In recent years, remote work has become the standard, and companies strive to maintain a positive employee experience amidst the shift.Over the next few years, it’s projected that remote work will continue to expand. According to Upwork, by 2025, an estimated 32.6 million Americans will be working from home equating to 22% of the workforce.1With this anticipated growth across the United States workforce, building a positive remote employee experience is of utmost importance for organizations of all sizes from small startups to large corporations. To help your organization support employees, we’re sharing what makes a positive employee experience and how you can cultivate it in your company.
Why the remote employee experience matters
As more organizations embrace remote or hybrid work models, focusing on the remote employee experience has become a strategic imperative. It plays a vital role in employee retention, recruitment, and overall engagement. Moreover, an elevated employee experience enables your business to attract and retain top talent, leading to stronger individual performance—and ultimately — better business outcomes.
The role of employee experience in the onboarding process and talent retention
In today's competitive job market, prioritizing employee's experience is essential for talent acquisition and talent retention. One reason for this is because satisfied individuals are more likely to refer qualified job seekers to your organization during the onboarding process, creating a powerful word-of-mouth and referral system.
Additionally, a positive experience enhances employee satisfaction, which leads to higher employee retention rates. In fact, employee experience plays a highly significant role in boosting retention and decreasing turnover—organizations with an engaged workforce tend to see 59% lower employee turnover rates2. In summary, when workers feel valued, supported, and engaged, they are more likely to stay with your company for the long run.
How employee morale impacts business outcomes
Beyond its impact on talent acquisition and talent retention, boosted employee morale also contributes to higher productivity and performance. Satisfied employees are more likely to provide an exceptional customer experience—supporting your company’s sales and customer loyalty. Furthermore, valued employees are more likely to contribute innovative ideas and solutions to business challenges, enabling your business to gain a competitive advantage. According to Asana, “When employees are happy and have good work-life balance, they're more likely to produce higher quality work. Employees who experience less stress are more focused, creative and open to changes and new ideas.” 3
What are the elements of a positive employee experience?
A positive employee experience encompasses several key factors, all of which contribute to your company's culture. Keeping your workforce happy and engaged involves creating an environment where individuals feel motivated to give their best efforts. Prioritizing well-being, fostering professional development, and promoting an inclusive company culture are three essential elements of a positive employee experience.
Prioritizing employee health and well-being
In a remote work environment, it’s crucial to prioritize the health and well-being of your employees. One approach to achieve this is through flexible work arrangements that accommodate individual needs and preferences. For example, empowering employees to work on a compressed schedule or outside of traditional hours may allow them to deliver better quality work while managing personal responsibilities.
Another way to effectively prioritize employee health is by implementing reasonable workload expectations to ensure employees don’t feel overwhelmed or burnt out. This simple strategy promotes work-life balance while enhancing employee well-being and employee satisfaction.
Supporting professional growth and development
On top of prioritizing well-being, supporting your staff’s professional growth and development is also crucial to enhancing employee motivation. Creating a culture of learning and continuous improvement within your company can help employees achieve their professional goals. One way to accomplish this is by proactively offering opportunities for learning, training, and career advancement—this allows employees to seamlessly expand their skills and knowledge. Furthermore, having your people leaders deliver regular feedback and recognition can play a significant role in supporting career development. By providing constructive feedback and acknowledging their accomplishments, your employees will feel valued and encouraged to further improve.
Nurturing a sense of belonging
Lastly, instilling a sense of belonging helps to foster employee satisfaction. When employees feel a strong sense of belonging and are included in company culture, they are more engaged and productive. To achieve this, it's essential to encourage open communication among your team members and create an environment where employees feel comfortable expressing themselves. Additionally, delivering training and resources that educate individuals on cultural awareness and sensitivity can further enhance inclusivity within your organization.
3 Best practices to improve your digital employee experience
Technology plays a pivotal role in enhancing the digital employee experience by providing tools that simplify and elevate communication, collaboration, and performance. In today'sdigital world, harnessing technology effectively can significantly contribute to a positive employee experience. For instance, incorporating these modern solutions revolutionizes the way teams work, allowing for seamless virtual collaboration, facilitating the celebration of achievements, and fostering inclusivity. Let’s explore each of these best practices more closely.
1. Utilizing progressive tech tools for virtual team-building activities
It goes without saying that technology is invaluable for remote companies—especially when it comes to virtual team-building activities. By utilizing video conferencing technology and online communication platforms, employees can communicate and collaborate in real time, overcoming one of the primary challenges of remote work. Tech like this also supports virtual team-building activities, such as online games or virtual happy hours. Both of these are excellent ways to boost team morale and foster a sense of connection even when physically apart—strengthening relationships and enhancing their overall digital employee experience.
2. Recognizing and celebrating achievements remotely
A frequently overlooked lapse in remote work is employee recognition; however, companies can easily lean into technology to fill this gap. For instance, a digital reward system that allows employees to earn points or badges for their accomplishments can go a long way in supporting individual achievements.Another easy approach to leveraging tech for recognition is through virtual shout-outs and thank-you emails that encourage peer-to-peer appreciation.Lastly, delivering personalized congratulatory messages from managers and company leaders through your digital environment can help employees feel valued and appreciated, even in a remote work environment.
3. Cultivating inclusion through a supportive virtual community
Finally, to foster an inclusive and supportive virtual community, it's essential to schedule regular virtual check-ins where team members can share updates, discuss challenges, and offer support. For companies using communication tools like Slack or Teams, consider creating dedicated communication channels focused on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) training. This will help to promote open dialogue and understanding among your staff. Additionally, leveraging education platforms like a learning management system (LMS) allows your organization to offer courses on inclusion-centric topics, building knowledge on important subjects at your company.
Tips to implement an effective employee experience strategy
Implementing a successful employee experience strategy requires careful planning and alignment with organizational goals. To do so, organization leaders and HR teams must build a plan to create an engaging work environment while maintaining an approach to continuously improve the employee experience. Below are quick tips to begin the journey toward enhancing your employee experience today!
- Define your vision and goals: Establish a clear and compelling vision for the work environment and culture you want to create. Additionally, set specific goals and key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure the success of your employee experience initiatives.
- Align with company values: Ensure that your employee experience strategy aligns with the overall values, mission, and culture of your organization. Enhance leadership communication: Train managers and leaders to effectively communicate and foster transparent and open discussion channels throughout your organization.
- Utilize technology and tools: Streamline processes, facilitate communication, and enhance collaboration among teams through digital tech.
- Empower employee feedback: Establish mechanisms for employees to provide feedback and contribute to decision-making processes.
- Monitor and iterate: Continuously measure the effectiveness of your employee experience initiatives through surveys and feedback. Based on the insights, make adjustments and improvements to ensure ongoing success.
Conclusion: The importance of prioritizing employee satisfaction in the digital world
In summary, building a positive remote employee experience is essential in today's competitive job market. It not only helps promote talent acquisition and talent retention but also boosts morale and productivity. Especially for your remote workforce, where in-person interactions are limited or non-existent, creating a positive employee experience becomes even more crucial.
By focusing on aspects like an effective onboarding process, regular communication, and fostering a strong company culture, organizations can ensure that their remote employees feel valued and supported. And from a business perspective, investing in your employee experience pays off in the long run. Your happy employees are more likely to contribute to better performance, stay with your company, and fuel your competitive advantage.
Explore how an LMS can support your employee experience
Discover how a learning management system (LMS) like Absorb LMS can enhance your organization’s culture in today’s digital era. A cloud-based LMS provides you with a centralized platform for training, communication, and collaboration, ultimately contributing to a more positive and engaging employee experience. Ready to learn more? Book a demo today.
