We all know the value of providing a great experience to your customers. But what about your employees? Sometimes optimizing their experiences gets swept to the side, but leaving these experiences unchecked can hurt your company in more ways than one. From lack of engagement, to distrust and retention issues, it can be a hard for your company to succeed with these mediocre experiences stacked against you.
Here are 6 typically poorly executed employee experiences and how to rethink them.
Employee Onboarding
Many companies continue to struggle to onboard efficiently. New hires often complain that paperwork is haphazardly handed out, clear expectations aren’t set, and business goals aren’t discussed. Leaving them feeling confused and ready to leave, in fact, 20% of turnover comes in the first 45 days of joining. Instead, by setting clear expectations, openly communicating, frequently asking for feedback, having easy to follow steps and providing an encouraging mentor you can make a real difference in retention. One study showed 69% of employees are more likely to stay with a company for three years if they experienced great onboarding (source).
Health promotion
Companies who aren’t investing in employee health and wellbeing, create a gap in how successful their organization can be. By communicating and offering initiatives that encourage healthy habits, companies can motivate employees to be their best selves, saving money and helping retain talent. According to one study, wellness programs helped reduce average medical costs by 40%, or 1.7 million dollars annually. In addition, high-ranking companies average a 2% turnover rate compared to 17%. (source)
The alternative to health promotion? Doing nothing and continuing to watch health and its associated benefits decline. Even when companies do claim to have a “program”, often employees don’t know about it, are confused about how to participate, or only have to complete a biometric to ‘win’. If that’s the case for your organization, it’s time to rethink the strategy and the experience it’s creating for your workforce. By focusing on easy, daily health improvements and encouraging healthy actions year-round you can make a difference in your employees lives and your companies bottom-line.
Employee Benefit Communication
Oftentimes, employees only hear about benefits at open enrollment, with a massive, printed booklet and not much guidance. With this communication strategy it’s no surprise benefit plans are often underutilized or misused.This unfortunate and costly experience can lead to employees rethinking who they work for. Instead, by leveraging technology to host plan information online, focusing on frequent communication, along with providing healthcare consumer education, you can combat this costly confusion. In fact, employees who say their employer’s benefits communications are easy to understand, and understand how their benefits work, are 99% more likely to feel valued and appreciated, 100% more likely to trust their leadership, and 78% more likely to be happy with their job. All positive outcomes worth investing in. (source)
Spouse communication
Companies don’t often have an open or active communication channel to the spouses of employees. This lack of experience leaves spouses wondering where to go with questions or left in the dark on important plan updates. For example, if a worker wants to add their spouse to your plan, do they know what to do? Or, if an important update is announced, do you have a way to communicate that easily and directly with spouses on the plan? By creating a more positive spouse communication experience you can create a unique competitive advantage for yourself, as most companies overlook it.
Secondary employee benefits
Non-traditional or secondary benefits/perks, (think beyond medical, dental, 401k, etc.,) are an area that often don’t do as much for companies as they could. The benefits only come when employees know about them and utilize them. According to one study, more than half of employees (55%) wish they were more informed about their benefits so that they could get more value from them.
Do your employees know you have gym reimbursement? What about car rental discounts? When you take the time to invest in offering these benefits, make sure to take equal time to frequently communicate. By showing the true cost-saving / caring value you provide you will tie your employees tighter to your organization and highlight your company as the awesome place it is.
Team Building
Focusing on team building is another important experience for companies and their employees. Do you frequently encourage informal get togethers, friendly competitions, or company outings? Do you have a plan in place to ensure these ideas don’t happen infrequently or haphazardly without much communication? If not, employees may find themselves feeling underappreciated and not connected to each other, or the culture. Don’t overlook the value of workplace friendships and building an atmosphere where that’s possible.
Do any of these resonate with you as areas your organization could improve upon? One easy place to start is with a survey to gauge where your employees rate these typical workplace experiences. Pick the one ranked the worst, and start addressing the issues today.
We all know the value of providing a great experience to your customers. But what about your employees?
Sometimes optimizing their experiences gets swept to the side, but leaving these experiences unchecked can hurt your company in more ways than one. From lack of engagement, to distrust and retention issues, it can be a hard for your company to succeed with these mediocre experiences stacked against you.
Here are 6 typically poorly executed employee experiences and how to rethink them.
Employee Onboarding
Many companies continue to struggle to onboard efficiently. New hires often complain that paperwork is haphazardly handed out, clear expectations aren’t set, and business goals aren’t discussed. Leaving them feeling confused and ready to leave, in fact, 20% of turnover comes in the first 45 days of joining.
Instead, by setting clear expectations, openly communicating, frequently asking for feedback, having easy to follow steps and providing an encouraging mentor you can make a real difference in retention. One study showed 69% of employees are more likely to stay with a company for three years if they experienced great onboarding (source).
Health promotion
Companies who aren’t investing in employee health and wellbeing, create a gap in how successful their organization can be. By communicating and offering initiatives that encourage healthy habits, companies can motivate employees to be their best selves, saving money and helping retain talent.
According to one study, wellness programs helped reduce average medical costs by 40%, or 1.7 million dollars annually. In addition, high-ranking companies average a 2% turnover rate compared to 17%. (source)
The alternative to health promotion?
Doing nothing and continuing to watch health and its associated benefits decline. Even when companies do claim to have a “program”, often employees don’t know about it, are confused about how to participate, or only have to complete a biometric to ‘win’. If that’s the case for your organization, it’s time to rethink the strategy and the experience it’s creating for your workforce.
By focusing on easy, daily health improvements and encouraging healthy actions year-round you can make a difference in your employees lives and your companies bottom-line.
Employee Benefit Communication
Oftentimes, employees only hear about benefits at open enrollment, with a massive, printed booklet and not much guidance. With this communication strategy it’s no surprise benefit plans are often underutilized or misused.
This unfortunate and costly experience can lead to employees rethinking who they work for. Instead, by leveraging technology to host plan information online, focusing on frequent communication, along with providing healthcare consumer education, you can combat this costly confusion.
In fact, employees who say their employer’s benefits communications are easy to understand, and understand how their benefits work, are 99% more likely to feel valued and appreciated, 100% more likely to trust their leadership, and 78% more likely to be happy with their job. All positive outcomes worth investing in. (source)
Spouse communication
Companies don’t often have an open or active communication channel to the spouses of employees. This lack of experience leaves spouses wondering where to go with questions or left in the dark on important plan updates. For example, if a worker wants to add their spouse to your plan, do they know what to do?
Or, if an important update is announced, do you have a way to communicate that easily and directly with spouses on the plan? By creating a more positive spouse communication experience you can create a unique competitive advantage for yourself, as most companies overlook it.
Secondary employee benefits
Non-traditional or secondary benefits/perks, (think beyond medical, dental, 401k, etc.,) are an area that often don’t do as much for companies as they could. The benefits only come when employees know about them and utilize them. According to one study, more than half of employees (55%) wish they were more informed about their benefits so that they could get more value from them.
Do your employees know you have gym reimbursement? What about car rental discounts? When you take the time to invest in offering these benefits, make sure to take equal time to frequently communicate. By showing the true cost-saving / caring value you provide you will tie your employees tighter to your organization and highlight your company as the awesome place it is.
Team Building
Focusing on team building is another important experience for companies and their employees. Do you frequently encourage informal get togethers, friendly competitions, or company outings? Do you have a plan in place to ensure these ideas don’t happen infrequently or haphazardly without much communication? If not, employees may find themselves feeling underappreciated and not connected to each other, or the culture.
Don’t overlook the value of workplace friendships and building an atmosphere where that’s possible.
Do any of these resonate with you as areas your organization could improve upon? An easy place to start is with a simple survey to gauge where your employees rate these typical workplace experiences. Pick the one ranked the worst, and start addressing the issues today.