Improving Your Workplace Experience to Increase Employee Productivity and Engagement

Customer experience has been a popular strategy for forward-thinking organizations for decades. As Meister(1) says, “Businesses have long recognized the importance of delivering a differentiated and engaging experience for their customers.” A much newer approach for organizations is to focus attention as well on the employees’ experience. For example, Accenture(2) explains, “Leading companies are starting to realize that delivering great [customer experience] is easier when you have a strong workplace experience . . . creating an environment and a culture that enables and encourages employees to collaborate, develop their skills and be more productive.” Of course, every business outcome starts with your employees, from productivity and efficiency to talent retention, innovation, and growth. That is not a new idea. However, what is new about the concept of workplace experience is that it combines technology, operations, culture, and interpersonal experience in a holistic way. Sapling(3) suggests that continuously managing your employees’ workplace experience creates “a culture of happiness and high performance, and an environment in which employees want to work and succeed.” Organizations where employees have a positive workplace experience are the ones where the customers’ positive experiences can also flourish, Sapling says.

Today, a great employee workplace experience is much more than a nicety. Accenture calls it “a must,” and that opinion is supported with research. A good workplace experience increases employee productivity and engagement. According to Sapling, happy employees are up to 20% more productive at work; however, 64% of employees feel that they do not have a strong work culture. Sapling also says that unhappy employees take 15 more sick days per year than the average employee, and organizations with highly engaged workforces outperform their peers by 147% in earnings per share. Organizations that invest in their culture, their employees’ physical work environment, and the tools and technology that enable their productivity enjoy much greater overall business success. As Sapling urges, “All companies should seek to build a culture around helping their employees succeed. For optimum performance, simple workplace experience management practices can be seamlessly integrated into company DNA.”

The essential question for healthcare leaders then is not whether, but when and how your organization can create what Meister calls “the workplace as an experience.” To do that, leaders must tap into the physical, emotional, intellectual, virtual, and aspirational facets of how an employee is engaged in the workplace.

What is Workplace Experience?

Workplace experience is in part just what it sounds like—a focus on the employee’s experience of the physical workplace. It may include the employee’s feelings about everything he or she experiences at work, such as your parking lot or the convenience of public transportation, the comfort of the chair he or she sits on, the technology and equipment he or she uses, the temperature of the office, lighting, whether there are windows and what he or she can see from them, sounds, colors, décor, the coffee served in the staff break room, the restroom he or she uses, elevators, and hallways. Workplace experience also can include amenities such as employee cafeterias (and the quality and cost of the food they serve), gyms and locker rooms, break rooms, and childcare centers. However, workplace experience also focuses on intangibles such as policies, overtime hours, pay and bonuses, opportunities for career advancement, levels of stress, and employee development programs and benefits. It also can include the ways in which employees interact with one another and how they share space, resources, amenities, or services. Likewise, it can include relationships with supervisors, mentors, human resources staff, and patients, and whether your healthcare organization is adequately staffed. And it can include employee services such as employee assistance programs, counseling services, professional development programs, healthcare benefits, tuition reimbursement, and enrichment and social activities. Lane(4) suggests that we think of the workplace as an ecosystem. Each of these roles, resources, and experiences is significant by itself. However, Lane suggests, “How these forces interact [with one another] is what manifests into ‘experience.’”

Workplace Experience Versus Employee Engagement

Workplace experience as a concept has been building steam in recent years. But as Godfrey(5) suggests, it can be confusing to make sense of it after decades of emphasis on employee engagement.

What’s the difference between workplace experience and employee engagement? Simply put, workplace experience includes employee engagement, but it is much more. Most importantly, the larger workplace experience concept or strategy is more effective than employee engagement alone. Godfrey explains, “Engagement reigned as the leading employee metric for several decades, and in many organizations, it is still a key metric. Yet, the promised results of focusing on employee engagement alone have never fully materialized.” In many organizations, engagement would rise right around the time of an engagement survey, and then it would return to about the same level it was at before, give or take a few points. Godfrey suggests, “Many organizations have been too focused on manipulating or increasing an engagement survey score—a noble, but somewhat myopic effort.” Although employee engagement certainly matters, measuring engagement by itself isn’t sufficient, because such measurements typically drive short-term, tactical action plans that, at best, focus on a narrow set of employee needs, Godfrey says.

Workplace experience paints the employee’s experience with a much broader paintbrush than employee engagement alone. It provides a big picture, strategic view of how well an organization is doing across the entire employee lifecycle, especially during what Godfrey refers to as “moments that matter.” For example, Godfrey says, workplace experience encompasses key moments such as when potential recruits become attracted to the organization or when an employee approaches HR to report a problem. It also includes the relationship an individual has with his or her supervisor, and how positively employees view their experiences with coworkers or community service efforts. Godfrey says, “Viewed from this vantage, employee engagement is an outcome measure that looks at one piece of a larger puzzle.” It is much more effective for organizations to focus on workplace experience than on employee engagement alone because workplace experience includes everything that contributes to an employee’s overall experience. Godfrey suggests, “With competition for top talent fiercer than ever before, it’s critical to consider the entire full Employee Experience—from the moment a potential employee learns about your organization, through their full employment, and exit.” Improving workplace experience can deliver strong employee outcomes such as engagement and retention, but also measurable business results, Godfrey says.

Who Is Responsible for Your Employees’ Workplace Experience?

Workplace experience falls under the domain of Human Resources. However, as Meister suggests, the HR shift to employee experience would not be complete without an actual role. Some organizations refer to this role as Head of Employee Experience or Workplace Experience Manager or Workplace Experience Officer. Whatever the exact title, it is the role of an individual who focuses on creating a compelling employee experience. This new role is becoming what Meister calls the “new normal” for how human resource departments are transforming the workplace as an experience.

The role of Workplace Experience Officer captures several shifts in the way people think about the workplace. First, Suszko(6) suggests, it “embraces the movement away from business administration and towards workplace hospitality.” Secondly, the role acknowledges that the focus on the experiences in the consumer space has forever altered the workforce’s expectations of the workplace. Third, the Workplace Experience Officer recognizes that digital and physical spaces are in the process of collapsing into one another. Finally, he or she eschews the notion of stepped career progressions along predefined paths. Specifically, Suszko says, this officer is responsible for crafting a workplace experience that:

• Authentically reflects the mission, vision, and values of the organization;

• Creates memorable, meaningful, and purposeful connections;

• Builds a team of service-minded stewards who work on behalf of the workforce;

• Delivers tools and technology to enable seamless workflow; and

• Instills enthusiasm, if not excitement, for the work at hand.

Suszko argues that the case for the Workplace Security Officer hinges on the notion that leading companies take ownership for the relationships that people have with their organization. He says that they are responsible for crafting memorable workplace experiences that connect, motivate, and inspire people. They wear many hats, Suszko says, including the following:

• Ethnographer: Workplace Experience Officers understand needs. They listen and leverage data to identify and understand what employees truly desire.

• Promoter: Workplace Experience Officers amplify purpose. They believe that employees want to do meaningful work and ensure that the “why” is relevant, authentic, and visible.

• Matchmaker: Workplace Experience Officers connect people. They deliver a workplace that supports employees’ need to connect with one another in ways that are both productive and social. As Suszko says, they develop a community “of and at work.”

• Designer: Workplace Experience Officers reduce friction. They deliver a seamless workplace experience that embraces integrated design. They ensure that the parts (space, technology, process, and people) work in service of the greater whole.

• Concierge: Workplace Experience Officers surprise and delight employees. They create moments that matter and give employees license to be creative. As Suszko suggests, they give employees “something to talk about, stories to share, and memories to unite them.”

Is a Workplace Experience Officer necessary? In many organizations, separate departments manage physical layout, general ambience, technology, communication, ease of interpersonal communications, and other components of the employee’s work experience. One may think that with each variable designated to a separate team, each of these puzzle pieces would click together to create a harmonious environment. But this not always the case. As Cavanaugh(7) warns, “Often times, each department has its own biases, priorities, and timelines that make it difficult to align harmoniously with one another. It’s not enough to assume each of these departments will create a workplace best suited for the people who work in it.” That is why the Workplace Experience Officer is necessary to synthesize employees’ experiences. Cavanaugh urges, “Every organization should pull up a seat at the C-Suite table for a new CxO: the Chief Employee Experience Officer.”

The Challenge of Improving Workplace Experience: Where to Begin?

Your employees’ workplace experience relies on countless moments every day. That’s why improving workplace experience can be a formidable challenge. This experience is made up of everything your employees see, hear, smell, taste, and touch when they work for your healthcare organization. It’s their experience with intangibles, too, such as their relationships with supervisors, coworkers, and patients. More importantly, it’s their perceptions and possibly complex emotions caused by their workplace experiences. It’s a tall order to improve so many components of your employees’ experiences or even to know where to begin.

Fix what you know upsets your employees before you devise new ways to please or delight them.

Further complicating the workplace experience improvement task is the fact that each employee may experience your workplace differently. Employees who work in different parts of your healthcare organization, departmentally or physically, may have radically different experiences. But even employees who experience the same things in the same physical locations may regard their experiences differently. What bothers or delights one employee may not bother or delight another. In fact, if you ask 100 employees what they want you to do to improve their workplace experience, you may end up with 100 answers. Even so, those answers may not be reliable. Employees may not tell you what they really think, but what they think you want to hear.

So, where does that leave you? Hopefully, not giving up. You can improve your workplace experience and even enjoy the process. However, although you may have creative ideas and high aspirations, hold onto them, at least at first. The place to begin your workplace experience efforts is wherever you know that something is terribly wrong. It will do little good to focus your efforts on fun and splashy new workplace experience initiatives when there is an elephant stomping around your healthcare organization that is driving everyone crazy. Fix what you know upsets your employees before you devise new ways to please or delight them. Repair the broken copier or your heating and cooling system or the potholes in your parking lot that are making everyone miserable. Address tensions brewing between coworkers or between your employees and their managers. Fix your biggest and most upsetting problem(s) first.

Ten Strategies for Improving Your Employees’ Workplace Experience

After you’ve righted the most egregious wrongs in your workplace, focus your attention on everything else you can do to improve your employees’ experience. Keep your eyes, ears, and mind open. You can’t go wrong if you listen to your employees, empathize with them, and make changes that they will see, understand, and like. Following are 10 strategies that will make most employees’ workplace experiences better.

1. Design a great onboarding experience. Many organizations don’t have a carefully crafted new employee orientation program, much less an employee onboarding experience, but this is critical to employee success. In fact, Kaemingk(8) says, 33% of new hires look for a new job within their first six months on the job, and this can be largely attributed to their employee onboarding experience. Kaemingk suggests, “You should design a program that’s measurable, tailored to specific audiences, and has clear objectives.” Onboarding new employees well begins their workplace experience positively and sets them up for a smooth entry into your workplace.

2. Use employee journey mapping. Employee journey mapping allows you to measure the employee experience at every stage of that employee’s tenure at the healthcare organization. Think of journey mapping as a collection of dipstick measurements that you take at key moments in the employees’ workplace experience, such as the first job interview, the first day of work, the first full performance review, the first-year employment anniversary, the employee’s birthday, and team events. According to the Academy to Innovate HR,(9) journey maps enable you to measure “the mood and frustration levels of employees at different times during the day and while working on different tasks.” The data you collect can then be used to find points of improvement for the employee, but also for your staff overall.

3. Focus on performance management. Are your employees motivated to be high performers? Firstup(10) warns, “Only 2 in 10 employees say their performance is managed in a way that motivates them to do their best work.” An extremely effective way to focus on, motivate, and improve employee performance is to foster active listening skills among your managers, Firstup says.

4. Conduct “stay” interviews. Stay interviews are conversations between the manager and employee that are designed to support retention. They provide an opportunity to learn what’s important to your employees, what’s bothering them, and what you can do to improve their workplace experience. Kaemingk explains, “By understanding what works and what doesn’t, you can identify their [employees’] motivation for staying with the organization and work towards goals that keep them interested.” Stay interviews also enhance internal talent pipelines and provide insight into areas for improvement throughout the organization, Kaemingk says.

5. Improve your technology. Are your employees happy with their digital experiences in your healthcare organization? Firstup cautions, “This doesn’t necessarily mean convincing IT to run out and buy a bunch of new apps—it often just means getting more use out of the ones you already have.” Work with your IT department to connect the systems your healthcare organization uses seamlessly. Firstup also suggests that you make sure that you don’t frustrate your employees by making them toggle between tools all day long. In addition, be sure that your organization can communicate easily with your employees across all channels.

6. Invest in employee wellness. Healthy employees incur lower healthcare costs and take fewer sick days. A workplace experience that includes gym memberships, healthy food choices, and other physical wellness programs is generally positive. However, employee wellness is more than just physical. Kaemingk suggests, “Programs that encourage mental, emotional, and spiritual wellness create employees who are rested and more attentive and productive at work.”

7. Act on employee feedback. Many organizations implement employee engagement and feedback surveys, but not all act on that feedback. Kaemingk warns that this can backfire and cause “a loss of trust.” Employees must feel comfortable telling you what is good and what can be improved in their workplace experience. They will be more likely to share their opinions and engage with you if they believe that their feedback will make a difference. Unfortunately, your employees may stop giving you feedback and become jaded if they know that their opinions won’t change anything. Be clear with your employees that you want and value their feedback, that you have heard them, and, most importantly, the specific changes you are making in response to their feedback.

8. Improve your physical environment. Good natural light, comfortable chairs, ergonomic workstations, and good air circulation can boost your employee workplace experience significantly. HR Morning(11) suggests, “The office should be a place where your employees can relax and feel part of a communal goal,” not be distracted by their physical discomfort. Take steps to reduce noise pollution, both from outside and inside your workplace. Freshen up your decor. Make sure that you keep your workplace clean to a high standard, complete repairs promptly, and keep on top of general maintenance. Invest in the little things that make a difference in the physical space such as quality hand soap, free access to tea and coffee, and live plants.

9. Share patient feedback with your employees. Kaemingk suggests, “There’s an undeniable link between employee experience and customer experience and many employees feel joy from helping customers.” However, when one of your patients gives your office a compliment, does your employee hear about it? Sharing your patients’ positive feedback can boost your employees’ morale and confidence and give them a sense of purpose in their job, thus improving their overall workplace experience. Kaemingk suggests, “Customer feedback should be broadcast throughout the entire organization, not only recognizing that the organization is succeeding, but the employee as well.”

10. Facilitate social interaction. Employees who have good social interaction both inside and outside work tend to work better together, be happier, and collaborate more effectively. Organize employee events such as holiday parties and summer get-togethers. Short(12) suggests that you also encourage more regular low-key social events such as team lunches, running or cycling groups, cake sharing, or even a workplace choir. Also organize work-related programs and trainings where employees will interact. According to Short, “Team-building days away from the office, regular informal meetings and other ideas which get employees away from their desks and talking to each other can build relationships which make the workplace a happier environment as well as leading to work benefits through better collaboration.”

References

1. Meister J. The future of work: Airbnb CHRO becomes Chief Employee Experience Officer. Forbes, July 21, 2015. Accessed November 8, 2021. www.forbes.com/sites/jeannemeister/2015/07/21/the-future-of-work-airbnb-chro-becomes-chief-employee-experinece-officer/?sh=66ee37264232 .

2. Accenture. Designing a workplace experience to drive growth. Accenture. October 24, 2019. www.accenture.com/us-en/insights/cloud/designing-workplace-experience-drive-growth .

3. 8 stats to persuade your team that employee experience matters. www.saplinghr.com/blog/8-stats-employee-experience . Sapling. Accessed November 8, 2021

4. Emerging definition of workplace experience. Lane. October 30, 2019. https://joinlane.com/blog/the-emerging-definition-of-workplace-experience/ . Accessed November 9, 2021.

5. Godfrey N. The origins of employee experience. Stewart Leadership. https://blog.stewartleadership.com/origins-employee-experience . Accessed November 8, 2021

6. Suszko D. The case for the chief (employee) experience officer. Work Design. www.workdesign.com/2019/06/the-case-for-the-chief-employee-experience-officer/ . Accessed November 12, 2021.

7. Cavanaugh K. The rise of the workplace experience manager. Robin@Work. https://robinpowered.com/blog/workplace-experience-manager-role . Accessed November 12, 2021.

8. Kaemingk D. 10 ways to improve employee experience at work. Qualtrics. May 21, 2019. www.qualtrics.com/blog/10-ways-to-improve-employee-experience/ . Accessed November 15, 2021.

9. van Vulpen E. Academy to innovate HR. How employee journey mapping can change the employee experience. AIHR Academy. www.aihr.com/blog/employee-journey-mapping/ . Accessed November 16, 2021.

10. Employee experience: what it is and how to improve it. Firstup.com . May 20, 2021. https://firstup.io/blog/employee-experience-what-it-is-and-how-to-improve-it/#improve Accessed November 16, 2021

11. 5 ways to improve employee experience post-COVID. HR Morning. September 22, 2021. www.hrmorning.com/articles/employee-experience-post-covid/ . Accessed November 16, 2021.

12. Short S. Seven ideas to improve your workplace environment. Face2Face HR. November 26, 2018. https://face2facehr.com/seven-ideas-to-improve-your-workplace-environment/ . Accessed November 18, 2021.

13. Palme T. 5 ways to ensure a terrible workplace experience. Decision Wise. https://decision-wise.com/5-ways-ensure-terrible-employee-experience/ . Accessed November 19, 2021.

Five Ways to Ensure a Poor Workplace Experience

We can become so caught up in meeting our goals and delivering results that the employee’s workplace experience becomes a secondary concern. This is often the case during stressful times, especially when we are receiving a lot of pressure from above. As Palmer(13) explains, “Having reviewed many 360-degree feedback reports, I can tell you that creating the ‘sweet spot’ between impressing the person above you while making sure the people below you want to respect and follow you can be tricky.” We must take care not to stack the deck in favor of a terrible employee workplace experience, no matter how stressful the situation or how good our intentions.

Palmer suggests five tactics that will eventually cripple your employees’ workplace experience. Be sure not to give in to them, even during challenging times. Ultimately, they will come back to bite you as your employees’ workplace experience plummets.

1. Over-glamorize the job description. Healthcare leaders want to attract and be competitive for the best talent. However, the best way to set up your new employees for a bad workplace experience is to create the illusion of “the perfect job” during recruitment. Review the job descriptions you use when you are recruiting talent. Do your job descriptions sound too good to be true? If so, they probably are. For example, Palmer says, have you removed every potentially negative or boring detail? Have you described how exciting the job is when it is, for the most part, a dull job? Are you overly optimistic about what the person in the role can accomplish, or the breadth of his or her influence? Have you misrepresented or inflated the benefits, Palmer says, such as “‘Free Lunch Every Friday’ without noting that the lunch provided will be meeting leftovers in the break room fridge? Have you omitted the fact that 90% of the person’s time will be spent on lower-order, repetitive tasks and only 10% on more creative ones? If so, you have over-glamorized the job and are setting up the new employee for huge disappointment.

2. Put on the right “face.” Do you hide things from your new employees once the contracts have been signed and they are in their new roles? For example, Palmer says, do you hide the true nature of your healthcare organization by suppressing or ignoring the bad parts of the culture to emphasize the good? Palmer suggests, “You can do this by discouraging negative talk around the office.” Or do you give new employees only creative and interesting assignments, only to dump the less desirable work on them once they’ve been there a few months? Overall, are you altering the new employees’ workplace experience during the honeymoon phase of your relationship, only to let them see the reality of what they’ve gotten themselves into once you feel confident that they will stay? As Palmer asks, once your new hire is somewhat invested in his or her role, do you “remove the bells and whistles?” You may be able to sustain the fantasy for your new hires for a while, Palmer says, but be warned. Eventually, you won’t be able to keep up the act, and reality will set in. When that happens, your new employees’ workplace experience will take a nosedive, and, worse, they will feel that they have been duped.

3. Frequently adjust policies and procedures. Do you often send your employees emails that request their compliance with new policies? For example, Palmer says, “These emails can contain anything from making the dress code more formal to adding an additional weekly meeting to everyone’s schedules.” Frequent changes in policy, especially those effective immediately and without explanation, create a workplace experience that stresses and confuses employees.

4. Implement negative changes to your pay and benefit structure. Another great way to create a negative workplace experience is to renegotiate pay and benefits so employees end up with less. This strategy usually gets quick attention, and for good reason. Employees cannot have a great workplace experience when you take money away from them. This is true even if you have beautiful office furniture or serve delicious food in your cafeteria or have the loveliest holiday party each year. Palmer says, “Some common things you can do [to worsen employees’ workplace experience] are to decrease bonuses, not grant additional PTO days for longer tenure, or give a promotion without a raise.”

5. Don’t recognize your employees’ good work. Some employees will value your recognition even more than other aspects of their workplace experience, such as the money they earn, the quality of your physical workspace and technology, their relationships with coworkers, and their opportunities for advancement. They want to feel that they are making a difference because of what they do at work every day and that their leaders recognize and appreciate their contributions. For those employees, Palmer suggests, a workplace experience that doesn’t include healthy doses of recognition and gratitude will never be enough. In fact, regular recognition for good work can compensate for shortcomings in other aspects of workplace experience. For example, your recognition and gratitude can compensate for the old furniture and equipment your employees must use or the fact that your technology could use an upgrade, Palmer suggests.