Employers and HR in particular face huge challenges involving recruitment and retention and supporting employees with all the macro-environmental forces at play right now.
How employers fare in these tricky times may ultimately rest on many factors, one of them being the employee experience.
Where there are a huge number of job vacancies right now, a war for talent and the ‘Great Resignation’, the employee experience may be a huge determining factor of your business’ recruitment, retention and engagement efforts.
A focus on the employee experience could help your business gain a significant competitive advantage in the war for talent but also in retaining top talent and building a strong and highly successful team.
So, what is the employee experience? And why could it be so significant in tackling these big challenges right now?
What is the employee experience? And why is it so important?
From recruitment to exit, from the moment a potential candidate views a job opening to the moment they leave, the employee experience encompasses everything the employee experiences with your business right from minute one to the very end.
Research and listening to employees at each stage is key to ensuring the employee experience is the best for each and every member of your team now and in the future.
A strong employee experience can drive business performance, help build a stronger team and even reduce recruitment costs.
The stages of the employee experience typically include recruitment, onboarding, development, retention and exit.
A focus on the employee experience is especially important as rapid change takes place in the workplace.
Employees now not only want but expect a more personalised experience, while the needs and priorities of employees becomes more fragmented and adhering to these needs becomes more difficult for employers.
The numbers help tell the story of employee experience. Organisations that invest more heavily in the employee experience are found to be 11.5 times as often to feature in Glassdoor’s Best Places to Work.
The list of ways an employer can improve the employee experience is virtually endless, however here we’ll focus on the important role employee benefits play in creating a great employee experience.
Where do employee benefits come in?
A Glassdoor survey found that 60% of employees say employee benefits are a major factor when weighing up a new job offer, while 80% say they would choose better perks over a pay rise.
As you can see already, employee benefits play an important role in many areas of the employee experience including recruitment and retention.
Surveying employees effectively to understand the challenges they face and how employee benefits can support them is key to both recruitment and retention in the employee experience.
For example, the cost of living and inflation are huge issues for many right now. Pay and compensation play a huge role in supporting employees in these areas, but so too do employee benefits.
Schemes like employee discounts and MotorSave, where employees can save and spread the cost of car maintenance, can help employees save hundreds and even thousands on the cost of living each year.
At the retention stage, where employees may be looking at their employment options in response to the rising cost of living, employee benefits can make a huge difference.
Aside from recruitment and retention, onboarding is a crucial stage for employee benefits.
Effectively communicating the benefits on offer and the value of them at the onboarding stage can help reaffirm to the employee why they joined the company in the first place.
It can also help them make the most of their benefit schemes right away, helping with savings or even making tech and bikes more affordable and accessible, improving their experience.
The more value the employee gets from their employee benefits at the onboarding stage the better their employee experience will be.
The onboarding stage is an exciting time for both the business and the employee. Where an employee gains value from their benefits right away and is made aware of the value of these benefits at the onboarding stage they’re more likely to build a stronger bond with the business.
A competitive benefits package can set your business aside as an employer of choice and one that employees want to stay with for the foreseeable future.
At the retention stage, employees are more likely to stay with the business if they have a good experience with their benefits.
If they feel they can’t get the benefits they make the most of with their existing employer elsewhere, they’re much more likely to stay.
Work-life balance has become a hugely important part of the employee experience and schemes like Holiday Trading can give employees greater control by allowing them to buy extra annual leave.
Schemes like these which adhere to the needs of employees help create a much better employee experience and improve business performance.
As mentioned, employees expect a more personalised experience which presents a new challenge for employee benefits.
Technology like Flexible Benefits can help employees personalise their benefits package, make the most of the benefits that suit them and their families best and benefit from a more personalised experience with their benefits.
Optimising your employee benefits to support the employee experience
As mentioned, the right research with your existing employees, whether it be through surveys, focus groups, town halls etc. is crucial to understanding employee needs and supporting the employee experience with employee benefits.
As is understanding what’s happening in the world right now on a macro level and understanding what future candidates might want from their employee experience.
Work out with your employee benefits provider what employee benefits are available and what challenges your business and your employees face right now.
At caboodle, we offer the widest range of employee benefit schemes you’ll find anywhere and can incorporate your existing benefits into an easy-to-use employee benefits platform to help support the employee experience and drive business performance.
For more information, see what our employee benefits platform can do and get in touch for a free demo.