Five ways you can drive retention through employee experience
How employees experience work has become increasingly important for businesses, with research suggesting that the employee experience is critical to an organisation’s ability to attract the right employees, keep them engaged and remain viable.
The Boosting the Local Care Workforce Program interviewed 20 care and support sector providers across Australia to understand how ‘employee experience’ impacts their business. Analysis of these interviews revealed that despite global advances in technology and new ways of working, people still power organisations.
A closer look at the results shows that organisations who put people at the centre of everything they do makes for a better employee experience (EX) and lasting value. The findings show that people can enable and drive business strategy and operations through five key areas:
- Leadership visibility: Leaders don’t know what they don’t know – being on the floor builds trust with the workforce, opens communication channels, and awakens them to challenges in the business. This can have a positive impact on employee motivation and feelings of being valued.
- Culture and wellbeing: Service providers acknowledge the importance of values-based recruitment practices as the first step toward compatibility between (1) people and company, (2) people and team and (3) people and clients. Additionally, focusing on employee wellbeing is central to building a positive culture, demonstrating to employees that people and their wellbeing are central to the organisation.
- Greater flexibility: To compete in a tight labour market, service providers need to consider ways of accommodating flexibility for employees where possible, acknowledging differing needs of both individuals and the business.
- Recognition: Employees recognise that their skills are in demand, and seek employment opportunities that are more lucrative, secure, and consistent with their lifestyle. Recognition of performance and loyalty drives greater satisfaction at work and can improve employee engagement.
- Career pathways and development: Employees can become disillusioned by a lack of career progression and focus on compliance. Organisations that can offer secure and predictable career pathways centred on opportunities to develop employee knowledge, skills, and abilities, with clear individual career pathways send a strong message of commitment to their workforce.