Why is Employee Experience Important? Four Business Benefits

OK, none of us wants our employees to hate their jobs. But if they’re being paid to work, frankly, why is employee experience important? They should just knuckle down and be grateful. 

Agree? We hope not. 

This attitude might still be prevalent among some employers, but thankfully, contemporary workplaces are moving away from it. Instead, they’re reflecting on how they can make the workplace better for employees. 

Sure, caring about their employees is part of their motivation. But that’s not all. Companies that focus on the employee experience enjoy better productivity, innovation and profitability, among other benefits. 

We’d like to think that most organisations care about their employees’ happiness. But even if not, here are some other reasons to care about employee experience.

Brand reputation

Employees’ experience at a company can have a huge impact on their reputation. Recently, Herman Miller’s CEO came under fire for dismissing employee concerns about pausing team incentivisation bonuses while the leadership board increased their own. That not only caused a drop in morale amongst staff, it also caused a hit to customers’ perception of the brand. 

Elsewhere, negative employee conditions have made brands unappealing to employees and prospective workers. Take Amazon, which is struggling to recruit enough workers, while its employee turnover rate is double the average - a result that is a speculated result of poor working conditions.

Treating employees poorly can have major ramifications further down the line.

Staff retention

Who wants to work at a job that makes them miserable? Since the pandemic, we’ve become less tolerant of unpleasant working environments, with feeling underappreciated being one of the biggest drivers for us to quit a job. Gen Z employees are likely to quit if they feel a lack of mentorship or support. 

In contrast, employees are reluctant to leave a job if it has a positive workplace culture. In today’s competitive hiring environment, losing valuable employees to other companies can be hugely damaging - why take the risk?

Productivity and profitability

The employee experience directly impacts productivity and profitability levels. In fact, the happier the employees, the higher an organisation’s performance.

That’s why the highest performing companies invest millions into the employee experience: they know that when employees are happy, their productivity is higher.

You’ve heard the phrase ‘happy people sell’. We’d rephrase that to ‘happy people care’. The happier employees are, the more they care about customer satisfaction, the quality of their work and company performance, which translates into a better overall result for the company.

Innovation

When employees have a positive experience at their organisations, they’re more likely to bring their most innovative selves to work. This is as much about creating a workplace culture that encourages big ideas as creating a positive work environment. 

Companies like Google reward failure. If an idea fails, they celebrate the learnings associated with it. 

Innovation also feeds into profitability. Companies that embrace innovation see a 59% higher rate of revenue growth than those that don’t. 

So, why is employee experience important? 

Business leaders and HR professionals can work together to create an environment that fosters a positive employee experience. That requires a proactive approach. Good employee experiences don’t happen by chance