In today’s complex world of work, your organization is bound to encounter employee experience challenges. Finding ways to overcome them is crucial to your success.
When a company invests in their employee experience, they’re four times more profitable than a company that doesn’t.
From remote work to mental health awareness, and psychological safety to recognition at work, there are lots of things companies can and should do to resolve employee experience challenges.
And, in turn, boost retention and profits.
So let’s take a deeper dive into some employee experience challenges and how to solve them.
Remote working
Most employees want to work remotely or take a hybrid approach. Very few want to work form the office all day, every day. This can contribute to a healthy work-life balance, something that 72% of employees feel is important for career success.
Being able to work from home ensures employees don’t have to waste time on their daily commute. It gives them more hours with loved ones or just a chance to catch up on sleep.
Remote work also allows more space for deep work without the distracting office environment. That includes needless interruptions from colleagues wanting to chat when someone is trying to focus.
Yet some managers are still afraid that employees won’t perform as well if they’re allowed to work from home some or all of the time. This issue lies with managers, not employees. It says that they don’t trust employees to do their jobs.
And if managers don’t trust employees to do their jobs, why did they hire them in the first place?
Managers need training to learn how to work on their trust issues. They also need to learn how to communicate with employees.
A more open, trusting workplace will accept that employees need to work in a way that suits them. That’s ultimately how businesses will get the most out of their employees.
Empowering team members with the flexibility to choose how they work is also a key way to overcome employee experience challenges.
Recognition
Have you ever achieved something that you’re really proud of, only for someone else to take all the credit for it?
Employees want to feel like they’re seen at work, and that their effort is appreciated.
It doesn’t have to be through expensive presents or even a thank-you card. A Slack or Teams channel, or a dedicated krowd where people can give a shout-out to someone for their work can be enough for people to feel like they’re being recognized.
If you work somewhere people don’t feel comfortable recognizing someone’s successes, or praising people for their hard work, it’s time to take a look in the mirror and consider what your employee experience challenges really are.
Why don’t you feel comfortable giving someone a virtual high-five? Do you only focus on criticizing others? If that’s the case, why?
And what can you do to change that, because it will inevitably just result in more employee experience challenges?
Mental health
Since we can’t see mental health issues, it’s really easy for them to get overlooked.
It’s also easy for employees to hide how they feel—up to a point. They may try to mask their symptoms, but when they’re struggling mentally, it will inevitably impact their performance.
If employees don’t feel comfortable sharing their mental health difficulties, the fear of people finding out about them can eat at them almost as much as their mental health condition—making their condition worse and creating a downward spiral.
Work can be a trigger for mental health conditions, particularly in stressful roles or industries. Employees need someone they can talk to about this. That way they can express those emotions, rather than bottle them up and grow increasingly stressed and anxious.
Alongside training for management, it’s important to provide somewhere employees can discuss emotions openly, whether that’s in an employee group, on a listening platform, or talking to an external coach or mentor. It has to be somewhere that they feel safe to express their emotions without fear of reprisals.
If they don’t have access to such a space, you can expect to see the impact in the form of increased employee experience challenges.
Diversity and inclusion
I’ve had the rant about businesses that pay lip service to diversity and inclusion but don’t actually embody it before, so I’ll save you it this time.
The truth is, diversity initiatives work, even if they make people uncomfortable. Things like anonymous recruitment, or quotas, put some people off. But that could well be because these things challenge the status quo and try to change the power balance.
But hiring is only one part of the equation. People need to feel comfortable being themselves at work, too.
Inclusive company cultures can increase employee retention by 39%. That makes valuing inclusion no longer just a nice-to-have—it’s now imperative to business success.
Creating ERGs, where employes can discuss their personal experiences through the lens of shared demographics or backgrounds, can support DEI initiatives. They’re a way for people to feel seen and heard, as well as to build connections and therefore boost their feelings of belonging.
Allowing employees to talk about their own situations is also important.
For instance, too many disabled employees feel unable to talk about their conditions because people with disabilities are frequently discriminated against in the workplace. So it’s really no surprise how many people with disabilities are out of work. Even though we all have valid skills that can help businesses to grow.
Businesses need to find ways to adapt their hiring processes to make them more inclusive. They should also enable employees to talk about their unique employee experience challenges and find ways to resolve them.
Conclusion
A compelling employee experience is vital to business success. Unhappy employees are more likely to leave, and may well publish negative reviews online, too. Overcoming your employee experience challenges is key to current and future company success and to your employer brand.
You need to consider what employees really want and need from their roles. Then, hire people who embody the culture you want to create.
If you want a positive culture, you need to find out more about how new hires think. Or provide training opportunities to teach everyone what sort of culture you want to create. That way, everyone works from the same page to counter your employee experience challenges.
What do your employees need?
Find out what your employee experience challenges are and how you can overcome them with Workrowd.
Get a bird’s eye view of your whole employee experience, then drill down into each program, group, and event with real-time analytics. Our automated feedback surveys and always-on data collection help you get more information on what your employees want and need from their teammates, managers, and the business overall.
Plus, with the results analyzed automatically, you can save time and focus instead on making changes in response to your employee experience challenges. Get in touch to book your free demo today, or email us directly at hello@workrowd.com.
