The way your employees “experience” their time with your company is one of the most important things you can dedicate time to.

The word “experience” itself can be a little bit hard to define, as it’s made up of countless factors. Two people can experience the same thing differently, like viewing a movie and coming out with opposing feelings about it.

While that’s true, carefully planning out the experience itself can help a person enjoy it. 

So we’re looking at nailing down the “employee experience” today, which is the overall view and feeling an employee has about a company. 

It takes dedication, time, and patience to master the employee experience, so let’s get busy breaking it down for you!

What exactly is the “employee experience”?

“Employee experience” is one of the broadest and deepest areas of study for companies who want their staff to work at their best. From the moment a new hire climbs aboard your ship, to the stage of separation, everything the employee experiences can be optimized. Their experience with you is everything they learn, do, see and feel while working at your company.

If you plan to make your employee experience really sparkle, your team members need to feel like they’re being heard, every step of the way. At each stage of the employee lifecycle, you can identify what makes every team member tick, and grow from there.

From the first day to the final departure, there is always something to learn from your employees. When they feel like someone is leading them with their best interest at heart, their experience with the company both grows and glows. This has a positive knock-on effect on non-tangible aspects of the company like brand reputation and market placement.

Getting the overall employee experience right isn’t easy. It’s best to break broad phrases down into smaller, manageable chunks. Some companies view the holistic employee experience in at least four separate parts. That’s how we like to break it down.

The four stages of the employee experience

A good employee experience is like the foundation of a building. Stacking up a skyscraper is pointless when it’s built on shaky footing. The employee experience is often boiled down into four phases, which you might even think of as four pillars to the solid foundation (that is, your business). 

All four pillars fit into the employee life cycle and are essential to a well-rounded employee experience. There may be more than four in some companies, but here are the most common phases separated:

1. Preboarding and onboarding: As new hires enter the workforce, their early experience can actually have the biggest effect on their productivity and engagement levels. It’s like when you meet someone new, for the first time. There’s only one chance to make a good impression. Some companies see the onboarding process as the most important part of the life cycle as it sets the stage for everything after, but fear not! We’ve got preboarding and onboarding plans covered! Also, think about how far and wide you cast your net when you start the recruitment process. Even recruiting can be optimized for a better employee experience, such as improved engagement from the job description itself.

2. Development: Once your new hires are all boarded, it’s time to strike while the iron is hot! Development for your new hires is like giving combat training to a warrior. They need instructions to test their mettle, and you need to work to their strengths while helping improve their weaknesses. During this development phase, it’s best to quantify their productivity as best you can. Look for traits like team leadership and critical thinking. Staff showing these skills flourish after the onboarding and development phases, so spot them quickly!

3. Retention: Once everyone is fully trained and developed, retention becomes an integral part of the experience. This is especially true if you recognize leadership and critical decision-making in staff during the development phase. Our tips and practices later in the article cover exactly how to optimize retention. Retention practices really shouldn’t be overlooked when bringing in gifted workers.

4. Separation: The final aspect of the employee experience is the separation phase. “All good things come to an end,” and however unfortunate it may be, staff separating from the company still carry weight and should be listened to in a sincere way. This is a standard practice for world-leading organizations. If a company gets the separation experience wrong, they’re often running risks that don’t need to be taken. 

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So that’s the four stages or pillars of the employee experience laid down. Now let’s get the best activities and practices laid out to bolster your employee experience.

What can a company do to optimize the employee experience?

Our list is filled with activities and practices to bring into your four pillars of employee experience. You may already have some of the practices covered, so adjust for your own organizational needs. Our practices for employee experience improvement are:

During the preboarding and onboarding phase

Kicking off our focused activities for improving the employee experience is the phase for preboarding and onboarding. First impressions matter (and the 0.5 impression you make during preboarding matters too), so make the most of these activities to get your new hire off on the right foot!

Optimize the preboarding and onboarding experience: Most companies already have a basic onboarding program. Onboarding your new recruits gives them a warm welcome while equipping them with the tools and knowledge they need to properly get into the role. The thing is, onboarding programs need updating to suit modern practices. There’s no point using the same program your company used in the 2000’s, times have changed! Reiterating your onboarding program is the best way to make sure it’s optimized for the first stage of the employee experience. Spend some time and dedication on preboarding your new hires properly too, and you’re setting the stage for a fantastic first impression!

Don’t forget basic orientation: You might have preboarding message templates ready on the work group chat, with your finger on the button before they even start. Your onboarding plan might be extensive and full of proficiency training. But how about taking a moment to plan out the new hire’s first day, or week? Paying extra dedication to new hire orientation is akin to appreciating the present moment. Planning before and after the hiring experience is one thing, but keep an extra eye on the immediate period of hiring. It’s incredibly important and often overlooked, so put extra effort into the very first experience the new hire has when they’re taken under your wing!

Preboarding and onboarding surveys: As we mentioned earlier, preboarding and onboarding both carry extreme importance for the first stage of the employee experience. Preboarding is basically the steps a company takes to welcome a new hire, before their official starting date. Onboarding is then the period after, in which the employee is trained and gets to grips with the role. Connect them with a special onboarding buddy for a personalized touch too. Onboarding for the next 6 months can make or break the employee experience. As many as 86% of new recruits decide to stay or leave within the first 6 months at the company. Develop surveys to check how happy your staff are as they go through preboarding and onboarding.

During the development phase

As the preboarding and onboarding phases pass, your employees enter a pivotal development stage. They should be more deeply integrated into their teams and their role from a solid onboarding plan. The development phase sets the stage for employee connections, now here are our best practices for optimizing the development stage:

Combine your learned data: To get a bit technical for a moment, leading companies are using something called “O-data and X-data.” O-data, or “operational data” basically means the information you gain from your workers as they carry out their jobs. This is data like quantifiable performance and objective target hitting. “X-data” or “experience data” on the other hand relates to the feelings, emotions and soft skills an employee shows. O and X's data combined is very valuable, with many world-leading organizations combining them for “Experience Management (XM).” That’s the technical side explained. Basically, you measure their objective performance with how they feel as they do it. If they’re facing any difficulties or stress, lighten up on the workload in the development phase and see how it unfolds.

Performance reviews: Similarly to other employee surveys, a performance review is a powerful tool for giving an honest and objective collection of feedback points for your staff. Don’t make the same mistake as many other companies, by waiting til the end of the fiscal year or approaching holidays. Effective year-round performance review implementation can make your staff feel treasured, and that they’re worth it. Get light and creative with a performance review that stands out in the employee experience. Avoid mind-numbing, repetitive dates, drop your staff performance reviews at random, and reward their hard work. Performance reviews are awesome to use in the development phase, so use them to electrify your employee engagement!

Consider broader developments: Once preboarding and onboarding are over and you enter the development phase, you might want to consider exactly what they’re developing in. We understand that you’ve hired your workers for a specific role, and during onboarding, they’ve hopefully shown complete competency. They’ve settled into their role and they’re showing improvements. As they get faster in their role, you could consider opening the door to them for new small roles and responsibilities. Think about it, couldn’t it be true that a new hire going through development finds new interests and skills? Stand alongside them as they show confidence in themselves, and present them with unique opportunities. You never know what kind of unexpected skills they might develop, so be flexible enough to adapt to these skills.

During the retention phase

Companies should never overlook employee retention as they progress and grow. You might have the best job advertising, onboarding and development systems in the world, but without a focus on retention, you won’t keep your stars. Some of the activities in the retention phase are interchangeable with the development phase too, especially for highly-skilled workers. Here are our best activities:

360 reviews: Leading on from our earlier recommendation of performance reviews, a 360 review is an indispensable tool for creating a sparkling employee experience. These reviews differ slightly from a traditional performance review. A 360 review incorporates anonymous feedback for a more holistic reflection. You need to gather input from the reviewee’s coworkers, senior leaders, and direct reports. 360 reviews give a balanced view of employee performance and also provide support and reassurance to the person receiving it. In the retention phase, you can identify strengths and weaknesses of performance before the employee has deep experience. You’re actually helping to guide them to be the strongest worker they can be. So bring 360 reviews into your employee experience package for outstanding results later.

Pay and benefit optimization: In order to retain the best workers in the world, well, they simply need to feel valued. And that’s not just “monetary value” either. Intrinsic rewards go a long way in the mind of an especially gifted worker. There’s no way of beating around the bush, employees need to be recompensed in order to be motivated. Well-rested, well-rewarded workers generally perform better than those who are burned out from overworking or scrambling to pay their monthly living expenses. Address your organizational benefits package, weighing them up with industry competitors carefully. There’s a beautiful study from Mercer on how employees are changing the way they view benefits. On top of your monetary bonuses, younger workers are viewing team retreats as increasingly attractive. Get into the details of financial and intrinsic rewards and motivations to get the most out of your employee experience scheme.

Develop wellbeing programs outside of work: Development at work does not solely come from performance in the office. Have you considered how much their outside life impacts an employee’s development in your organization? Chances are, you have, so act on this and invest in well-being programs to boost development even further. We know that it’s basic to explain, but the benefits of physically fit workers bring to a company really are no joke! Workplaces that promote physical activity show a 20% higher employee retention rate. Of course, if you were a manual laborer, you’d need to be physically fit, but it could be equally true for jobs that aren’t physically demanding. Get into promoting physical and mental wellbeing for your teams and you’ll be leaving them with a fantastic impression in the retention phase. 

During the separation phase

It’s inevitable. Employees separating from the organization is the final stage of the employee experience, and believe it or not, there’s an incredible amount to learn from it. As a valued worker departs, lessons can be learned to optimize the employee experience. Here are our activities for the separation phase:

Conduct healthy exit interviews: Whether you’re a global business titan or a small startup, you, together with your HR department should create proficient exit interviews. After someone decides to leave the company, you really shouldn’t just be relying on questions like “Why are you leaving?” You’ve got to think bigger, and possibly even get creative with your questioning. Employees leaving are usually at ease with explaining their precise feelings. They’ve already been there for eight hours a day for the last however many years. Expect the unexpected and be open to criticism. They have no reason to lie. Some more constructive questions for those leaving could be:

1. Were you given all the tools you needed to do your job?
2. How could we improve your role for future workers?
3. How was your work/life balance working here?

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Get your exit interviews right and the final stage of the employee experience can be used as a learning tool for your organization.

Iterate on future workers: Leading on from your exit interviews, turn toward the future. Use the insights you gain from employees as they depart, and make iterations on the organization. While you might not be able to overhaul every intricate detail of the office but remember that those who leave the organization really don’t have a reason to lie about how they feel. If you’re clever about this information, you’ll be making improvements from these honest reflections. Even remote employees can give you constructive criticism for a digital setting, like improving their equipment and software. You’ve got to get futuristic moves ready to stay ahead of the curve, so use what you learn through exit interviews to push forward.

Increase amicability: It should go without saying, but giving in to momentary drama is never something you want to do during a separation. You need to make sure that separation is carried out in the most amicable way possible. Most workers leave of their own volition. They find greater opportunities elsewhere. There are other times when someone might leave for negative reasons, like a dispute or underperformance. During times like that, you need to make sure the people handling the separation are skilled in diplomacy and keeping things neutral. Separations through negative reasons are not nice experiences, and in reality, a very bad review of your company can have a damaging effect. Especially in the digital communication age, companies with negative reviews from employees who left on bad terms really can suffer. Spend time focused on the way you approach a person leaving to make sure everything goes as smoothly as possible. Trust us, this one is especially worth it.

Collate and measure exit data: Our final activity for boosting the employee experience, even in the separation phase, is to collect and measure all data relating to the separation. That could include an honest survey from the person who is departing. They need to know that their grievances are actually being listened to by your company. Collect and cross-reference the data you get from separation and highlight any recurring instances of “I was unhappy about…” Ignoring repeated negative data is like burying your head in the sand. It simply doesn’t make the problem go away, and only lets it fester for future workers. Use your data wisely from the separation phase and you’ll have a comprehensive list of actions needed for your company’s future. Use these to improve the overall employee experience. 

There you have our employee experience plan, to strengthen every stage of the employee lifecycle. Now we’d like to put our best foot forward, and show you how to get your teams to the next level!

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Interested in the employee experience? Try out our team retreats!

If our insights into boosting the employee experience caught your eye, then chances are you’re wondering “How can I bring my teams up to the highest level?” The truth is that organizing a team retreat is the most unforgettable way to electrify company teamwork and create an unforgettable experience. 

A twice-annual team-building retreat bringing everyone in the company together builds team bonds like nothing else!

Here at Surf Office, organizing team retreats is what we do best.  

Here’s what we offer:

• Stress-free transfers? We got you! ✅
• Quality-assured accommodations? Check! ✅
• Engaging team-building activities? Our speciality ✅
• Restaurant reservations? That's on us! ✅
• Expert retreat planning assistance? Of course, we have this covered! ✅
• Onsite support, tailored to your needs? Absolutely ✅

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Not only this but we also have access to 160+ locations around Europe, APAC, the US, Latin America, and now Africa, meaning the sky is your limit when it comes to choosing the right location for you and your team.

The employee experience is integral to your company for boosting engagement and establishing rock-solid teamwork. A team retreat as part of the employee experience is a surefire way to stand out in the minds of your employees.

Let us sort out the tricky logistics for you. Spaces are very limited, so get in touch now!