Employee Engagement Vs Employee Experience: A Comprehensive Discussion

Employee experience (EX) and employee engagement (EE) are well-known components of a culture-first HR approach. These phrases are on the minds of those in positions of power, and they make for popular hashtags. However, the more they’re discussed, the more they appear to be used interchangeably.

Employee engagement and employee experience are not synonymous. Of course, there are situations where they can be used extensively in speech, but at their core, they interact and impact each other in distinct ways. A thorough grasp of these principles is required to establish a successful People and Culture strategy. You’ll be able to prevent gaps in your approach and receive practical benefit from their definitions if you keep them separate. We’ll start with a specific explanation of each concept, then look at how they interact and impact one another on both an individual and societal level in this post.

Making sure your staff are satisfied may have a significant influence on your company’s performance. When it comes to employee pleasure, however, the phrases “employee experience” and “employee engagement” are sometimes used interchangeably. Both notions are significant in terms of employee happiness, but knowing the differences and how they interact will help you guarantee that your staff are content enough to stay with your firm.

The Employee Experience

“The Employee Experience: It’s Trickier (and More Important) Than You Thought,” says the author of an essay titled “The Employee Experience: It’s Trickier (and More Important) Than You Thought.” The employee experience, according to Josh Bersin, is “a gigantic vortex for everything in HR.” While it may seem frightening, it all boils down to one basic fact: employee experience is diverse.

It’s a journey that begins even before a new employee’s first day on the job; according to Deloitte, “employees look at everything that happens at work as an integrated experience that impacts daily life in and outside the workplace, including overall physical, emotional, professional, and financial well-being,” “starting as potential hires and recruits.” Because it’s so extensive, building a pleasant employee experience might seem daunting, but it doesn’t have to be: it starts with ‘elevating the employee experience and making it a priority,’ as Deloitte explains.

There are a few real things that may be taken to improve the employment experience. Bersin defines the employee experience as “all of the initiatives we’ve engaged in over the years (employee engagement, diversity and inclusion, leadership development, and performance management),” according to Bersin. There are several benefits to performance management, and a performance management tool can undoubtedly assist a company in laying solid foundations for this aspect of the employee journey, as well as beyond, to truly become an employee experience management platform. Employee engagement, as previously said, plays a role in that entire umbrella, thus it’s worth investigating more.

Improving Employee Experience

Top Workplaces recognise that providing a positive employee experience necessitates examining each step of the employee journey and determining how it affects employees emotionally, mentally, and physically. This might include things like the human resources information system, internal communication tools, the physical architecture of the workplace, and perks, among other things.

Improving the employee experience necessitates taking a close look at everything employees come into contact with throughout their lives and then fixing anything that has a negative influence on employee engagement. There will be more involvement when there is less friction.

The Employee Engagement

Employee Engagement is defined by Gallup as “the fundamental psychological demands that must be addressed in order to perform successfully at work.” On the surface, it seems straightforward enough, but when it comes down to it, we need to know what the phrase “fundamental psychological requirements” means. It’s not just about working somewhere you enjoy; it’s also about being provided the resources you need to execute your job properly and feeling like your work contributes to the company’s overall objective. While some may argue that focusing on engagement is the incorrect way to go when it comes to employee satisfaction, expecting a job to meet these demands is perfectly reasonable— and it’s all part of the whole employee experience.

Keep employees engaged by designing the employee experience to reflect the values of the overall brand — for example, if the brand values are seamlessness and automation, then everything employees do from performance reviews to signing up for benefits should have that same crisp, speedy, and effortless feel. “Gallup has discovered that a shocking 87 percent of employees worldwide are not engaged,” author Denise Lee Yohn writes, “yet organisations with highly engaged workforces beat their rivals by 147 percent in earnings per share.” As a result, the advantages of engaging workers while simultaneously considering the broader picture with an employee experience plan are evident for the company as a whole.

Improving Employee Engagement

There is no one-size-fits-all strategy for increasing employee engagement. Creating an engaged workplace necessitates a multi-faceted strategy based on ongoing development. Here are some tried-and-true methods for increasing employee engagement:

• Make business culture a priority.
• Motivate employees by emphasising their goal, vision, and values.
• Coach your managers through developing and equipping them.
• Develop excellent communication skills.
• Establish a strong feedback culture.
• Always share employee feedback and be sure to follow up.
• Draw a clear image of success for the organisation, team, and individual employees.
• Employees should be recognised for their contributions.
• Allow employees to participate in professional development programmes.
• Prioritize employee well-being and flexibility.
• Invest in technology that will assist you in doing all of the above!

Employee Experience Vs. Employee Engagement

It’s not only because they’re used interchangeably that it’s difficult to tell the difference between employee experience and employee engagement; it’s also because they’re so intertwined. Writer Ryan Pendall distils the distinctions between employee experience and employee engagement into two simple concepts in a Gallup article:

• Employee engagement is an aspect of the employee experience that never ends.
• Employee experience refers to an employee’s interaction with your firm.

As a result, employee experience is the overall picture of the employee life cycle, whereas engagement is a component of that puzzle. In a Harvard Business Review article, researcher Jacob Morgan goes even farther, describing most human resources engagement programmes as a “adrenaline injection” that can improve an employee’s feelings about working for a firm. He, on the other hand, talks of firms who view the experience as a longer-term process: “They’re going beyond what engagement metrics tell them to do right now and reimagining the employee experience, making it a place where people want to work every day, not just have to.” Employees who want to work for a company rather than just to make a living are more likely to be better at their jobs, as well as more devoted and loyal to the firm, which makes it more successful.

“Your workers’ level of engagement— their thinking and conduct when they arrive at work each day,” writes Pendall, “has a huge influence on what they think about your organisation.” Even though it can’t guarantee employee pleasure on its own, this aspect of the work experience is critical. Getting managers and workers on board with an engagement plan is a crucial piece of the puzzle: if engagement is neglected, the employee experience will suffer.

A positive employee experience leads to more engagement.

Finally, one of the most important results of providing a positive work experience is increased employee engagement. Employees will feel valued, appreciated, and trusted if you create a people-first culture. People may more readily attain their goals and achieve success if difficulties in the employee experience are fixed.

In order to boost employee engagement, companies should use a two-pronged strategy. They should monitor and improve their cultures on a regular basis, especially today. A good place to start is by evaluating the employee experience and determining what matters most to employees.

How Do You Gauge Employee Experience And Engagement In Your Company?

A desire to learn and an openness to hear what employees have to say are the first steps in assessing employee experience and employee engagement. It’s critical to establish a basic awareness of how your employees feel about the organisation as a whole, their department, supervisors, and even co-workers, whether through survey instruments, focus groups, or casual chats. Anonymous surveys are usually the best place to start when it comes to determining how well your company performs in terms of employee experience as well as employee engagement. These allow employees a chance to speak openly about how they feel about the organisation, their work, and the general aim.

Start by polling workers on current difficulties, such as their experience as a candidate, onboarding, how their jobs are performed and assessed, team collaboration, and management concerns. A company’s overall rating might also be advantageous. Inquire about their impressions of the organisation as an employer, its level of social responsibility, and how fundamental principles are seen and carried out.

You may start correcting issue areas, enhancing positive efforts, and looking for opportunities to grow and improve the employee experience and engagement after you have a baseline of data.

How Can You Combine Both Employee Engagement And Experience In Your Organisation?

It may appear that the distinction between employee engagement and employee experience is a little hazy. However, the most important thing leaders and managers can do is put themselves in their employees’ shoes. Consider the variety of experiences your employees have throughout the course of their careers at your company.

What are your main concerns?

What are the questions you must answer and in what order? You’ll be able to focus on crucial areas and make changes more quickly and efficiently if you figure out your priorities.

• Do your leaders and managers have the authority to act?

‘People don’t quit terrible jobs; they leave awful employers,’ as the saying goes. So, flip it on its head and make sure that your management staff is able to move fast to improve the experience of your employees.

•  How can you gather information about employee satisfaction?

Encourage your staff to provide honest feedback, and do it on a frequent basis. Filling out a survey or feedback form in a fast-paced work setting might feel like a hassle at times. Instead, why not try something new? Use an emoji-based approach to gauge employee satisfaction, or a token voting box to make it more participatory. Alternatively, get back to the fundamentals and have more casual one-on-one meetings, coffee and catch-ups.

• Are you sincere about your cause?

If you’re sincere about your aims, your employees will be sincere about their criticism. It’s a two-way conversation in which the old adage “honesty is the best policy” holds true. The first step to successfully combine employee engagement and experience is admitting that adjustments are needed and building on occasionally unfavourable comments.

• What advantages can merge employee engagement and experience provide?

There are several advantages to taking a more holistic approach to employee engagement and enjoyment. It goes without saying that having a more engaged workforce will improve work culture, behaviour, and production. Employee experience goes beyond traditional engagement measures and digs into the realities of your employees’ daily lives. If you use this new information and input correctly, you can empower your employees to make genuine changes for themselves and the company as a whole.

Feedback is the foundation of a good employee experience and engagement plan.

Employee engagement and employee experience are two intertwined aspects of a company’s capacity to keep its employees satisfied. Understanding the differences between the two can be difficult, especially when various people interpret them differently, but the goal is to improve the entire employee experience while keeping employees interested and meaningful in their job.

It might be difficult to figure out what’s causing your employee engagement or experience outcomes. However, by gaining a thorough grasp of these two components and how they interact, as well as conducting frequent employee surveys, you will be able to begin making sense of and enhancing your workers’ work experience.