How Can Employee Experience Make or Break Your Business
By Eva Lim Sheau Lee
Imagine you work at one of the Fortune 500 companies that invests a lot in employee benefits and perks; you would think you would be thrilled and highly motivated to work for them.
Unfortunately, the data tells us a different story.
Gone were the days when employees used to show up for work to collect their paychecks and benefits. Today, employees want to be treated as human beings instead of replaceable parts of corporate strategies. So, how can organisations create an employee experience that enables employees to thrive?
Here are several crucial takeaways from Roshan Thiran, the Founder and CEO of Leaderonomics, on factors that affect your EX.
Takeaway 1: Organisational Structure and Systems Affect Employee Behaviour
Instead of identifying the superstars in the company, it is more critical for leaders to cultivate the right conditions for all employees to grow and succeed. Roshan shared his stories at General Electric (GE) Aviation where the same employees once considered ineffective are now making a significant impact on the company. The change in employees' performance didn't come from leaders who demanded more of them. Instead, it is the process and culture of an organisation that primarily determine employees' performance. When changes were made there, they automatically saw employees more engaged, which led to better performance.
What constitutes EX? This includes recruitment, work styles, meetings, conversations, and performance review processes, among many other things. However, a change in EX requires a shift in employees' mindsets and behaviours, which can be challenging for leaders. Change can be exciting, but it can also be scary. Nonetheless, we must understand that what people fear most is the pain of change, not the change itself. So leaders must manage the transition carefully and give it time to take hold.
Takeaway 2: Shifting Mindsets and Beliefs Through Rituals That Shape Better Experience
Have you ever stopped for 5-min and done some deep breathing or taken a walk whenever you felt stressed at work? This is an example of a habit, where individuals regularly perform specific actions with little thought. The same goes for a smoker who takes a 15-min break after lunch.
Habits are different from rituals. Rituals are shared experiences that strengthen employee relations, communications, and a sense of belonging. Hosting a monthly learning session is a good example. Practices vary by teams and organisations, and these shared experiences are unique to the team members involved.
Over time, habits and rituals can profoundly impact our mindsets and beliefs, and gradually shape the workplace culture. Therefore, if you intend to shift your employees' perspectives and thoughts, you should begin by looking into the rituals, processes, and structures in the organisation. Then intentionally create rituals that enhance your EX which will eventually lead to cultural change.
Takeaway 3: Culture Is Rituals That Produce Chemicals
Have you ever wondered why you feel pumped up when a deadline looms and have the energy to burn the midnight oil for a project?
This could be due to endorphins, a pain-masking chemical that helps you cope with stress and pain while you push yourself through challenging situations. Once you complete the project, you will feel a sense of accomplishment because of the goal-achieving chemical called dopamine, which is interconnected with endorphins.
One of the reasons why rituals work and take hold to influence behaviour is because they are linked with actual biological reactions in the human body. These chemicals and hormones play an important part in making rituals sticky by creating a feedback loop.
Serotonin is another chemical your body releases when your subordinates appreciate your guidance and respect you as a leader. In other words, the serotonin level correlates with feeling respected and admired. The more the leaders take care of their teams, the more serotonin is released in their bodies, increasing their confidence level in taking on more challenges. As described by Simon Sinek in his book "Leaders Eat Last," it is known as the leadership chemical.
On the other hand, when you build a healthy working relationship with your colleagues, your oxytocin level becomes higher, which reduces cortisol (the stress hormone). In other words, oxytocin helps relieve anxiety; therefore, it is known as the love chemical.
These feel-good chemicals result from an incredible culture that consists of good rituals. Unfortunately, it started disappearing when our physical presence in the office decreased. However, employee engagement tools, such as the award-winning Budaya app, can support us through exciting features backed by behavioural science.
Takeaway 4: Culture Must Be Intentionally Designed, Not Accidental
If you do not intentionally design the culture, you may eventually shape an unintentional culture that may be toxic to the organisation. Like Peter Drucker, the father of management thinking, once said, "Culture eats strategy for breakfast."
Take Stampede Solution as an example. As Stampede Solution firmly believed that employees determine the success of their business, they started to re-engineer their EX with the help of the Budaya app. This includes collecting employee data, overcoming the roadblocks to communications, creating a culture of recognition, and implementing various employee engagement activities that help to strengthen employee relationships. As a result, Stampede Solution enhanced its EX, leading to a better culture. Listen to the "Ask the Expert" episode, where Stampede Solution further shared how they successfully enhanced their EX by leveraging Budaya.
Sephora Malaysia is another example in which they intentionally transform its culture through the "HR On The Go" initiative, an employee engagement survey, and virtual store visits. It was well-received by its employees, who feel deeply connected to their companies despite working remotely.
Similarly, Singtel shared that its digital transformation has helped them record its highest employee engagement since 1998. Despite the challenging pandemic, they were impressed with the results, such as reduced employee churn. It is no wonder that Sephora Malaysia and Singtel were awarded the "Best HR Digital Transformation Strategy" and "Best HR Communication Strategy," respectively, in the Employee Experience Awards (EXA) 2021.
Takeaway 5: Investing in Employee Experience Will Help Grow Your Business
Have you ever wondered how GE Aviation became one of GE's largest and most profitable business units, with USD 6.7 billion in revenue?
Understanding employees' frustrations was GE Aviation's first step, where they realised that employee misalignment was one of the challenges they needed to overcome. While surveys may enable GE Aviation to dive deeper into the areas of improvement, they learned that it was as important to constantly communicate with employees about organisational culture to ensure alignment between management and employees.
Besides that, GE Aviation also began implementing new rituals, resulting in more engaged and energised employees. With the shift in employees' mindsets and behaviours, they became more enthusiastic about overcoming the roadblocks which severely hampered GE Aviation. The result of an energised workforce showed up in the bottom line, as the company reduced the long repair turnaround time from 450 days to only 35 days, leading to a significant increase in their revenue, from 30 million to 200 million over that period.
Take the 100-year-old Ritz-Carlton Hotel as another example. During Horst Schulze's tenure as a President and COO at Ritz Carlton, he initiated a rule called "2000$," where employees are empowered to make decisions to solve problems and are allowed to spend $2,000 per incident. Here's a story of how that initiative helped build the right culture: There was an incident where a bellboy received a guest's complaints about a broken TV. As per procedure, he informed the receptionist and the relevant parties. Unfortunately, nobody helped the guest promptly address the issue, so the bellboy took it upon himself to repair the TV with the $2000 at his disposal. Schulze's new empowerment culture encouraged employees like the bellboy to deliver better work by taking ownership of addressing the issue and building customer satisfaction. It is no wonder that Ritz-Carlton has been recognized with various awards for providing exceptional hospitality to its guests across the globe.
Our Team is Here to Help!
Want to reap the benefits of EX like GE Aviation and Ritz-Carlton? Make EX one of your top priorities in the 2023 budget. Creating a positive EX does not necessarily mean you need to have a massive budget, but not investing in EX could cost you significantly. Use the turnover calculator to see the immediate impact of not investing in EX.
To further reinforce employee behaviour, organisations need to run a two-pronged approach consisting of digital and physical activities. This is why we offer the Budaya Training Series, to help your managers and employees to unlock their potential and to cultivate high-performing teams within your organisations. The great news is that it is available with HRD Corp registered courses! Signing up for our series means that our Budaya app will be free, making EX even more cost-effective!
Get in touch with us today to find out how Budaya can help with EX, which leads to better organisational performance and ROI!