Taking steps to ensure your employees have the best experience possible can go a long way.
The average person will spend around 100,000 hours of their lives at work. Let me say that again: Around 100,000 hours of the average person’s life is spent at work. The employee experience matters! If you are going to ask someone to spend that kind of time with your firm, making it a good experience should be the least you are striving for. That said, no two employees want the exact same employee experience. So, how do we try to address something so complex? The answer is employee experience assessments.
Employee experience assessments are important because they provide insights into how employees feel about their work, work environment, and the overall company culture. The assessments can be used to identify areas for improvement in the workplace, and help organizations create a positive and supportive work environment for their employees. By regularly conducting employee experience assessments, organizations can track changes in employee satisfaction over time, and make data-driven decisions to improve the employee experience. A positive employee experience leads to increased engagement, productivity, and employee retention, making it a critical aspect for the overall success of a company.
Using data to drive the employee experience involves collecting, analyzing, and acting on data related to the employee experience, such as through employee surveys or feedback mechanisms. This data helps organizations understand the current state of the employee experience, identify areas for improvement, and track progress over time. For example, data can be used to:
- Identify patterns and trends. By analyzing data from employee surveys, organizations can identify common themes and areas for improvement across different departments or locations.
- Make data-driven decisions. With data in hand, organizations can make informed decisions about what changes to make to improve the employee experience.
- Measure the impact of changes. Data can be used to measure the impact of changes made to the employee experience and track progress over time.
- Prioritize initiatives. Organizations can prioritize initiatives based on the greatest impact they will have on the employee experience, as indicated by the data.
Using data to drive the employee experience is a proactive and evidence-based approach to improving the work environment and creating a positive workplace culture.
As part of Zweig Group’s Best Firms To Work For Award, we ask firms to complete a corporate survey that ties into their overall firm score. In that survey we ask, “Does your firm share with all staff a working strategic business plan?” Seventy-five percent of firms responded that they did compared to 25 percent responding “no” or that it is only shared with some staff, but not all. Every strategic plan I have seen includes an employee assessment component, as it should. So, I am assuming that, of the 75 percent of firms that do share their plan, each of them also has an employee experience component. The voluntary turnover rate at firms that share their working strategic business plan with all of their employees is 6 percent lower than those that do not. Sharing the results and the plans that are formed from them is proven to be at the very least an important part of a firm’s retention plan.
Employee experience is extremely important. If we are going to ask people to spend as much, if not more, time at work as with their families, we ought to do our best to make it worth it. There is no way to make it perfect for every employee – and we would kill ourselves trying – but making sure we are taking the steps to ensure our employees have the best experience possible sure can go a long way. The employee experience matters and so employee experience assessments matter!
Participating in Zweig Group’s Best Firms To Work For Award is a great way to gain insight into what your people look for in their workplace experience. Entering the award program gives your firm access to powerful employee survey data and industry benchmarks. Click here to learn more!
Kyle Ahern is an employee experience and data strategist at Zweig Group. Contact him at kahern@zweiggroup.com.
