But what is employee experience exactly? Definition and impact (2/4)

Is a sleek office enough to engage employees?

Now convinced that change is not an option but rather a necessity for organizations (see previous article), it’s time to dig into the concept of employee experience. Most of the following theories have been forged by the thought leader and author of the book The Employee Experience Advantage, Jacob Morgan. So, what is employee experience exactly?

1. When does employee experience occur?

“The employee experience is what happens when an employee interacts with your organization”. J. Morgan

Understanding the timeframe in which employee experience takes place is crucial: one must keep an holistic view. Employee experience is not only happening when employees are sitting at their desks, but also when e-mails are being checked on the way to the office, and afterwards, when some unfinished work is being taken home.

Neither it is restricted to work-related matters. Getting married, for instance, is part of the employee experience. In fact, according to Jacob Morgan, employee experience is made up of 3 major moments that matter:

1. Specific or special private moments that impact work such as the birth of a child
2. Ongoing moments, meaning the everyday relationship between the company and the employee
3. Created moments: all the extra fun organized by the company

Addressing moments that matter works! From Cisco, The People Deal: Creating Moments that Matter

Employee experience also needs to be considered beyond the regular employee life cycle (from the first day on the job to the leave): it plays a role when prospective applicants are looking up information about a company or going through a recruitment process. It also continues to exist after an employee’s exit as he will carry with him the souvenir of his experience.

2. What is employee experience made of?

Every employee experience is comprised of three environments: the physical, the cultural and the technological environments.*

- The cultural environment is “the one that you feel”, the “vibe you get when you walk in the door”. Its contribution to the overall experience is 40%.

- The technological environment is made up of both software and hardware and is described as “tools employee use to get their job done”. It contributes equally with corporate culture to the overall experience.

- Last but not least, the physical environment makes up 30% of the experience. It is the “objects, people, demographics (colleagues), and any kind of perks (cafeteria, gym, …)”.

The Employee Experience Equation — J. Morgan

One insight we can learn from this framework is that moving to a new office space is definitely not enough to provide employees with an experience. In fact, technology and culture appear to weight more in the employee experience equation than the physical environment.

3. Which impact does it have?

In terms of business value, employee experience boosts 5 areas:
1. the value of a brand
2. its employer attractiveness
3. its customer service (well-treated employees will treat customers well)
4. its innovation capability
5. the respect and admiration it has in society (key to Millennials)

Or as Pierre Marie Derouin, Head of Digital Transformation and Lead Strategic Designer at L’Atelier BNP Paribas puts it:

For employees, the experience conveys the promise of finding happiness at work, whereas for companies it is seen as an opportunity to find a new source of productivity, creativity, innovation and future income.

In terms of performance, organizations providing their employees with a unique experience have lower turnover rates, higher profit and revenues per employee* when compared with organizations that do not.

Organizations that provide an employee experience vs. those that do not*

They are also awarded with labels such as “Best Place to Work”, BrandZ “100 most valuables global brands” or Fortune “100 best companies to work for”. These immaterial awards are well sought-after by job applicants as it constitutes the guarantee that they will find themselves well in their future workplace.

Finally, how to evaluate how advanced an organization employee experience is?

Organizations that master the three environments of the employee experience equation are call Experiential, as opposed to InExperienced. Here’s a chart to understand where is an organization at:

From InExperience to Experiential: the drivers of employee engagement

Not Experiential yet?

Find out how to bridge the gap in the next article: from theory to practice: the 4-step recipe to create a unique employee experience (3/4)

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Sources:
*J. Morgan, M. Goldsmith, The Employee Experience Advantage: How to Win the War for Talent by Giving Employees the Workspaces They Want, the Tools They Need, and a Culture They Can Celebrate, Wiley, 2017