Employee experience is an incredibly effective ingredient of a business’ overall success. According to Gallup insights, positive employee experience results in highly engaged employees which directly results in 23% greater profitability for the company.
Employee experience, often abbreviated as EX, has also proven useful when businesses look to attract top talent during a vacancy drive. Studies after studies have proven that people trust people more than they trust brands. So when your existing employees share their successes, say good things about the company culture to their friends, and get excited on social media whenever your business achieves a milestone, they become more than just happy employees — they become brand advocates.
But transforming an employee from a worker to a brand ambassador is no easy feat. With 73% of employees looking to quit their jobs, how do you convince them that not only the job is worth staying at but also an awesome thing to their friends about when they meet them for brunch?
Here are 6 areas you can focus on, for a start.
Components of Employee Experience
- Work environment and culture: It refers to the sum total of beliefs and behaviors that are present in a work environment. Healthy work environments are inclusive, supportive, and respectful. They make the employees feel valued, supported, and comfortable and improve their contribution to the business.
- Job roles and responsibilities: Clarity in job roles and responsibilities ensure there is no friction between employees. Everyone understands their unique role and boundaries, and how their contributions affect company objectives, and it creates a sense of purpose within the roles.
- Opportunities for growth and development: People don’t want to commit their lives to empty job responsibilities. They want to learn and grow and become fuller human beings. Giving them opportunities for continuous growth and development amplifies their positive work experience.
- Work-life balance: Businesses must understand that their workers are whole human beings with full lives outside of work. A supportive approach to work-life balance ensures that employees can achieve a great work-life balance, experience reduced stress and burnout, and feel more valued by their organization.
- Employee well-being and satisfaction: It refers to employees’ physical, mental, and emotional health and well-being. You must strive to create safe workspaces that align with OSHA and other workplace safety guidelines, and also incorporate policies that address employee burnout, improve their emotional health, and support them when they need it.
Strategies to Transform Employees into Brand Advocates
Creating a positive work culture
The beliefs, behaviors, and practices you support and let flourish in the company have a huge impact on how employees feel coming to their jobs every day. Micromanaging them, not celebrating their success, and not respecting their work contributions are typical examples of small-minded companies creating entire workforces of unhappy people.
In extreme cases, such blatant disregard for people’s well-being ends up creating unsafe workspaces and may expose your business to legal consequences at the hands of a workplace compensation lawyer.
To avoid such an eventuality, it’s imperative to create a positive work culture and safe workspaces. Provide your employees with the tools and learning opportunities that help them do their jobs better. Train your managers to support their teams, give them due credit, and treat them with respect.
Providing growth and learning opportunities
Talk to your teams and understand where the maximum opportunities for growth and learning exist. Employees value jobs where they can increase their learning, improve upon their skills, and explore vertical and horizontal mobility options within the company.
These opportunities help people learn new skill sets and thus make them better professionals. When employees realize that the company is investing in them and their learning, it creates a sense of empowerment and fosters better engagement with the organization.
Such employees are likely to share their experiences with their network and hence become your brand advocates.
Ensuring work-life balance
The Covid-19 pandemic was instrumental in helping everyone realize that there are ways to achieve a holistic work-life balance where all areas of human and organizational health thrive and flourish.
With that in mind, many organizations started experimenting with fewer work hours, and there is now an entire employee movement going on where people are demanding a standard work week to be less than 40 hours.
Microsoft in its Japan office has already seen resounding success with a 4-day workweek initiative, and hundreds of companies worldwide have followed suit.
If you want to cultivate a happy, satisfied, and fully-engaged workforce, a greater work-life balance sits at the core of this goal. Achieve that and you get a whole army of advocates completely smitten with how you treat your employees.
Building a strong sense of purpose
Connecting your employees to the bigger picture you have envisioned. Where do you want to take your business? How do you plan to go there? What values do you cherish? And how do you see your business impacting communities?
Sure, people can do a basic 9-5, collect their checks, and go home. But that doesn’t create stellar work. At best, you get some semblance of quality but the large amount of results are going to be average.
But take your employees with you on your journey of purpose, and you have a chance to create a more driven workforce. Talk to them about your aspirations and objectives. Tell them what their work has been able to achieve. Even if it was just a helpful customer interaction that saved a return order. Celebrate that and reward that.
When you recognize employee contributions and give them a sense of purpose towards their roles, you empower them to represent the company with more confidence and promote it and defend it in the wider arena.
Encouraging open feedback and suggestions
Bad bosses do not like hearing they’ve done anything wrong. They also don’t like constructive suggestions, and try to create hurdles whenever there’s a chance of any meaningful change.
Do not become a company that harbors such managers.
Create a culture of open feedback where everyone can share their concerns respectfully, without any fear of retaliation. Remember that your workers will only give you feedback when they feel engaged at their jobs. Those who have quietly quit won’t care one way or the other. So when you hear some feedback and suggestions, take it seriously and find ways to support the change if it’s feasible.
The Takeaway
The transformation of employees into advocates underscores the connection between satisfied employees and a thriving brand. As you invest in creating a supportive environment, aligning values, and fostering growth, you lay the groundwork for employees to become your genuine fandom.
This transformation not only elevates the brand’s reputation but also forges lasting relationships with customers, amplifying the company’s impact in the market.
Karla Hogan is an accomplished writer and blogger with a degree in marketing. With over 5 years of experience in writing strategic content, she has worked with startups and founders, helping them to develop and execute effective content strategies that deliver results. Karla is known for her ability to craft compelling content that resonates with readers and drives engagement. She has a keen understanding of the power of storytelling and how it can be used to build brands and connect with audiences.
Employee experience stock image by Ground Picture/Shutterstock
