The most successful businesses are well-rounded, from their mission and vision to the culture, products or services, to their marketing and sales. As a result, these organizations typically have happy employees. And as the law of attraction suggests, happy employees and a great overall work experience will continue to attract top talent.
When it comes to recruitment marketing, understanding the employee experience and its impact on recruiting is invaluable and can pay serious dividends. In the following, we will take a deeper look at what employee experience means, why it is more important than ever, and how to use it to attract the talent your organization is looking for.
What exactly is employee experience?
Employee experience can be defined as what new and existing employees observe and run into when working for an organization. These experiences start at the first touch when being interviewed and onboarded and expand into the everyday operations and daily life within the business and within their particular role. As each individual employee is unique, so too is their overall experience during their tenure, whether it is short-lived or lasts for decades.
Why is employee experience so important?
Organizations worldwide are increasingly recognizing that they are only as strong as their greatest asset, which is their employees. As the workplace evolves and adapts, workers are dealing with remote environments and other challenges that affect their overall experience, attitude, and performance. As a result, more time and effort is being put into understanding and improving this aspect of the business. Here are the top reasons why these resources are being put in place:
- A great employee experience translates into customer satisfaction
- Employee experience directly impacts the bottom line and profits
- Recruiting and retention is directly affected by employee experience
- Positive employee experiences lead to innovation
On the contrary, negative employee experiences hurt customer satisfaction, innovation, recruiting, retention, and ultimately the bottom line. All of this translates to building trust and engaging with staff. If they are treated well and have opportunities to succeed and climb the corporate ladder, they will praise and recommend the organization to potential customers and to potential candidates.
How can you use employee experience to attract and retain talent?
To talent acquisition and recruitment professionals, the value of employee engagement and experience can not be overstated. So how, then, can your organization use that to attract and retain talent? Let’s look at a few actionable suggestions:
Improve your recruiting, interviewing, and onboarding processes
As mentioned, employee experience begins with the first interaction and communications with your organization. From applying to a position, to the screening and interview process, to the hiring (or non-hiring), candidates will get their first impression of your organization. As it is often said, you only get one chance to make a first impression. A positive experience in these first communications will directly impact the chances that the individuals will help you attract additional talent. A negative experience will cause applicants to reject job offers and talk negatively about your company.
Leverage positive experiences to turn your employees into brand ambassadors
As discussed in previous articles, your employees are some of the best ambassadors for your company and brand. As such, it is wise to leverage any and all positive experiences, from day-to-day operations, to collaborations and team-building events, and everything in between, to encourage your staff to communicate and share those experiences. Luckily, Comparably offers a number of Employer Brand tools to help simplify and streamline this process. For example, the video creation tools allow you to crowdsource, create, and share employee-generated content. These real stories help bring attention to your culture and why others love working for the company. Why is that significant? Job candidates have reported that they trust employees 3X more than employers to provide information on working at a company.
Focus on culture and positive morale on a daily basis
Employee experience is directly correlated to the team culture that is encountered on a daily basis. Focusing on this culture and positive morale is crucial for running a successful business. From fun perks and incentives to positive and effective management to caring for your employee’s success and growth, there are numerous factors that influence morale. Every aspect of daily operations should be analyzed and improved on a constant basis. Leadership must be dialed into providing consistent feedback and performance reports, a collaborative and open environment, and an overall culture that keeps teams invested in the purpose and mission.
Provide amazing training, mentorship, and growth opportunities
Employees that receive consistent training, mentorship, and career advancement opportunities will help your recruitment marketing efforts. These employees will naturally be brand ambassadors for the company and will happily, and many times unknowingly, promote the company and opportunities to others. For many, growth and advancement are top priorities when analyzing an open position and company. This potential for promotions, additional responsibilities, and improved pay help attract and retain top talent. Fostering an environment that includes the proper training and development will truly enable your employees to be amazing talent acquisition assets.
As you can see, the experiences employees have can really impact the future growth and success of the company. Recruiters that are deeply focused on these and other efforts will spend less time, money, and resources trying to fill new positions as the employees themselves provide a constant source of potential candidates. Obviously, this must be an organization-wide initiative to achieve the best results. One thing is for certain though, employee experience will continue to impact many facets of the business landscape, and talent acquisition professionals will either reap the rewards or suffer if not managed well.
