6 inspiring examples of stellar employee experience in the workplace

If you’re reading this article, you likely already have an inkling of the ginormous business impact that improving your employee experience can have on engagement, retention, and productivity. Likewise, by now, you’re probably aware of the employee lifecycle, why digital employee experience matters, and how to empower your workforce. However, facts, figures, and advice are hard to grasp without any tangible examples. Okay sure, workers want more flexibility, but how are other employers going about it? You get it, your staff would appreciate some more recognition, but exactly what measures are other companies putting in place to make sure that happens?

To help you figure out exactly how other businesses are providing stellar employee experiences, we’ve put together this list of six inspiring examples. We hope that by highlighting the specific initiatives and actions taken, you’ll feel empowered to go forth and start introducing similar measures at your own company.

Never underestimate the importance of a first impression. A top-quality onboarding experience is a vital piece of the puzzle when it comes to improving employee experience. In fact, 70% of employees who report having an exceptional onboarding experience say they have “the best possible job”, and are 2.6 times as likely to be extremely satisfied with their workplace.

It pays dividends to create a structured onboarding process that helps new employees feel supported and quickly up to speed. While learning about the company and its processes is, of course, a very important part of onboarding, one aspect that is sometimes neglected is networking. Being the new kid in town can feel lonely, so setting up a structure where new recruits are introduced to their colleagues and can start interacting with their peers right away is one surefire method for ensuring your new workers have a positive onboarding experience.

Flexibility and the power to achieve a healthy work-life balance has become a major factor in employee satisfaction and experience. 63% of those who rate their work-life balance highly are willing to go above and beyond for their organisations, so it’s an important metric for companies to pay attention to. The COVID-19 pandemic has shifted attitudes towards remote and hybrid work, with many employees now expecting a greater level of flexibility than in previous years.

Frontline workers were heavily impacted by the pandemic, with many reporting burnouts. The lack of digitisation in frontline environments, especially in the healthcare industry, contributes to this stress and poor employee experience. When the main form of communication, including important announcements and rotas takes place on pieces of paper stuck to a notice board, it’s very difficult for employees to control their own work schedule or feel in control of their own work-life balance. Employers can improve flexibility for their staff by introducing digital shift planning and communication tools.

Start-ups and modern companies have long been the butt of jokes when it comes to workplace well-being initiatives like puppy rooms, nap pods, and free food, but there’s more substance to the idea than meets the eye. A workforce that feels valued and supported, with genuine care and attention towards their physical, mental, and emotional health, will show higher levels of engagement, productivity, and creativity.

With as much as 60% of staff currency feeling anxious, it pays to see workplace well-being initiatives as a preventative measure that will ultimately reduce absenteeism and enhance the overall employee experience. Take a proactive approach by offering your workers free counselling, encouraging physical exercise with gym memberships or in-house sports clubs, and making sure your staff rooms aren’t full of junk food that will ultimately impede your employees’ health.

It might sound counterintuitive, but encouraging employees to think outside their normal scope of work actually leads to increased employee satisfaction. It’s all related to employee empowerment, where workers have the autonomy to make decisions and suggestions that have tangible business impact. As the ones in the weeds of the work on a daily basis, employees, especially frontline workers, have a unique perspective on the pain points of customers. By setting up processes where your staff can suggest ideas for improvement, you kill two birds with one stone — improving the employee experience and the customer experience, which are both good for business.

It’s worth noting that encouraging employee contributions goes hand-in-hand with the concept of recognition and reward. Gratitude, especially public and from management, for good ideas will create a positive cycle where more workers are encouraged to submit their suggestions. It also instils a sense of pride and belonging. Feeling that they not only have the autonomy and permission to create positive change in the company, but that they’ll also be adequately recognised for their efforts, employees will be satisfied and engaged.

It should come as no surprise that communication is the bedrock of employee experience. If your workers feel well-informed, can easily reach their line managers, and have ample opportunity to connect with peers, they will likely have a very positive employee experience. Likewise, if your staff feel left out of important updates, have trouble getting face-time with their supervisors, and see little opportunity to network with colleagues, we’d be willing to bet that their employee satisfaction is low.

Transparent and easy communication should be a top priority for any company, but especially if your business has a mix of office-based, hybrid, remote, and frontline workers. Choosing a digital communication tool that can be accessed no matter where the employee is based is a good starting point. Leadership must then actively use and encourage the tool, and lead by example. One of the benefits of a tool, like an employee app, is that you can also share documents, facilitating knowledge exchange among employees.

While some corporate dinosaurs might still consider diversity, equality, and inclusion to be merely buzzwords, the numbers paint a different picture. Gartner reported that employees who work in diverse and inclusive teams see a 12% increase in performance. This illustrates how important diversity and inclusion are, not only from an employee experience perspective, but from a bottom line one.

It’s vital that you do not enter into D, E, and I initiatives half-heartedly — lest your company be accused of rainbow washing. Focus on your employee experience first, and the public celebration of your efforts later. Changing your company logo to a rainbow in a show of solidarity for pride month while having zero initiatives to drive diversity and inclusion is a classic example of how not to go about it. Start by looking at what some of the world’s most successful companies are doing to support a diverse and inclusive workplace, and go from there.

As we wrap up this round-up of employee experience examples, one key connecting factor stands out — the use of modern, digital technology to empower employees and improve their everyday experiences. With tech changing the way we live our lives, it should come as no surprise that it is also transforming the way we work. If you want to create a stellar employee experience at your company, then it’s imperative that you consider the role that digitalisation has to play.