Category: Research

Employee experience is the combination of an employee’s perceptions and interactions with their organization, from when they first learn about the organization until they leave (or retire). A positive culture can lead to increased engagement and productivity, whereas a negative experience can result in disengagement and turnover. Therefore, it is important for organizations to create a positive and data-driven employee experience.

Clarity of expectations and consistent processes are essential for creating a positive work environment. Employees should know what is expected of them, and they should be able to rely on their leaders to provide clear guidance. Furthermore, the process by which employees are onboarded, developed, and promoted should be fair and transparent.

Data also plays an important role in shaping your business. Organizations can identify areas where the experience can be improved by studying employee engagement data. For example, if surveys reveal that employees are unhappy with their clarity of expectations, leadership can work to improve communication channels. In short, organizations can create a more engaged and productive workforce by taking a data-driven approach to their culture.

The different aspects of employee experience

Employee perception is a critical aspect of any business. It encompasses everything from the initial recruitment process to the day-to-day working environment and can significantly impact employee satisfaction and productivity. Ultimately, a positive employee experience leads to a more engaged and loyal workforce, which can help to drive business success. Many factors contribute to employee experience, but some of the most important include company culture, work/life balance, and career development opportunities. Creating a positive employee experience requires focusing on all of these elements, which all businesses should strive for.

How to improve

Employee experience is critical to the success of any organization. Engaged employees are more productive, have better attendance, and are more likely to stay with the company. So how can you improve the employee experience? First, start by creating a positive culture. This means promoting a healthy work-life balance, valuing employee input, and providing opportunities for professional development. You should also provide employees with the resources they need to succeed in their roles. This includes everything from adequate training to the latest technology. Finally, make sure to show your appreciation for a job well done. Recognizing employee achievements helps to create a motivated and engaged workforce. These simple tips can improve employee experience and create a more successful organization.

The benefits of improving

Improving corporate culture is a hot topic in the business world today. And for good reason – studies have shown that improving employee experience can lead to increased productivity, engagement, and retention. But what exactly is employee experience? It encompasses everything from the physical environment in which employees work, to the systems and processes they use, to the way they are treated by their managers. In short, it’s about creating a workplace that meets the needs of employees and makes them feel valued. When employees feel supported and engaged, they are more likely to be productive and innovative. They are also more likely to stick around, saving the company money in the long run. Creating a great work environment is not only good for employees, but it’s also good for business.

How to measure the success of your efforts

Setting measurable goals that align with your company’s overall mission is important. This will help you track progress and gauge the success of your efforts. You can use a few key metrics to measure the success of your employee experience improvement efforts.

First, look at engagement levels. This can be done through surveys or other feedback mechanisms. Are employees more engaged than they were before? Are they taking advantage of new opportunities and benefits?

Next, look at retention rates. Are employees sticking around longer? Finally, look at productivity levels. Have employees become more productive since you changed the workplace environment or introduced new perks and programs? You’ll get a clear picture of your efforts’ impact on employee experience by tracking these metrics.

Major players make the effort to improve

Many companies are realizing the importance of improving the employee experience. A great employee experience can lead to increased productivity, higher retention rates, and a better bottom line.

Here are three companies that have successfully improved:

1. Google: Google has long been known as a great place to work. The company offers free food and on-site child care, providing employees ample opportunities to grow and develop their skills. In recent years, Google has also made a concerted effort to improve its employee experience by implementing policies that promote work-life balance.

2. Amazon: Amazon is another company that strongly emphasizes improvement. The online retailer offers several benefits to its workers, including competitive salaries, comprehensive health insurance, and stock options. In addition, Amazon has created many programs to help employees develop their skills and advance their careers.

3. Pixar: Pixar is a different kind of company than Google or Amazon, but it has also successfully improved its company culture. The animated film studio is known for its creative and collaborative culture. Employees are free to be creative and experiment with new ideas.

These companies have reaped rewards in increased productivity, engagement, and retention by investing in their employees.

Employee experience is a term you will hear more and more in the coming years.

It encompasses all aspects of an employee’s relationship with their employer, from recruitment to retirement. And it’s become increasingly important because companies are starting to realize that happy employees lead to better business outcomes. Start by working on your employee experience to improve your company’s performance.

If you’re ready to measure and pinpoint your opportunities to improve, check out our Employee Experience Index.

The Brand Experience Index (BXi) breaks down four key attributes of your brand and tracks how each evolves over time.

To arrive at your Brand Experience Index, LIFT’s data scientists use artificial intelligence to produce incredibly accurate, machine learning-based results in four core areas of brand equity:

  • Recognition
  • Familiarity
  • Perception
  • Consideration

These results roll into a simple score – your LIFT Brand Experience Index™ – that is easy to communicate and track over time.

Perception

What are the strengths and weaknesses of your key brand attributes?

Anyone who has worked for an organization long enough develops a good sense of where it shines and where it could use improvement. This instinct often guides marketing efforts and determines where to invest resources. People trust their gut – and let’s face it – devoting traditional brand experience measurement time and expense before deploying a strategy is often untenable.

Confirming beliefs about the brand experience with primary target audience research is pricey, often takes many weeks (if not months), and the results can be incredibly nuanced and complex. Marketers (and the leaders they report to) are usually left with more questions than answers.

For many companies, assumptions about brand experience have become “good enough,”… but that’s about to change.

Measuring Brand Experience in the Marketplace

For a long time, primary market research was a domain occupied only by businesses with the deepest marketing resources. We’re seeking to change that at LIFT. Strategic marketers at businesses, both large and small, know that measuring, testing, and benchmarking brand attributes with target audience members is critical to understanding if and how your marketing efforts are having an impact. So, we’re helping you afford it – from cost, time, and simplicity standpoints. We’re doing it through the LIFT Brand Experience Index™, one simple and unbiased metric that communicates the effectiveness of your marketing strategies.

Performance is among the four brand metrics analyzed in a Brand Experience Index study. Designed to help marketers gain a clear window into the minds of their target audience, the Performance measurement looks at the strength and weaknesses of 12 key brand attributes.

Our clients define exactly who they see as the target market, and we implement a battery-tested questionnaire customized for your industry. It gives you insights into four key pillars of your brand’s performance with a high degree of confidence.

We analyze things like:

Is your brand trusted by the target market? Your target market needs to believe you will deliver on your promises.

Does the target market view your brand as skilled in the industry? Your targets should view you as capable of meeting or exceeding their expectations.

Is your brand likable? Customers increasingly want more than a company that meets their needs. They want to do business with a company they like and feel good about working with.

Does the target market value your brand? If your offering isn’t the least expensive, will customers still choose you because they believe you add value?

It can be particularly beneficial to obtain a Brand Experience Index before and after significant marketing efforts to measure the actual impact on the minds of your intended targets.

Marketers, both client and agency-side, find even further value when they use the Brand Experience Index to better understand how target audiences view competing brands. That’s right – you can get a BXi for your brand and any brand.

So, you can measure your own strengths and weaknesses and then determine how it positions you relative to competitors.

Bank Iowa, a statewide community bank, uses our Brand Experience Index to do just that. To first assess its market position, the chief marketing officer and his agency, Lessing-Flynn, will determine the best strategic opportunities to gain ground against other financial institutions available to Iowans. Gut instinct tells the team they must work to attract younger, digital-native banking customers.

The Brand Experience Index will not only help them confirm this assumption but will also identify competitors who are doing great and not-so-great jobs in this area. The BXi will show them how far they need to go to catch up if necessary – and where to begin gaining more market share among Millennials and other segments of the state’s younger population.

By Emily Hammer

Recommendations and guidelines are good for what they do: demanding a bare minimum. But rarely are they able to keep up with the fast-evolving digital spaces that we interact in, for which there is no precedent of “accommodations.” In response, we must be more generous with our standards for accessibility, going above and beyond what may be expected and desired of us. You should design your digital spaces with accessibility in mind – not as an afterthought.

You’ve probably heard of an ‘image description’ (or ‘alt text’). These provide descriptions for screen-readers and other assistive technologies to read aloud to their user and must be included for images on your website.

Similarly, ‘video descriptions’ that detail its visual content should be included for videos on your website for assistive technologies to read. Accessible videos will include captions and a transcript, but also feature contrasting colors and refrain from flashing content. When possible, avoid playing videos automatically on your website – this will interfere with screen readers and confuse users.

Add image and video descriptions across your website – and ensure the user experience across your site is consistent. Users should not lose out on content or context because they are disabled or require assistive technologies. This can mean changing the colors of your website to be more contrasting for easier digestion or choosing a different font which is more friendly to dyslexic readers.

Technological accessibility extends beyond providing accommodations for your digital spaces. For example, consider adding a livestream option to physical events. This opens up your viewership to people who wouldn’t ordinarily be able to make it to your event due to disability or distance. Additionally, use technology to make your physical spaces more accessible, such as using adjustable-height desks and counters for direct customer interactions.

Implementing digital accessibility and disability inclusion can make a difference in your workplace – and your world. It’s good for your business, too; organizations that focus on accessibility can reach a whole new market. Choose to be proactive. Accessibility is everyone’s right, no matter the business or its size.

Listen to this in a 3 minute video below.