When most people think of customers, they think of clients or consumers.
But your employees are customers, too. And if you’re looking to dramatically improve your customer experience, your employees are a great place to start.
Employee experience directly impacts customer experience.
I say it all the time: It takes a great company culture to consistently create real customer experiences. Employee experience is a fundamental part of your culture; improving it will help you build a team of engaged, loyal professionals who are willing to bend over backwards for your customers:
- Engaged employees are happier, and that happiness is infectious.
- Staffing firms with an engaged team have lower turnover rates. Lower turnover = more consistent service and deeper customer relationships = better experiences for employers, field associates and job seekers.
- When employees are engaged, you can train them to be true advocates who build your staffing firm’s brand on both the client and talent sides of the equation.
The benefits are obvious. So the logical next question is…
What’s your employee experience like?
EX includes everything your staff experiences at work. It’s impacted by your firm’s culture, employees’ physical environment, your work processes and even the technology you use – so installing a ping pong table isn’t likely to”move the needle” in any meaningful way.
But if you want to get serious about improving your team’s EX, here are a few things you can do:
- Find out what your employees want from their jobs. Hold a meeting. Talk to people individually. Use an anonymous survey if you have to, to get the candid feedback you need. For employees to be passionate about their work, it needs to provide fulfillment for them.
- Examine your workflow processes. Any successful staffing professional knows how frustrating and disruptive things like process bottlenecks and communication silos are for clients; they’re just as detrimental to your own team, too. Re-examine the way you get work done, and then focus on improving one area at a time.
- Evaluate your technology. Younger professionals, in particular, use sophisticated tech in their personal lives – and they want to use it to make their work lives better, too. Consider ways tech enhancements could make your team more efficient, improve collaboration, and yes – create a better experience for your customers.
- Take a hard look at your culture. Would your employees say that your staffing or recruiting firm is a great place to work? Does your team provide great internal customer service? Are employees empowered or micromanaged? Is the vibe positive? Is management committed to the staff’s happiness, professional development and overall fulfillment? The best staffing firms to work for strive to build a service-minded culture for both external and internal customers.
Better Employee Experience: A Smart Business Resolution for 2019
Making meaningful improvements in any of these high-level areas requires a ton of work– but the payoff is huge. To position your firm for long-term success, resolve to create better experiences for your employees in 2019. Your employees will be happier, more loyal and engaged, and that satisfaction will translate into better CX – and a healthier bottom line.
