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This post talks about proven ways for improving Employee Experience after COVID19. Just stay with us and explore how your company can actively create a positive experience for employees through AI help desk technology and many more. 

Remember, when the COVID-19 hit hard a year ago, creating a chaotic situation in many companies with most reconsidering the way they function and cope with employees. You know that it was risky to ignore the employees’ experience at that time and even today. We don’t want to sound overstated; employee experience affects everything from employee retention and productivity to work culture in your company. 

According to Salesforce, there is a strong connection between customer experience, employee experience, and revenue. A study has found that 70% of executives accept that when employee experience improves, it leads to better customer experience and revenue. 

Your company may have done a good job in addressing the basic needs of employees such as safety, security, and stability of employees during the pandemic. However, their needs are now changing and demanding a more refined technical approach as we enter the recovery phase. 

A recent survey of 800 American employees covering different aspects of the employee experience states that employees feel more engaged and positive while working remotely (Source: MCKinsey). They have a sense of better security than those employed in no remote jobs. 

But these statistics are not universal when it comes to employee experience. While facing the same pandemic situation, >80% of employees state that the situation is significantly affecting their work lives every day. It indicates that employees have different viewpoints, experiences, and outputs. 

Crisis-ridden changes are affecting your employees in both expected and unexpected ways. You should consider using a mixed approach of data; analytics, AI help desk technology, and science to divide your employees and study/read their behavior better. This will help you grow your involvement in supporting your employees in a personalized and engaging manner. 

It is not just enough to keep your employees encouraged during the breakout phase, but the same attention and flexibility are required in this post-COVID-19 phase as the work conditions are no longer the same. The ways you follow to offer a better employee experience will not only decide their commitment and association with your company but also their self-confidence and chances to succeed in the recovery phase. 

Post-COVID is the right time for your company to personalize responses to work-life challenges and maintain the support and bonding earned during the breakout phase. 

Employee Experience - An All-in-one Perception

The effect of your employee’s one-time and repeated interactions with you, the management team, customers, work processes, environment, tools, and policies together constitute employee experience. 

Employee experience is much more than employee engagement, It represents how positive and comfortable your employees feel at the job. It is the total effect of all the experiences that the employees have in your company. A better experience for employees means a better customer experience and a better revenue source. 

Investing in employee experience is likely to bring long-term results. So, an emphasis on how to add to your employee experience is crucial. In the IBM and Globoforce 2016 WorkTrends Survey, a financial link can be found between organizations and their employee experience. 

1. 25% of Organizations that top on employee experience (EX) report receive three times more return (6.3%) on assets in comparison to those in the bottom part (2.2%). 

2. 25% of Organizations topping on employee experience (EX) report get two times more returns on sales (16%) than those in the bottom section (8%). 

3. Similarly, there is a 130% rise in the number of users searching for the term “employee experience” on Google in the last 5 years. 

This shows how the idea is slowly getting popular, leaving scope for companies to improve their employee management practices. So, think of offering a rewarding experience to your employees and optimizing their work productivity post COVID19. 

Core Factors of Employee Experience

You can’t expect to make the work experience of employees positive without knowing and targeting all the factors that matter the most. Employee Experience Index (EXI) of the IBM and Globoforce research acknowledges 5 key factors that are important to measure your employees’ work experiences. They are as follows: 

1. Belongingness or the feeling of being part of a group, team, or company 

2. Purpose or reason for working (seriousness) 

3. Sense of achievement or accomplishment in the done/delivered work 

4. Feeling of happiness at workplace 

5. Strength/vigor, energy, passion, and excitement of working 

In addition to all this, the employee experience rides on the performance, flexibility, and revenue goals of each employee in your company. 

20 Productive Ways to Improve the Employee Experience Post COVID-19

Your employee experience has no doubt been affected to some extent by COVID-19. New employee management models, conversational AI help desk technology, collaborative standards of work, and guidelines are now coming together to transform the way companies run. COVID-19 has paced up this evolution, favored in humans like experience concepts, trends, and tools which can bring in lasting change on a psychological, cultural, and business level. Taking note of all of this stuff and acting on it will surely add value to your employee experience post-COVID-19. 

If you are seeking new means to make the employee experience better, the changing employee expectations should be taken care of post COVID19. They have set new trends for the phase after the crisis. You and your HR managers must understand and weigh up the influence these trends have on the employee experience. 

Let us consider a comparative account of how employees used to feel about their work pre-COVID and Post COVID-19. This will give you some insight into what to stick to for a better experience with employees in the future. 

A Workplaceinsight report claims that only 13 percent of employees all over the world are engaged and happy with their work, while 69 percentages agree to work hard on getting appreciation at work in the Pre-COVID time. Another report from Slack found that: “around 1/3rd of new remotely working employees feel they have low productivity with work from home in comparison to 13% of professional remote workers.” To ensure employee engagement, collaboration, and productivity to get back on track, employees should have strong and advanced support from your company. From using the best automation tools and collaboration software to modernizing your help desk, everything comes to your to-do-list. 

Even the McKinsey report claimed that employee engagement increased 4 times with a positive response from the employer to the pandemic than those who felt their employer’s response was not up-to-the-mark. 

Finding New Ways to Boost Employee Experience Post-COVID

Figuring out all the latest possible means in post-COVID time is likely to put you through some challenges too. Honestly, you have to focus on two major areas -leadership/management level actions and Human resource practices; that can bring great insight and tools your company deserves. A brief look at these actions and practices will make things clear to you. 

Leadership prepares the ground: Employers and managers are instrumental in giving the right direction to your company and maintaining its tone/style throughout. With their behavior and actions, the ground can be easily prepared for a better employee experience. It starts with maintaining a high level of transparency around company goals, employee roles, responsibility, appreciation, trust, and more.

IBM data proves that you need to work at the employer and managerial level to see a better employee experience post-COVID.

44% of employees feel dissatisfied with the way their senior-level authorities support them and need more clarity to effectively work towards the company goal.

Nearly around 37 % of employees in the IBM survey don’t feel like their managers were personally committed and supporting their team.

What can you do at the Leadership level for a better Employee experience? 

1. Identify and focus on the most urgent needs of employees in a team and alone. 

2. Carry on the employee trust value and attachments you have earned during your pre-COVID time. 

3. Take immediate action to improve mutual relationships, social structure, and individual intention to set the employee base 

4. Collect the latest data, analytical metrics, and technology including conversational AI help desks, to value and treat your employees at a personal level. 

5. Reach out to employees for formal/informal discussion and help solve their issues fast, creating social connections easily. 

6. Make a comeback, keep committed to current employee needs and the underlying factors of their efficiency, well-being, and experience. 

7. Be calm, positive, considerate, and open to spreading awareness among employees. Additionally, follow best practices for employee security at the workplace. 

8. Managers in your company should learn to support employees better and infuse trust in them while being reliable, practical, close, and approachable. 

9. Invest in AI automation & collaboration tools to promote co-worker relationships. 

10. Create a closely knitted work culture that welcomes sharing, caring, individual personality, and workplace harmony. 

11. Allow the employees to live their purpose in work rather than merely sustaining. Do everything you can to help them align their actions to purpose effectively. 

12. Consider a tailored approach for employee support based on their individual needs and experience (positive/negative). 

Human Resource Practices - HR practices keep up the momentum initiated at the Leadership level towards a better employee experience. Your company can’t afford to miss attention on the employee experience for the sake of competitive benefits. Employees have high expectations related to the workplace after the COVID19 crisis. So, your HR department should practice identifying the unique qualities of the employee and serving his/her needs in a proven way. It’s better to implement these HR practices across different levels; work, environment, and employees. 

What can you do at the HR level for a better Employee experience? 

13. Have a built-in mobile responsive and messaging app to process employee requests in real-time for an improved employee experience. 

14. Replace traditional help desk operations with new-age conversational AI automation tools and learning sessions 

15. Integrate great technical features to help employees quickly connect with leaders, team members, seniors, etc. 

16. Offer a clean, clutter-free, and technology-based work environment to keep employees motivated and high-performing. 

17. Take measures to guide new employees with work assignments through seniors. 

18. Conduct employee surveys more often to get feedback on which areas of employee support you need to improve. 

19. Emphasize strong internal and external communication among employees. This will keep away confusion and conflicts during employee support. 

20. Turn on social recognition features to make the employee journey happy and memorable. 

Conclusion 

There is a good amount of chance to improve on employee experience post-COVID-19 by adopting a more strategic approach that covers differences among them with an added touch of personalization. The two key driving factors for employee experience —needs and perspectives differ a lot segment-wise—may be more highlighted and more discussed now than before, for the changing time. But setting a path centered on employee experience will help your company enjoy a high impact now and in the coming years. 

Rezolve.ai is known for providing value-adding AI help desk and service desk solutions integrated with trendy MS Teams application. Through our auto-resolution and self-service platform, you will be able to improve employee effectiveness, connectivity, performance, and experience on a personal level. Come and book a demo with us!