What is the employee journey?
The employee journey is increasingly being a key priority amongst HR and organisations today – and for a very good reason. The employee journey is defined as “the time an employee spends at a company, starting when the employee applies to the organization and ending when the employee quits the organisation.” The duration as well as experiences between these two key moments is known as the employee journey.
Identifying pivotal moments during the employee journey is key for HR to be able to improve and enhance the overall employee experience. Viewing the employee experience from two different perspectives – the employees’ and employers’ – will provide deeper insights on how HR can create a better overall employee journey.
From the employee’s perspective
There are several notable moments during the employees’ journey which HR should focus on – the first interview, the first day at work, the first interaction with the line manager, first full performance review, team events, company restructuring as well as the exit interview. Other key moments would also include day-to-day interactions with co-workers and clients, which could significantly impact the employee’s experiences with the organisation.
Given that there are numerous key moments during the employees’ journey, employees might experience pleasant moments in some instances, and unpleasant experiences in other instances. A good way to identify areas for improvement is to measure employees’ engagement levels during their entire employee journey. Employee engagement surveys as well as regular feedback sessions are a great way for HR and organisations to measure existing employee engagement levels. At the same time, it helps HR identify strong points and weak areas for improvement.
From the employer’s perspective
The employee journey from the employer’s perspective is to be able to measure and monitor. Suppose an employee had a bad experience in their first week at work. They are likely to carry this bad experience with them throughout their employee journey and chances of this employee leaving the organisation in their first year increases significantly. If employers are able to measure and identify key areas for improvement early in the employee journey, this allows employers to take action quickly before the issue escalates.
Measuring the employee experience
There are various approaches that organisations can take to measure employees’ experiences. It can be through quantitative or qualitative methods. Quantitative methods can help organisations to derive a number of hypotheses which provides valuable next steps on areas for improvement. Concurrently, this helps HR and organisations to streamline their approach towards creating a positive employee journey.
Essentially, the employee journey focuses on the “moments that matter” and if organisations are able to ensure positive outputs from these key moments, this would translate to happier and engaged employees in the long run.
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