- So let's talk about employee experience.
Now, experience is different from engagement,
because engagement is something
that we've been trying to measure for a long time.
But I think of it as an outcome.
In many ways where that companies think about engagement
is, well, are people engaged in the work?
And what does engagement look like for most companies?
I want you to focus on your work.
Please do not ask any questions or challenge me.
Just keep your head down and focus on your work
and be really engaged in it.
Now, we know that's not the way that the world works.
We are living, breathing people.
As employees, we want to be in a relationship.
So that's why I think experience is such a better way
to be thinking about things.
Because when you have great experiences,
they build up on top of each other
to create a relationship.
And after all, that's what we're really going after.
Now, when we're thinking about how to create an experience,
it requires a strategy.
And a strategy is what you will do,
and just as importantly, what you won't do.
If you were to do everything
that an employee wanted you to do, you'd go broke.
And they still wouldn't be very happy about it.
So how do you figure out how to create a strategy
that creates the best experience possible
that makes these trade-offs?
Our research has found that the best way
to create this strategy is to have a very clear objective.
And that objective is to define very clearly
what you want that relationship to look like with employees.
Now, when we did this research three, five years ago
when we asked people what does that relationship look like
with an employee, people would say again,
hire, train, and retain.
Well, that's not an experience.
Like, how does that feel?
What does that relationship feel like?
How would an employee describe
that relationship back to you?
What words would you want them to use?
We would want them to use words like empowered,
inspired, trusted.
These are powerful words
that unite an organization and culture.
Now, what's interesting is the role that digital has
in creating this experience strategy.
Because we also know that not everybody
wants the same experience.
You and I, were very different people,
so we want different things
in our relationship with the organization.
In the past this was very difficult to do,
'cause how could we really segment our employees
into these fine groups and deliver on them?
But now because of digital, first of all,
we can identify what your needs are
based on the activities and the behaviors,
expressed and implicit, about what's important to you.
But also we can deliver those experiences
to you now in digital through these unique channels
in a very much more individual way.
What people want in the end is not to be delighted
or to be excited about work.
They want work to be relevant to them.
They want the experience to feel more
like it's for them and that they were understood and known
by their employers when they come in through that door.