Combat the Great Resignation with Great Employee Experience

Primer: Employee Experience

Employee experience (EX) is everything an employee sees or encounters at work. At The Clearing, we believe EX begins before an employee is hired. Their experience starts when they visit our website, click around, look at job postings, and hopefully apply. It continues during the interview process, onboarding, and throughout their tenure at the firm.

It’s important to remember that it’s not only an organization’s formal policies or an individual’s job duties that drive EX. Everything from where an employee sits in the office, to the team they are on, to feeling like their work is meaningful has an impact. As a leader, this is why it’s critical to think holistically when you consider the experience you want your team members to have in your organization. As we’ll discuss, positive EX is one of the best ways to keep people engaged with – and loyal to – your company.

Why Positive EX is Critical for Retention

The number one item that keeps employees in your organization isn’t salary. It is, you guessed it, employee experience (EX). And while creating a tailored experience for every employee may not be possible, doing the legwork to understand what makes people feel valued is the basis of a positive experience that keeps people engaged, satisfied in their roles, and less likely to leave.

Leadership Insight: Perks and Benefits that Drive Positive EX and Retention 

1. Work-life balance. According to the World Economic Forum, over a third (35%) of respondents to their Global Workforce of the Future 2022 Survey chose work-life balance as their main reason for staying with a company. Whether that means flexible schedules and locations that allow workers to prioritize what’s important to them, more paid time off, or on-site childcare, facilitating work-life balance is critical to positive EX and retention in a post-pandemic world.
2. Tuition assistance and professional development opportunities. In the same World Economic Forum survey, more than a third of people who said they want to change jobs in the next 12 months cited a lack of upskilling and training opportunities as a primary reason for seeking a new opportunity. Evaluating employee satisfaction with your organization’s professional development, training, and tuition assistance programs is a great first step in creating programs that provide employees with what they’re looking for.
3. Sense of community. This one is a bit more nebulous, but one that matters more than ever in our digital world. Nearly a third of people say they plan to stay in their job because they enjoy working with their colleagues. The emotional ties that develop between co-workers increase engagement and aid in retention. Finding moments and ways to create a sense of community among colleagues – even in a remote world – is key to building the sense of community people need to feel invested in your organization.

EX in Practice

Going back to the beginning, we talked about the holistic nature of EX, including onboarding. At The Clearing, we had a defined onboarding process that worked well in an in-person environment. However, once the pandemic began, we found it didn’t translate to a great experience when people were no longer starting in person. So, we revamped it to create a more welcoming experience even if we couldn’t meet all new hires in an in-person setting.

We started by creating new resources for new hires that we previously didn’t need. For example, a map of the office suddenly became less important, but troubleshooting guides for setting up technology without in-person IT support became critical. We also placed new hires in a new hire cohort with scheduled virtual sessions where they come together to share experiences and learnings with peers. These sessions were designed to help employees feel “local” in a remote environment and create the sense of community we know is critical to employee experience.

It’s all relatively simple in theory, but we’ve seen firsthand the difference EX makes in practice.

In fact, we continue to receive feedback from new hires saying they never experienced new colleagues reaching out so much when starting at a new company. Further, this connection translated into new hires feeling supported in their new work environment on day one. The moral is that as environments changes, so does employee experience – and reevaluating even the small things can make a big difference in team member happiness.

If your organization is experiencing low engagement scores or a raft of departures, we can help you examine how employee experience may be driving these issues. Contact me at Meagan.graves@theclearing.com – I would love to help.