Short on Time Summary
An all-in-one employee experience platform (EXP) is essential to meet the challenges of hybrid working. EXPs benefit people at every stage of their employment by facilitating better engagement, continuous learning, meaningful relationships and increased retention.
What is an employee experience platform?
The success of any organisation relies on its people. 60% of HR leaders recognise the importance of providing a seamless, consistent employee experience for in-office and remote employees. Consequently, businesses are investing in comprehensive employee experience platforms (EXPs) to enhance their digital workspaces.
The best EXPs have fully integrated components designed to support effective communication, employee engagement, collaboration, performance management and more. It will empower your employees to pick and choose the features they want to use, promoting better employee engagement.
By equipping your employees with the right technology, you can establish a people-first culture and achieve alignment across the company. An all-in-one EXP will help you reach your business goals faster with improved retention, innovation, productivity and overall performance.
In this article, we will explore why you need an employee experience platform and its ability to create a thriving work environment.
Employee engagement
Microsoft found that productivity and employee engagement are mutually reinforcing. When both are high, organisations benefit from significantly better financial performance.
Forrester revealed that 34% of leaders invested in six or more separate tools to drive higher engagement. However, half of the employees surveyed found it frustrating and disruptive to switch between multiple apps to find what they needed to do their job. Consolidate the tools and applications your employees frequently use within a dedicated EXP.
Each employee’s journey can then be personalised using audience segmentation. This allows you to deliver the right messages to the right people by targeting content based on job role, location, language, interests and more.
Recognition is also key to long-term job satisfaction and finding fulfilment at work. Show appreciation when employees go above and beyond and celebrate achievements together.
Social connection
Evidence shows having strong workplace relationships and a support network can improve employee wellbeing, protecting against stress and burnout. Remote work has doubled the time spent in meetings but employees’ sense of belonging remains low.
Use an EXP to provide opportunities for natural communication that is not overly structured and formal like discussion forums, and set aside time in the workday to discuss personal topics such as hobbies and weekend plans.
The benefits are not limited to a happier workforce. High social connectivity is linked to better business outcomes overall. Research by BetterUp revealed that when relationship building is an organisational priority, there is a 34% increase in goal attainment and a 23% boost in growth mindset.
Employees are also 71% more likely to quit their job if they have weak social ties. Social connection is undeniably worth investing in. Discover how tech solutions can address loneliness and isolation in your workforce.
Collaboration
80% of workers believe having access to the right technology to collaborate from any location would increase their productivity, citing coordination a main challenge. A centralised platform can break down communication barriers between teams and departments, enabling effective virtual teamwork.
Collaboration is vital for innovation that will help you maintain a competitive edge. Generating new ideas and sharing diverse perspectives through work-based collaboration is also an important part of building effective long-term relationships.
Goal alignment
When employees have a clear understanding of how their job role directly contributes to business outcomes, they will be more motivated in their work. Create a culture of transparency and open communication to boost commitment, connection and employee morale.
Gallacher’s State of the Sector report revealed that engaging people around purpose, company values and strategy is a top priority for companies in 2023. An EXP can connect daily work with shared team goals and the company’s larger mission and strategic priorities. This allows managers to set clear expectations, track progress and ensure everyone’s workload is fair and manageable.
Learning and development
All employees have their own personal and professional goals and aspirations. Organisations can increase loyalty and satisfaction by providing ongoing L&D opportunities that will help employees advance their careers.
An EXP will facilitate self-directed learning. You can ensure training resources are readily available when employees want to access them.
With the ability to easily track progress, employees and their managers can utilise the EXP to create personalised learning plans, inform career path planning and guide productive 1-1 discussions.
We explore the importance of reskilling for employee retention in our article.
Employee experience platforms are an essential tool for businesses aiming to create a highly engaged, happier workforce. By prioritising relationship building, learning and development and goal alignment, you can elevate the employee experience and operate more effectively.
If you would like more detail on how an EXP can impact your bottom line, book a meeting with our team today. You can also keep up to date with our latest insights on LinkedIn and YouTube or subscribe to our monthly newsletter.