How to Create an Employee Experience that Attracts Top Talent
Top talent seeks out the best employee experience - this guide will show you how to create just that.
Employee experience is everything in business.
It’s how managers relate to employees, how team leaders connect with individual team members, and ultimately how an employee feels about their work.
It’s what determines how likely an employee is to stay with your company, feel fulfilled in the work they do, and show a high level of engagement.
Yet it’s often neglected. Only 2 out of 10 employees would say that they are motivated to do outstanding work due to how their performance is managed.
Find out how you can enhance the employee experience in your company to boost your retention rate and attract top talent.
Build a Strong Company Culture
The way you do one thing is the way you do everything, as the expression goes.
So why would top talent want to work for your company if there’s no discernible pattern or culture in the way you approach your work?
Most of the best talent out there isn’t just looking for a new job, they’re looking for a strong company culture they can immerse themselves in and create a longstanding career from.
Take Google for example, why is it such an appealing company to work for if you’re in the tech industry?
It’s not just that Google is a market leader that makes it such an attractive prospect, but it’s the company culture that led it to becoming a market leader. Working for Google means pioneering the way forward in the world of tech, and joining a team of elite professionals who all share the same high levels of ambition and drive.
Another example of a company with a strong culture is Doist.
One of the best remote companies to work for in 2022, Doist prioritizes flexibility to the utmost degree - allowing its employees to thrive on their own terms. This empowerment and belief in autonomous individuals is inspiring and makes it a desirable company to work for.
That and the fact that Doist offers a wealth of generous remote-friendly perks to all its employees, which makes each individual feel like a valued member of the team. One of the perks is a professional development stipend, which we’ll cover in detail next.
Provide Opportunities for Growth
One of the best ways to diminish your employee experience is to make it feel like there’s no space for your employees to develop their professional skills and climb up the career ladder.
According to a Gallup report on the employee experience:
‘The No. 1 reason people change jobs today is "career growth opportunities."’
It’s as black and white as that - without the possibility for career growth, top talent will look elsewhere to find employers who can provide it.
Why are career growth opportunities so important?
Everyone wants to feel as if they’re going somewhere.
People want to feel as if they’re making progress, doing their job a little bit better, or climbing up the career ladder and learning the ropes of a new role.
Without the possibility of expanding one’s role within a company, everything can become a bit monotonous. The tasks that you used to enjoy for the first year start to become tasks you dread or do with very little effort.
While a job that’s easy sounds like a dream to many, the reality is that many employees relish the prospect of tackling new challenges and striving to reach their professional potential.
Inspire Employee Engagement
Employee engagement refers to how active employees are with their daily workload, and how much fulfillment they derive from their day-to-day responsibilities.
One of the biggest reasons behind a poor employee experience is a lack of focus on what connects employees with their work.
If you allow employees to become disengaged with their work, you’re not only inviting lower levels of productivity but you’re supporting a work environment that repels top talent.
Have you ever seen an interview with an employee who speaks with such enthusiasm about their work that you want to know what their work is all about - even if it’s in an unrelated field to your area of specialism?
One of the primary benefits of workforce optimization and an engaged workforce is boosting employee retention rates and making your company an attractive proposition for top talent.
Here are three things you can do to boost employee engagement levels:
1. Communicate Core Values
At companies like Patagonia, which has a strong commitment to sustainability and the natural world, you can imagine that its strong core values filter down to employees.
As a result, it’s likely that engagement levels are high, as employees can feel as if their work is contributing to something larger than themselves.
Your company might not be changing the world, but you do have core values that your employees may or may not be aware of. To boost engagement, make sure your employees understand how far-reaching their work is and the tangible benefits of what they do in the wider world.
2. Cut out Unnecessary Downtime
Efficiency isn’t just necessary for saving resources, but it can also help you cut out any unnecessary downtime your employees have.
When your processes and workflows aren’t efficient, your employees can end up spending far too long on trivial activities. These types of activities usually aren’t very meaningful and can cause employees to switch off.
By boosting efficiency throughout your company, you can free up time so employees can focus on deep work activities - the kind of needle-moving work that makes them excited to show up to work.
3. Provide Feedback
If everything an employee does seems to disappear into the vacuum of productivity and progress without a word of recognition or praise for their hard work, it can be disheartening.
To make each employee feel like a valued member of the team, and to make them want to engage with their work more, provide specific feedback where possible. Tell them what they’ve done well, and what they can work on so as to keep them involved in the process of progress.
How Employee Monitoring Tools Support an Optimal Employee Experience
Creating an outstanding employee experience isn’t easy, but with the right employee hour tracker you can make it much more straightforward.
Voted the best tracking software for pc in 2022 in terms of transparency by Forbes, the computer monitoring system Insightful is an excellent choice for optimizing the employee experience without encroaching on their right to privacy.
With an app that keeps track of work hours, like Insightful, you can:
Measure progress in a tangible way - With employee productivity monitoring tools like Insightful, you can use automatic time tracking to keep tabs on employee performance and identify trends.
Use data to create productivity reports - Leaning on web browsing monitoring productivity reports, you can evaluate your employees and create career growth opportunities tailored to their experience. You can also create personalized guide to productivity for individuals based on the ebbs and flows they experience throughout the day.
Maximize operational efficiency - Tracking employee performance software Insightful helps you cut down on wasted time so you can boost efficiency. If, for example, employees spend a lot of time in one particular app, you can assess its viability and perhaps seek a better alternative.