How Can Employee Experience Drive Business Value? Part 1
Improving the experience of employees is finally starting to be viewed as one of the most strategic things a company can do to drive value. A day will come when the phrase will be used with the same reverence as Customer Experience (CX). Till then, Employee Experience experts remain patient and plow their way until everyone gets there.
Success requires a purpose and structure
The objective of a meaningful Employee Experience (EX) goes well beyond making employees happy. The fact is EX contributes to greater top-line and bottom-line revenue per year than in those organisations which don’t consider EX as powerful. There is a countless number of papers and research out there trying to demonstrate the impact of EX on performance, productivity, employee engagement, the correlation to Customer Experience, in other words, the ROI of EX.
However, as simple as it may seem to take the Employee Experience to the next level, there is a method to it which comprises of two key and necessary elements. Real success lies in having a purpose and then following a structured framework that will systematically help to deliver results. (And this is where companies tend to fail when they don't pay attention to giving the EX journey a purpose and to having an idea of how to reach it).
Companies and their HR function will be successful in cracking the EX secret when first they have a vision of what they are trying to achieve, and second, have a clear structure which, when they follow, will get them there.
Starting with the underlying principle that EX must align with business in order to produce the right results, the vision of your EX then has to be anchored in Employee Advocacy and delivering it, must be through a consistent, integrated and structured framework, call it the value chain of Employee Experience, to understand and manage the journey. Only then you will consistently drive better results, including greater value for employees and customers and, ultimately, shareholders. In this 4 part series of posts, we delve into these two key requirements to start improving your employee experience. The first 3 parts will dive into the vision – Employee Advocacy – its definition in Part 1 (below), why it is important and its advantages in Part 2, and Part 3 where we explore best practices and how to institutionalise it. In the final part of the series, we explore the Value Chain of Employee Experience Framework - this will help you deliver on your vision successfully.
So let's get started.....
Part 1: What is Employee Advocacy anyway?
It is getting things right for the employee by giving priority to what's best for them versus focusing on what's best for the company, and the purpose is to create engaged employees who will, in turn, serve as ambassadors on behalf of the company. They do that by sharing their positive experiences with the company with their friends and family on social media, as is most popular today. That means, when you go the extra mile for your employees, you delight them so much that you can leverage them to get the word out there about your products, services, and most importantly is show that you are more of a human brand. Employee Advocacy is a company's reward for delivering a top-notch employee experience.
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From the frontliners to CEO, many companies are now tapping their employees as a key marketing asset and as valuable brand spokesperson and secret digital PR weapon to boost the brand reach through employees' word-of-mouth and personal social channels.
You've probably seen bits of this in action on social media.
You're scrolling through your LinkedIn feed when you stumble onto your friend's post about how she was welcomed by her manager and team on her first day of a new job in a new company she joined recently and how awesome her onboarding experience was.
Employee Advocacy is the promotion of the company by its employees, internally and outside the organisation, who:
Create a positive image and raise awareness for the company through word of mouth and their personal channels
Recommend the company’s products or services and a place to work to their friends or family members
Act in the best interest of the company
Thus, increasing reach and credibility of the brand and creating an incredible boost to employee engagement, a ‘proud to belong’ sentiment, and an ownership mindset internally.
In part 2 of this 4 part series we will cover why Employee Advocacy is important and its advantages to employees, companies, and customers.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Hanadi El Sayyed’s writing explores the future of human resources and its impact on business, people and the future of work. She is the Founder of &humans, a consulting firm dedicated to raise the potential of HR leadership as they strive to innovate their organisation’s digital workforce experience and rethink how to better design and deliver employee services that exceed the expectations of the workforce and the needs of the business.
She has over 15 years’ experience in HR and specialises in creating employee experiences that mirror best customer experiences with people at the heart and powered by technology and data. Previously, Hanadi has worked for Majid Al Futtaim, one of the largest organisations in the Middle East where she took on key HR leadership roles. She received a Bachelor of Science from the American University of Beirut and a Masters of Economic Development from University of London. Follow Hanadi on Twitter @Hana_ElSayyed and on LinkedIn. She can be contacted on hanadi@andhumans.ae