Employee Experience is the Key to Business Growth

Customer happiness is the first priority of many businesses, and it’s easy to see why. Customers create profit and act as brand ambassadors. Without them, no business can exist, let alone thrive.

But customer experience is only part of the story. If you’re interested in leading a company that sees sustainable growth, you must also prioritize employee experience.

Long before the customer ever sees your product or service, employees set the stage for success. They operate your business day in and day out, and their experiences directly impact your results.

The most successful companies are intentional about fostering positive experiences for their employees. Here’s why — and how — yours should, too.

The Benefits of a Positive Employee Experience

How your employees feel when they work is important. People are only capable of compartmentalizing to a certain degree, and negative experiences are bound to bleed into other areas, including product quality, customer service, and more.

When your team members enjoy working for your company, several positive things unfold.

Engagement and Progress

Happy employees are more engaged in their work. With fewer frustrations and negative feelings plaguing their thoughts, they’re free to focus on the company’s mission. Most of us experienced this in school: We were eager to participate in classes with friendly, encouraging teachers. On the other hand, we couldn’t have cared less about engaging with taskmasters.

But engagement isn’t just a nice perk. It’s necessary. When your employees are engaged, they’re capable of making progress. They can focus, problem solve, and foresee potential challenges and solutions. And at the end of the day, progress is what truly matters for business growth.

Collaboration

Positive employee experiences also enhance team collaboration. In a toxic environment, negativity spreads like wildfire, clouding every interaction and decision. But a healthy, supportive company culture brings out the best in each employee.

Happy team members feel safe enough to be vulnerable. Their emotional needs are met, which allows them to act with empathy. Positive employee experiences are the foundation of synergy and innovation.

Customer Happiness

Like negativity, joy is contagious. We’ve all had poor customer service experiences, and they rarely happen with satisfied workers. When your team members have positive experiences at work, they’re eager to share those feelings with your customers. They also become willing brand ambassadors, telling everyone they know about their job satisfaction and engagement.

Leaders who believe employee and customer experiences are completely isolated issues have a rude awakening in store. If you want your people to foster positivity with your customers, first start with employee experience.

How to Improve Employee Experience

As you can see, a great employee experience trickles down into every area of your business, eventually fueling growth. But the why is one thing — the how is another. If you’re unsure how to improve employee experiences at your company, these strategies will help.

Open Communication

The fastest way to a poor experience is through bad communication. For your team members to thrive at work, communication should be seamless — and a two-way street. On your end, clarity is key. Give your team all the information they need to take ownership and make wise decisions. Keeping them in the dark is frustrating, to say the least.

On the other end of the spectrum, be open to their input. Asking for, and implementing, feedback shows your people that their insight matters. When communication is clear and equitable, positive employee experiences abound.

Recognition

Have you ever worked hard to do something nice for a friend, only to be ignored? Not exactly a great experience. We all want to be appreciated for our work. A little recognition goes a long way in boosting your employees’ experiences.

Recognizing effort as well as achievements makes your team members feel valued. Simple as it sounds, this feeling is highly motivating. Plus, it’s a relatively easy strategy to implement. Even a simple “thank you” goes a long, long way.

Development

Employees invest their time, energy, and talents into your business, and they want an investment from you in return. Career development is a huge priority for most workers — they want their time at your organization to aid in their growth. After all, spending years in a stagnant position does little for their career goals.

Invest your time and expertise into coaching your team members for an overall positive experience. It shows that you care about their futures and that you don’t view the relationship as a mere transaction.

Social Opportunities

Even the most dedicated employees need downtime. Social opportunities at work are a reward in and of themselves, and they boost team connections. Create positive experiences for your people by offering outlets for fun activities and social engagement.

Happy hours, lighthearted competitions, and team-building events (all of which can be done in-person or virtually) put your work into perspective. They also show that you’re conscious of your employees’ holistic needs — including the need for community — instead of just their work needs.

Smooth Operations

Organizational barriers can be a huge drain on employee satisfaction. Even if your team fully connects with the company’s mission and values, clunky operations make implementing great ideas a nightmare.

Unfortunately, processes often get lost in the shuffle as companies grow and change. What worked in the beginning may not work years down the line. We all know the frustration of patchwork processes and how they can slow progress.

Prioritize streamlining your processes as well as implementing quality digital tools so your employees can focus on creative solutions and deep work. With these pain points out of the way, their experience at your company immediately improves.

Employee is King

The old saying goes, “Customer is king.” But I’ll challenge that. Before you can crown your customer, you must treat your team members like royalty. Harness the above strategies to improve the employee experience at your company.

Their satisfaction will show up in every outcome, interaction, and idea, leading to unstoppable business growth.