You have some history and current context. I've outlined the key needs and wants of employees. Now, let's get to the important points around employee experience, and why nothing matters more to the future of your company.
Notes
1 1. Emma Goldberg, “In a ‘Workers Economy,’ Who Really Holds the Cards?” The New York Times, November 3, 2021, nytimes.com/2021/11/03/business/jobs-workers-economy.html
2 2. Paul Krugman, “Is the Great Resignation a Great Rethink?” The New York Times, November 5, 2021, nytimes.com/2021/11/05/opinion/great-resignation-quit-job.html
3 3. Tom Kalil and Farnam Jahanian, “Computer Sciencs is for Everyone!” Obama White House blog, December 11, 2013, obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/blog/2013/12/11/computer-science-everyone
4 4. Annette LaPrade, Janet Mertens, Tanya Moore, and Amy Wright, “The Enterprise Guide to Closing the Skills Gap,” IBM Insitute for Business Value, ibm.com/downloads/cas/epymnbja
5 5. “Calculating Migration Expectancy Using ACS Data,” United States Census Bureau, census.gov/topics/population/migration/guidance/calculating-migration-expectancy.html
6 6. Jesse Noyes, “7 Big Statistics About the State of Flexible Work Arrangements,” Workest by Zenefits, July 11, 2018, zenefits.com/workest/7-big-statistics-about-the-state-of-flexible-work-arrangements/
7 7. “Artificial Intelligence in 2019: Getting Past the Adoption Tipping Point,” Blumberg Capital, August 1, 2019, blumbergcapital.com/ai-in-2019/
8 8. “The Future of Jobs and Skills,” World Economic Forum, 2016, reports.weforum.org/future-of-jobs-2016/chapter-1-the-future-of-jobs-and-skills
9 9. “2017-2018 State of Enterprise Work Report,” Workfront, 2017-18, workfront.com/resources/2017-2018-state-of-enterprise-work-report-u-s-edition
10 10. Moore's Law.
CHAPTER 2 Employee Experience: The New Why
“I hate the word ‘experience,’” the CHRO of a global consumer products company told me. “It's difficult to define and there's no way my CFO will pay for it.”
What Exactly Is “Employee Experience”?
I get what she's saying. For many leaders, investing resources to plan and create an outstanding employee experience may seem difficult to justify. After all, how do you convert purpose, agency, belonging, and recognition into goals? What would you measure? How does it align with business outcomes? How would you budget for it? Who would determine if you've succeeded?
A useful definition of employee experience comes from my colleague at SAP, Dr. Steve Hunt, an industrial-organizational psychologist who has explored this topic through his work with more than a thousand companies around the globe. “‘Employee experience’ refers to the beliefs, feelings, attitudes, and behaviors resulting from one's job experiences,” says Steve. “Three basic types of experiences influence how people feel about work.”
Task experience: Is it easy to get things done? This is about providing employees with the tools and resources they need to accomplish their goals at work. Good task experiences make employees feel efficient and productive; bad task experiences create frustration and a sense that the company doesn't appreciate the employee's time or skills.
Social experience: Do I like the people I work with and how we work together? Creating effective team climates and shared norms and values that support business results. Good social experiences make employees feel welcomed, included, effective, and supported. Bad social experiences make employees feel isolated, alienated, unproductive, and annoyed.
Fulfillment experience: Does my job provide the things I want from work? Work can provide fulfillment in different ways. It may allow employees to achieve goals outside of work, such as providing for their families. It may give employees the opportunity to do work they enjoy, help them fulfill professional career goals, or enable them to achieve some higher-level purpose related to improving society or the planet.
Steve elaborates: “An employee's experience of fulfillment depends to some degree on all of these factors. But the importance of each factor varies across employees. The ideal job provides a positive task, social, and fulfillment experience. But few, if any, jobs are ideal. So employees make trade-offs between these experiences. It's easier to do a relatively unfulfilling job if we work with people we enjoy. We are willing to overcome bad task experiences if we believe in the purpose of our work. On the other hand, if any one of these experiences falls below a certain level for an extended amount of time, then jobs become unpleasant, stressful, and often intolerable.”
Employee experience impacts purpose, agency, belonging, and recognition. A bad task experience hurts your agency – it undermines your ability to do what you need to do to be successful. A bad social experience often makes you feel uncared for and unwanted. And an unfulfilling job, by definition, is one that does not give you a sense that your work is meaningful and purposeful. You can feel unappreciated in all three types of experience: The company doesn't appreciate the value of your time (task), doesn't appreciate who you are as a person (social), or doesn't appreciate what you want to achieve in your career (fulfillment).
Here's another analogy I like to use, about one of my favorite experiences: hiking. Task experience is like having boots that fit. A hike will not be good simply because your boots fit. But if your boots don't fit, then the hike will be frustrating and potentially miserable.
Social experience is about whom you're hiking with. Do you all get along, enjoy each other's conversation, and walk at the same general pace?
Fulfillment experience is about where you're hiking to. Are you hiking through a beautiful valley to a lake you've always wanted to see, walking around a suburban neighborhood, or trudging through a mosquito-infested swamp?
Whether the hike is good or bad depends on all three of these elements. But if any single one falls below a certain level, the hike will be terrible.
For a business, the results that derive from positive employee experiences are not always direct but they are profound and provable. A nurturing and purposeful environment alters employee beliefs and attitudes.