you think are the main factors affecting employee engagement?
A: Some of the key drivers are recognition, transparency, opportunities to develop, and work culture.
Q: Is poor employee experience likely to impact engagement negatively?
A: The experience translates to something negative, such as inadequate support or poor communication, which lessens engagement, causes disengagement, and also increases turnover.
Q: What does Auzmor have to offer in terms of employee experience and engagement?
A: Auzmor provides such tools as onboarding, supports learning in the flow of work, and feedback mechanisms so that the employee journey is smooth and great focus is placed on enhancement.
