The New Worker

Did you know that the average person will spend upward of 81,000 hours in their lifetime working? When you take this colossal number into consideration, it should be a no-brainer for leaders to foster a positive work environment for all their employees.

Extending far beyond pizza lunches and casual Fridays, the employee experience (EX) encompasses every touchpoint in the employee lifecycle, from the time a person applies for a job, to even after they part ways with an organization. Employee engagement is considered one of the top factors when assessing whether your company offers a healthy employee experience. It measures how people feel about their physical environment, co-workers, managers, and more.

Studies confirm that creating an exceptional employee experience enables exceptional employees. According to Gallup, companies that foster great employee experience and support employee engagement see 59% less employee turnover than companies with an actively disengaged workforce. Focusing on employee experience results in better work performance, higher employee retention levels, and remarkably higher levels of discretionary effort.

But the 10 million-dollar question remains: what makes a great employee experience?

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14 Factors of a great employee experience

Knowing how to improve the employee experience requires understanding the key factors that affect the employee life cycle at your organization. Simply focusing on one or two of these factors isn't enough, and any employee experience strategy worth its salt will require a holistic view of how employees perceive and experience their work environment and their interactions within it.

1. Celebrating employee efforts

In a fast-paced work environment, taking the time to acknowledge your employees' work can sometimes fall by the wayside. According to Officevibe data, 72% of employees say that they receive kudos less than once a week, it may be high time to rethink your employee recognition strategies.

Recognition leads to retention

It's important to note that recognition goes beyond a pat on the back for a job well done after making a sale or nailing a big presentation. Recognition should be given regularly and should highlight strong efforts in a genuine way. Showing appreciation and gratitude can go a long way in keeping your employees engaged and adds to a more authentic employee experience.

🌟Read on for more ways to increase recognition in the workplace.

2. Fostering healthy employee-manager relationships

One of the most important bonds in the workplace is between an employee and their manager. If nurtured, employees can feel more empowered, motivated, and creative. But according to Officevibe data, 70% of employees surveyed wished they could spend more time with their managers. Make time to get to know your team members individually and discuss with them things like their preferred communication styles and check-in methods. Holding regular one-on-one meetings is a great way to connect with your people at get to the heart of what matters most to them.

💪 Start building better relationships with your employees with these four simple but effective steps.

3. Building strong relationships with peers

According to Officevibe's data report, 96% of employees believe they collaborate well with peers, but remote work has made the hiring process and developing strong workplace relationships more challenging.

Manager relationships are central to employees' experience

Since strong interpersonal relationships are the cornerstone of effective collaboration, managers should encourage more open channels of communication and make time for team building regardless of location. Some ways managers can build connections across their remote teams include:  

• Scheduling time for casual conversation
• Assigning a buddy or mentor
• Set communication norms and boundaries
• Organize in-person activities (if possible)

4. Receiving meaningful feedback

According to Gallup, employees that receive frequent feedback — at least once a week — are more likely to be engaged and motivated than those that receive irregular feedback.

Employee feedback is fundamental for a number of reasons; not only does it helps identify and remove blockers to reach broader targets and objectives, but it enables ongoing development opportunities and makes employees feel supported in their roles.

Provide frequent feedback

Instead of waiting "for the right time" in a performance management meeting, managers should focus on providing meaningful and timely feedback when necessary as part of an ongoing dialogue. By offering constructive feedback in a timely manner, employees can more easily and efficiently integrate these comments into their daily tasks to boost productivity and performance.

🤝 An employee feedback system describes a setup that helps you take the pulse of employee sentiment to gauge factors such as employee engagement and job satisfaction. Read on to learn why and how you should implement an employee feedback system into your employee engagement strategies.

5. Feeling respected

Respect is the cornerstone of any relationship and those in the workplace are no different. Managers should seek to actively incorporate empathy, kindness, and compassion into their leadership styles and employee engagement strategies. One of the most important ways to show your employees you care about them is by listening to and acknowledging their thoughts, opinions, and concerns.

However, employee feedback only works if a team feels that managers respect their views. Employees will only give their genuine opinion if they see that the company puts them and their experiences first. Paying lip service and ignoring employee feedback can backfire dramatically and completely derail any employee experience strategy. If a manager has asked for employee feedback, it's paramount that they respond to these comments in a professional and respectful manner regardless of whether the feedback is negative or constructive.

Not sure where to start gathering your employees' thoughts? Try these five ways to collect honest employee feedback (and don't forget to respond!).

6. Focusing on psychological safety

Companies that encourage collaboration and honest communication between business leaders, employees, and managers must create a safe psychological space. This means creating environments where employees feel comfortable sharing their ideas, owning up to mistakes, and asking for help without fear of repercussion or rejection.

Understand how and why your employees feel the way they do

Hostile work environments can increase employee stress, affect happiness, and create antagonistic relationships between teams and even between employees themselves, all of which affect productivity and performance. By creating psychologically safe spaces, an organization can make employees feel valued, respected, and comfortable enough to pursue creative ideas and learn from mistakes.

7. Improving diversity and inclusion

It's undeniable that a diverse workforce strengthens the fabric of any organization and contributes to a healthy employee experience. However, diversity and inclusion must be embodied fully by the corporate culture and company values to be truly considered inclusive.

Many organizations are actively revising their recruitment strategies to attract a more diverse workforce, but it’s the experience created for employees that will ultimately drive their success. Creating a safe space for employees of all backgrounds to share their thoughts, feelings, and creative ideas without fear will foster a better employee journey for all.

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8. Offering continuous training and learning

A creatively engaged and motivated employee may begin to feel restless if they no longer feel challenged in their role. To foster employee engagement and create a more positive experience for remote workers, leaders should periodically check in with their employees to see if there are certain skills they would like to sharpen or develop. Offering workshops, language courses, and professional development classes all go a long way in keeping your employees ahead of the curve on the latest industry trends.

9. Create opportunities for career development

Employees want to have a clear idea of their professional journeys and want to know that they can grow within their organization. Managers who are in tune with their employees' aspirations and goals can help identify prospective career paths and help them develop strategic plans to achieve their long-term goals.

The career development talk may not always be the easiest to approach. Use this free template to get the discussion going on how you can help your team members grow.

10. Aligning values with organizational mission and purpose

Organizations with a clear mission and purpose are more likely to attract employees whose values align with that mission. But company and team alignment extends beyond bottom-line objectives; employees must all be on the same wavelength when it comes to achieving and building sustainable business practices.

But according to Officevibe data, only 73% of respondents feel like the leaders of their organization have communicated a vision that motivates them. Managers must ensure that their employees are kept in the loop and relay executive communications in a clear and accessible fashion. Employees that believe in what they're doing are more likely to work harder to achieve organizational goals, resulting in better business performance and outcomes across the board.

11. Promoting autonomy

Autonomy can mean different things to different employees; it can range from letting a person do their job with minimal managerial intervention to respecting an employee's creative decisions on projects.

Autonomy is important for a positive experience because it gives the employee control and decision-making over their tasks. This control is often a powerful motivator and can improve performance and engagement, as employees feel they own their decisions (and consequences).

💪 Check out these seven tips to master employee autonomy in the workplace.

12. Prioritizing work-life balance

While the employee experience focuses on what happens at work, it's important to understand how employees feel outside of  the physical work environment will affect their work experience. A healthy and stable work-life balance provides opportunities for employees to address external factors, leading to a more positive employee experience in the workplace. It also gives team members time to de-stress and return to work with a renewed focus on their tasks. According to recent studies, happier employees also perform better (by 12% to be exact!)

And with only 72% of Officevibe respondents agreeing that they have a manageable workload, leaders need to invest in different wellness programs and strategies to maintain a healthy work-life balance.

Show your employees that you are investing in their well-being and open the channels of communication in team meetings and one-on-ones. If you’re unsure how to start the conversation, use a wellness survey to ask the right questions to get the core of what your people need from their leaders.

13. Promoting health and wellness

According to Officevibe data, a full quarter of employees feel that their organization doesn't care about their mental health and well-being. Wellness programs and a focus on maintaining a healthy work-life balance are key to creating a positive employee experience. Initiatives like these show employees that their organization genuinely cares for their health while also helping them deal with stress and health concerns. Incorporating holistic wellness programs into company culture will do wonders in increasing employee engagement and fostering a great employee experience.

Check out these wellness programs to start promoting health and well-being on your teams.

14. Developing an employee-focused company culture

People are the beating heart of any organization. Employees that feel they are part of a community are more likely to have a positive experience and feel strongly about their work. By creating mutually beneficial communities instead of rigid hierarchies, organizations will have invested employees who will offer support and collaborate in more meaningful ways.

Fostering this type of corporate culture and employee experience takes time, but the benefits and competitive advantage are well worth the effort.

A thriving, genuine culture is not something you can create. But with the right mindset — and help from your team — you can curate it and watch it become the best version of itself. Read the first edition of VIBE: Human-generated culture to foster and create a positive workplace culture worthy of raving about.

Building a positive employee experience action plan

Creating a great employee experience can give your organization a competitive edge, but knowing how to actually improve the employee experience can be significantly harder. In some companies, it may require a complete overhaul of how executives and managers interact with employees, while in others, it may require tweaking an already positive employee experience.

The best way forward is to define an employee experience strategy involving employees, HR professionals, leaders, and managers at every stage of the process. Doing so will provide a positive impression, increase employee and manager enthusiasm and buy-in, and create a better work environment for the entire organization.

Seek feedback on employee experience

It may seem obvious, but the best way to develop an employee experience plan is to ask employees what they think. The more information you gather about every part of the employee lifecycle, the more meaningful the changes will be to everyone involved.

We recommend using a variety of methods to collect feedback. Some employees may feel uncomfortable providing honest opinions or feel unqualified to comment on a particular topic. Using several different strategies will ensure you get a holistic view across all areas of the organization. Common feedback tools include:

• Employee experience surveys: These surveys will often be your primary source of employee experience data. They tend to be comprehensive, covering all of the factors we discussed above. If your organization has trouble with low survey response rates, be sure to inform team members about the purpose of the survey to increase participation rates. Also, be sure to highlight the fact that these surveys are anonymous, as this knowledge will have a significant impact on the quality and honesty of the feedback you get.

• Pulse surveys: Not all surveys need to be extensive and exhaustive. Pulse surveys are short (five questions or fewer), frequent surveys that gauge the current workplace mood and outlook. They're also perfect for tracking trends in the employee experience, especially after implementing a new initiative.
• Onboarding surveys: New hires can provide a valuable source of information about their onboarding experience and overall impressions of the company. Many organizations conduct these surveys as part of the hiring and onboarding process. However, you can also tie these surveys to aspects around company culture, hiring managers, and previously-identified trouble spots.
• Anonymous feedback: Employee feedback is essential to the functioning of any workplace experience. Some team members may feel totally comfortable expressing themselves directly to managers, others may prefer to provide comments more anonymously. Anonymous feedback encourages employees to bring up tough topics in a safe environment, allows people to share new ideas or convey anxieties in a judgment-free zone, and builds trust between team members.
• One-on-one meetings: These meetings can be part of a broader feedback scheme, but they should incorporate feedback from employees to their managers and employers. Formal meetings offer a more structured approach, but managers should also pursue less formal feedback during their interactions with their teams.
• Team meetings: Some employees may be reluctant to speak up in a one-on-one meeting but may feel more empowered in a team setting. Team meetings are ideal spaces to identify the department or organization-wide problems that affect multiple individuals. Having several employees share the same concern lends urgency to the problem and how it affects the employee experience.
• Exit interviews: These surveys are exceptionally useful for organizations with high employee turnover. An exit interview can provide valuable information about critical aspects of the employee experience. Remember that exit interviews may be emotionally fraught, and it's vital to distinguish between genuine complaints and ruffled feathers.

Understanding the correlation between employee satisfaction and financial gain can be a game-changer for your organization. Learn about the ROI of focusing on the employee experience

Identify areas of improvement

A large part of defining an employee experience strategy is analyzing feedback and identifying the most important areas of improvement. Some key things to look out for include:

• Recurring comments in employees’ responses
• Differing concerns between demographics
• Varying responses between departments and teams

Remember that changing the employee experience is a bottom-up process, where it's vital to take employee feedback seriously, which may include asking them to rate the most important changes they'd like to see. Analyzing your survey results will give you key insights into the current state of employee engagement within your organization. But the work doesn’t stop there!

Implement changes

After you've analyzed employee data and feedback, it's time to start implementing changes or doubling down on what is going well. It's also good practice to inform your team members of feedback and survey results. Start creating realistic action items and strategies based on discussions and data. From your own interpretation and your discussion with your team, decide on 1 to 3 key areas or metrics to prioritize setting goals for including employee satisfaction.

Measure employee engagement

Measuring the performance of your initiatives is key to creating a sustainable employee experience. If you have already run employee surveys before or have collected feedback on a certain topic, comparing the current results with previous answers can show you changes in important metrics. If certain strategies have not yielded desired results or even ended up creating more work for your team members, there is no shame in backtracking or adapting your methods. Remember: being adaptable is a key characteristic of a strong leader. At the end of the day, the initiatives you implement must serve your team members and contribute to the larger employee experience.

Working together to create a great employee experience

Creating a strong, positive, engaged employee experience has numerous benefits, both for business productivity and your employees' well-being. Engaged employees are more productive, contribute to workplace safety more, and have higher company loyalty.

Not all the benefits of a positive employee experience are obviously tangible, but they will still have a clear impact on your company’s success. A positive workplace experience will also affect your reputation and employer branding, making you more attractive to high-quality talent. Learn more about how an employee experience platform like Officevibe can help you foster a great employee experience for your entire team.

By nature, humans strive to feel aligned in every aspect of daily life – either intrinsically with our own values and ambitions, or extrinsically with the people we interact with and the groups we belong to. The professional word is no different. Alignment is an essential part of the foundation in any workplace. And when done right, it can be the defining factor in the success of an organization. 

We recently attended the webinar, “Keys to Creating Alignment Throughout Your Organization”, with Aja Smith, Executive Leadership Coach and Community & Partnerships Catalyst at ThinkHuman, to talk about the impacts of alignment (and effects of misalignment!).  

As teams, individuals, and leaders, these key takeaways from our conversation serve to remind us all of the true power of alignment. 

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A recap of our main webinar takeaways

• Defining alignment at work
• The power of achieving alignment together
• The impact of remote work on alignment
• Power dynamics and misalignment
• Sharing a vision to meet in the middle
• How to create achievable goals
• Understanding the human side of alignment

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📺 Didn't catch the live webinar? No stress, you can watch it on demand!

What does alignment mean to you? 

The beauty of alignment is that even if we all define it differently, a unified vision is what brings us all together. From rowing in the same direction or getting your ducks in a row, to everyone pulling together towards a shared purpose and being on the same page for growth — it’s about being all-in together. When everyone on the team is clear about the company's mission and purpose, it acts as a guiding North Star of sorts.  

Here’s how the webinar panelists define alignment: 

“When my personal values, motivations, and aspirations are all in alignment with where I work, who I work with, and how I work.”

- Andrea Kalavsky, Coach, Mentor, and People Consultant at peopleOsophy 

“Good people who are collaborating together and having fun. Who are aligned on values, and goals, and heading in the same direction, and accountable for their role and impact within the organization.”

- Julie Jeannotte, HR Expert and Researcher at Officevibe 

“Everyone having clarity on what you're trying to achieve, whether that's the goal, the metrics, the vision, or mission, but also how you're going to achieve it.”

- Kavita Vora, Chief People Officer at BrainPOP 

Beyond having our own definitions, one of the most important steps to ensuring alignment is for the organization to clearly articulate what it is to them. It has to be demonstrated as a shared set of facts and a vision to move forward in. Alignment begins with a shared reality. 

The power of achieving alignment together 

Strategy, resources, and organizational capability all matter in their own right. But the real magic happens when they’re all aligned. Achieving alignment within your organization can have a powerful impact if everyone is moving in the same direction with a unified mindset. Think of it as the glue to performance excellence and the essence of good management.  

Alignment gives everyone a sense of purpose and serves as super powerful driver of retention, engagement, and performance. This allows employees to see the impact of their individual work, how it helps achieve team goals and business outcomes. 

It's also important to differentiate it from the simple absence of dysfunction or conflict in the workplace. Alignment is what helps employees feel like they’re part of something bigger, more engaged, and motivated to play a vital role in enabling the organization to function as a well-oiled machine.  

When an employee is working hard but doesn’t know whether their work is contributing to the greater purpose, they get the feeling that they’re simply spinning their wheels. This becomes both frustrating and exhausting, which in turn leads to burnout. They’ll either disengage and stay, or disengage and leave. Sometimes it’s of greater benefit to slow down and get realigned rather than race haphazardly towards an unclear goal and burning out as a result. 

The impact of remote work on alignment 

Today’s workplace reality sees more remote and hybrid work models than ever before, so it’s inevitable that this kind of distributed work will have an impact on alignment. While allowing relationships to flourish within teams that regularly work together is still feasible in a remote context, it’s significantly more challenging to maintain connections across different teams.

Finding ways to preserve alignment while working remotely is essential to ensuring engagement, performance, and even retention. This new working reality has put an unprecedented spotlight on how critical alignment truly is in the workplace. It helps employees see the concrete impact of their individual and team work on the success of the organization and its business outcomes.  

Alignment also plays an important role in ensuring employees don't feel a sense of isolation when working remotely. This sense of purpose at their organization helps them feel like they're part of something bigger, and in turn more engaged in their roles. The right tools and meaningful communication help everyone achieve this. 

Power dynamics and misalignment 

When it comes to misalignment, it can simply stem from positionality instead of curiosity. When we think from our own position, push our own agenda, and see a different way of doing things as the wrong way, we can’t possibly achieve alignment. 

Power dynamics can really change the course of things. For example, when leadership is confident and persistent about one direction being the right one, it can be uncomfortable for other people to share the fact that they don't agree or have a different viewpoint. When people say that they agree, but deep down they don't, it can create issues where you realize you never really had alignment to begin with.  

Remember that superficial verbal alignment is not true alignment. While nobody wants to be the one to disrupt or derail the mission by going against the grain, not speaking up can be even more detrimental. We must find ways to translate emotion into language, and to express our sentiments so as not to over-intellectualize a problem.  

The head, the hands, and the heart. 

This leads us to the three archetypes commonly found in an organization: 
 
🧠 The intellectuals who function organically using their heads. 

🧡 The people who function through their hearts and emotions and tend to be more naturally creative. 

✋ The ones who use their hands to throw an idea at the wall and see what sticks.  

While everyone approaches matters differently, recognizing that if we are going to create alignment with our business, we need to speak to all three parts: the head, the hands, and heart. We all also know that ego gets in the way of healthy debate. But we need healthy debate to meet in the middle and achieve alignment. 

Sharing a vision to meet in the middle 

Now that we recognize that building a shared reality is the most effective way to create a mutual understanding and strive towards a goal together, we can think about the best strategies and tools to foster this kind of alignment within the organization. 

With so many different management and personality styles, we must find ways to empower everyone equally. This comes from a combination of teaching clarity and curiosity. Here’s how: 

 1. Set clear expectations 

The first step is to lay out expectations that can be reinforced with clarity and curiosity. One person shares their perspective, then asks for others’ perspectives. When you genuinely listen and ask questions, you’re able to land at a new place together and be clear on the expectations. For there to be true alignment, people must know what they’re aligning on, and then have some reference point they can go back to. 

2. Provide clarity  

It’s not enough for leaders to simply set the expectations without exploring what success looks like for other people. Where do we start? What one action or task can you implement to get the ball rolling together? Sometimes it simply starts with smaller, bite-sized pieces to get clarity from the jump. 

3. Strive for progress over perfection 

Once you get more organized and structured, you can build on the clarity by adding in consistency through rituals. Think one-on-ones between managers and employees, and between peers. Have a point of reference that employees can check in real-time to see their progress. Whether it’s monthly or quarterly, having information available to everyone in the company will help everyone feel that they are aligned and understand how they can contribute towards its goals. 

4. Double-down on listening mechanisms 

Whether it’s forums where people chat and discuss, tools where people share feedback, one-on-ones, coaching sessions, group calls — or whatever else works for you, double down on your listening mechanisms. This can really help identify misalignment before it becomes problematic and even harder to remedy. 

🚀 Go above and beyond with these 5 extra ways to ensure team alignment and improve performance.

Create achievable goals 

It’s clear that to achieve alignment we need to set targets and create goals. But we also need to be extra mindful to avoid setting goals that are unrealistically out of reach and unachievable. Being overly aspirational can inadvertently create moments of misalignment.  

When you've got a goal that you just can't reach, it feels like you're being set up for failure. We have to remember that it’s okay to shoot for the stars and hit the clouds. Be realistic about factoring in today’s reality and the ever-changing work landscape. Instead, mark every single milestone by creating a culture of gratitude and celebration. 

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The human side of alignment 

While alignment is about tools, processes, goals, and business outcomes, we always have to remember that it's also powered by people, relationships, and trust. In the mix of it all, we can’t forget the human side of alignment, and the importance of bringing your whole self to every conversation (no matter how messy, chaotic, or creatively driven you come across!) 

What each individual brings to the table determines the outcome. You cannot expect joy if you haven't created joy within yourself. You cannot expect people to achieve amazing things if you haven't shown them what success looks like. Be demonstrative in what you're doing, even when you’re building goal-setting systems, tools, and processes. 

Rolling it together, rowing it together. 

What it all boils down to is that in order for people to become aligned, they need clear expectations and the right mechanisms to support them. There needs to be accountability and training, clarity and curiosity, and everyone feeling good about rowing in the same boat together. 

A lunch and learn event is a great way to strengthen company culture by giving employees the time to learn from each other and exchange ideas. However, organizing a lunch and learn event can be complicated when employees are working remotely from different locations and time zones. A virtual lunch and learn offers remote employees the chance to participate in team-building activities, develop personally and professionally, and become better acquainted with one another. Keep reading to discover topic ideas and tips to host a successful virtual event.

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What is a virtual lunch and learn?

A virtual lunch and learn is an online lunch experience that allows employees of a company to converse and learn about diverse topics. A lunch and learn session is the perfect moment to encourage the personal and professional development of employees. 

6 tips to host a successful virtual lunch and learn

1. Choose a topic

One of the first things to consider if you want to organize a successful lunch and learn is the topic. It’s important to choose a topic that’s relevant to both the company and its employees. To achieve this, you must identify what lunch and learn topics will best attract the attention of attendees. A virtual lunch and learn session shouldn’t be too knowledge-dense, as that will take away from its casual nature. 

Relevant topics can be found in all areas of a business, from customer feedback to important changes in company policy. You can find good lunch and learn ideas by asking your employees what they want to talk about. Ideas for a virtual lunch and learn can revolve around an upcoming company event. For example, a customer service team will greatly benefit from a lunch and learn where a new product is explained to them by those who developed it. 

Our guide to implement a Lunch & Learn session will help you get to know more about your employees' interests and strengths. By using this template in your one-on-one meetings, you will encourage knowledge sharing and thus be able to develop team building activities with your staff!

2. Pick someone to be the host

It is hard to plan a typical lunch with remote employees. To maintain an engaging conversational flow, you should appoint a charismatic individual to be the host. Public speaking is not for everyone. If the host can’t keep the virtual session interesting, employees will just zone off. 

If the purpose behind your lunch and learn is product training, then you should have a product manager who is excited about the product launch be the host of the event. Employees can be handed out invitations to speak about topics they are passionate about. Those who have a particular skill may be eager to share it with their peers during a lunch and learn. For instance, if you want people to discuss common client queries, a customer service manager with ample experience interacting with people might make a great host.

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Hard skills vs. soft skills: Why your employees need both

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3. Organize lunch and learn activities

Organization is key to a successful virtual lunch meeting. A lunch and learn shouldn’t last more than 30 minutes including questions, and it is important to use this time well. You should design virtual sessions that compel the staff to engage voluntarily while also covering as much ground as possible. 

A good virtual lunch and learn may be structured in the following way:

• Give everyone some time to settle in. Don’t expect people to be ready to pay attention for the first 5 minutes of a virtual lunch and learn. After all, this is the time for everyone to log in, get their food, and say hello to one another. During this time, it is best to keep the conversation simple and casual.
• Holding the main event. The presentation is the main course of your lunch and learn. The host should present the session agenda and proceed to start with the virtual meeting. Depending on how much information must be relayed, this part of the virtual event should go on for 10-15 minutes. 
• Don’t forget the Q&A session. It is good to leave some time for employees to ask questions and clear their doubts. After wrapping up, the last moments of the virtual lunch and learn can be dedicated to further the interaction between the attendees and the presenter. 

4. Let everyone know about your virtual lunch meeting

You can’t talk to your remote team face-to-face, so you should communicate the event details to them using the channels you are already familiar with. If you don’t communicate the event logistics early, you run the risk of employees having an unpleasant last-minute surprise. 

You should email the topic, agenda, date, and time to all potential attendees in advance. You can facilitate the communication and organization of your lunch and learn with an Enterprise LMS. It is used widely by businesses to create, distribute, and manage digital courseware to learners. In addition to providing a central location for storing and distributing course materials, an LMS provides you with tools for tracking participation, performance assessment, reporting, and other functions.

5. Plan a remote lunch

Naturally, people will attend a lunch and learn with the intention to eat. Planning a virtual lunch differs from a typical lunch break because managing food ideas and catering becomes more complicated due to the distance. While it may be impossible to bring everyone to the office and order takeout, that doesn’t mean you can’t deliver food to your employees. In fact, you can allow them the leeway to choose what they want to eat. You can give your employee’s a certain allowance to order the food and beverages they wish from their favorite national chains or local restaurants. 

6. Gauge the success of your virtual lunch

You should record and monitor the success of your lunch and learn, especially if you wish to conduct more of them in the future. By recording your learning sessions, you can make them available to team members who were unable to attend the live event. Additionally, you can run a post-session survey to collect feedback on what your attendees liked, what they learned, and their opinions on how the experience could be improved. 

Holding regular lunch and learns is a great way to strengthen company culture. By having an active community of employees, you can streamline communication, engage with clients more effectively, and increase workplace morale. You should always encourage your employees to converse and learn from one another.

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Good communication in the workplace is key to your team’s success

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Amazing topic ideas for virtual lunch and learns

“Ask me anything” sessions

Made popular by the online discussion site Reddit, an Ask Me Anything is an online question-and-answer session where an expert can spend an hour of their time engaging with people who are interested in different aspects of their life. When taken into the professional sphere, this type of session is a great way for employees to learn more about their superiors.

People can ask questions about a wide variety of topics, ranging from strategies for personal development to tips on how to dress for success. This approach lends itself to better collaboration than typical Q&A sessions. Presenters can choose to focus on the most popular questions to base the session on what the majority of attendees wish to know.

Team-building nerd talks

Similar to TED-style presentations, nerd talks are virtual sessions that include interactive elements such as remote bingo to enhance audience engagement and participation. This virtual lunch idea is great for offering attendees the chance to relax and freely talk about topics other than work, from zombies and aliens to extraordinary facts and lesser-known tidbits of history. 

Comedy workshops

Instead of focusing on work themes, lunch and learns can also be about the favorite skills and hobbies of attendees. A comedy workshop is a crash course in standup where an experienced comedian can share their secrets with attendees. Attendants to a comedy workshop can improve their wit by practicing joke delivery and how to craft effective one-liners. Comedy helps people enhance their soft skills and can inspire feelings of camaraderie between remote teams. 

Online book clubs

Book clubs are typically held in person, but they can also work as good virtual lunch and learn activities. By incentivizing talking and thinking about deep themes, these activities offer attendees a very educational experience. To hold a successful virtual book club session, it is important to settle on a book a month or so before the event. While books meant to be read for pleasure are common in book clubs, career development-focused books are also valid. Physical or digital copies can be provided to guests in order to boost participation. Discussion questions should be considered in advance to facilitate conversational themes.

Storytelling workshops

These virtual events take around two hours and consist of a presenter guiding employees through a writing masterclass. Storytelling workshops are ideal for remote work employees who can spare more than an hour in a lunch and learn. Besides learning composition hacks and presentation hints, participants can also share tips on how to make their stories more engaging. 

At the end of a virtual storytelling workshop, attendees can compose and share their own original short stories. Other attendants can then praise their efforts while also providing some constructive criticism. The lessons learned during these sessions can help guide marketers, salespeople, HR professionals, and managers to be more confident when expressing their ideas and dealing with people.

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Developing employee skills: a how-to guide

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The bottom line is that virtual lunch and learns have become a powerful and flexible tool for bringing people together, building knowledge and fostering a strong community within an organization.

With a clear understanding of what a virtual lunch and learn is, applying our six essential tips, and exploring the range of amazing topic ideas we provided, you should be fully equipped to host successful and engaging events.

This article is an excerpt from Vibe: Inspiring people leadership. The second edition of the Zine focuses on engagement, retention, and profitability. Grab your copy.

It’s no secret that the world of work as we know it is evolving — and fast. During significant change, we often look to our leaders for guidance and support in anticipation of what’s to come. Earlier this year, the Josh Bersin Company, one of the leading authorities on corporate talent, learning, and HR technology, published a set of predictions for the world of work in 2023 and beyond. Here, they explored the directions in which the professional world will go and shared ways organizations can get ahead of the curve and lead their teams to success despite challenging times. 

We turned to our steadfast leadership members to hear their thoughts and points of view on these intriguing predictions from Josh Bersin. Read their takes on these hot topics, from productivity and recruitment to talent intelligence and performance management. 

{emphasize}Leadership views on the current and future state of work 

• People analytics will evolve into talent intelligence
• HR organizations will move to a new operating model: systemic HR
• Productivity will become an essential measure of employee success
• New models of performance management will take hold
• The role of recruiters is increasingly important
• Further reading to inspire people leaders{emphasize}

People analytics will evolve into talent intelligence

By Martin Gourdeau, General Manager  

Efficiency vs. effectiveness is taught in most management studies but is unfortunately forgotten by many as soon as they enter the corporate world.   

There are many reasons for this, but at the end of the day, it mostly comes down to the alignment of interests. Efficiency is fundamentally “profit-driven,” while effectiveness is a “checkmark” concept. The vast majority of employees are hired, reviewed, and promoted on “checkmarks.” Was X accomplished? Check. The presence of this phenomenon is, unfortunately, directly and linearly correlated to the size of the business.  

However, now and then we witness a global turn of events that shifts the collective focus on efficiency. The brutal economic correction the tech industry went through in 2022 was one of the most drastic in recent history. The unprecedented cash injection from most of the central banks in developed countries, in response to projected COVID economic repercussions, led to years of abundant capital. But human nature kicks in; abundance can lead to complacency, and complacency means a broad focus on effectiveness vs. efficiency.  

Want to grow into a new market? --> Hire. 

Want to deliver an ambitious project? --> Hire more.   

Meta roughly doubled its headcount between 2019 and 2022, while revenue was up about 65% during that same period.    

So here we are. The music stops, and the pendulum swings the other way. The news is full of companies undergoing layoffs. The business elite has completely changed their narrative. All we hear about now is sustainability, strong fundamentals, unit economics, and free cash flow. Companies need to do the right things and do things the right way. It’s no surprise that a few engaged, clever, and complimentary A-players will outperform a team that is 5 or 10 times larger if that second team is dysfunctional.  

What if you could engineer that first team consistently? Enter the next chapter in people analytics: talent intelligence.   

The macro-economic context has created a catalyst to fuel the next generation of HR tech landscapes. The most important asset in any company is people, and the technology to unlock their full potential will be invaluable moving forward. History shows us that technology isn’t a threat but an opportunity. Organizations that fully learn to leverage talent intelligence tools will have an unfair advantage over all the others. In this market, businesses should take all the unfair advantages they can get. 

Insights into action
Without tools to help you measure and act, your employee experience falls behind. The best employee experience software not only enhances your employee experience but offers actionable insights as well.

Get executive buy-in for your employee experience tools by following the five steps outlined in our comprehensive Buyer’s Guide.  

HR organizations will move to a new operating model: systemic HR  

By Anaud Ganpaul, VP of Product 

Traditionally, human resources leaders have been key players in addressing internal and external changes that drive and support their organization’s business strategies.  

However, HR leaders and C-suite alike are recognizing that traditional siloed HR models no longer meet the demands of today’s workforce. They are now turning to a new operating model called systemic HR — a holistic approach to HR management that emphasizes how different HR processes impact overall business strategy.  

This operating model involves:  

• breaking down silos 
• promoting cross-functional collaboration 
• considering the entire employee lifecycle 
• creating a seamless employee experience aligned with business goals 
   

A key feature of systemic HR involves incorporating data-driven feedback and decision-making more efficiently with integrated strategies. This concept can benefit companies of all sizes but requires building a strong talent intelligence data and applications layer in their HR tech stack. Once implemented, a systemic HR model will provide feedback on these strategies’ effectiveness and can shed light on employee engagement, productivity, recognition, coaching, recruitment, skills, and help identify any learning gaps. Now that’s impressive!  

Managing multiple software components to get employee feedback can take time for overextended HR teams, managers, and employees. Bersin has coined the term “mid-market talent intelligence suites” to recognize the new breed of software providers that integrate these capabilities into a single platform. By leveraging this feedback, organizations can make informed decisions that drive better business outcomes.   

Systemic HR represents a significant shift in how organizations operate. With this holistic approach, HR leaders can drive organizational success by aligning their strategies with business goals. By leveraging talent intelligence to focus on employee engagement, development, and performance and adopting modern HR technology, organizations can create a seamless employee experience that leads their businesses to success.  

Insights into action 
  
Setting efficient goals is essential to the success of any business. Lead your team to the finish line every time with clearly outlined objectives at the individual and organizational levels.  

Productivity will become an essential measure of employee success  

By Jean-Luc Brisebois, Former Chief Revenue Officer  

Talking about productivity can often be uncomfortable for many managers; it can evoke images of the stereotypical evil businessperson putting the bottom line above all else. But in this current economic reality, dictated by stock markets and weakened by labor shortages, we must be more judicious when allocating our time and resources. We all need to do more with less, meaning productivity must take center stage.  

But there’s a line that can’t be crossed: while extra efforts will be required all around, you can’t just add more to people’s plates and expect great results. This is where the power of “no” comes into play; saying no to projects that fall lower on the list of urgencies to make room for initiatives with higher potential ROI. 

To me, one of the most important steps a leader can take is to align your team around the notion that resources are limited. Engagement will skyrocket if you: 
1. Are clear on your rationale around what needs to be put aside (and why). 
2. Combine this with concrete data to prioritize initiatives.  

At the end of the day, your team wants to know that their work contributes to the bigger picture. As leaders, we empower people to reach their objectives and guide them on their professional journeys to reach collective organization goals.  

Insights into action 
Even the highest-performing teams may hit productivity blockers. But equipping you and your managers with the right strategies to prevent and overcome them makes all the difference in the long run.

Learn how you can tackle the four most common roadblocks in the workplace.

New models of performance management will take hold 

By Umbreen Tapal, Former Director of Product Management

HR leaders are facing a unique challenge; on the one hand, there is more pressure than ever from the C-suite to demonstrate how people management practices are enabling teams to deliver results and ultimately drive organizational performance. On the other hand, HR leaders must keep employees engaged in a tight labor market where you can’t hire your way out of a talent gap. 

We’ve been spending a lot of time listening to and understanding the context of our customers. One of the key emerging themes is that although we’ve been talking about what is broken with traditional performance management for years, this moment feels like we are seeing a critical mass of organizations that are ready to move towards continuous and agile performance management.   

Another key theme we keep hearing about (and this is closely linked to the company performance results that the C-suite is looking for) is organizational alignment around goals. Goals need to be adapted and adjusted in a fast-moving business context. So, we see enabling behaviors around reflection, adjustment, and alignment on team and individual goals as a critical thread that connects the new continuous performance and people development process.   

This does not really come as a surprise as there is strong data indicating that high-performing organizations focus on goal alignment and clarity. When employees rally around common goals and have a clear vision of success, they are more likely to feel connected to their work and organization. Your employees must be motivated to reach collective goals to achieve high performance and satisfaction. Start prioritizing goal setting and regular progress check-ins and watch your retention rates soar.  

Insights into action  
Organizations that prioritize and actively work towards increasing employee engagement are proven to retain people who consistently do their best work.

Read on to learn more about why it pays to invest in your people.  

The role of recruiters is increasingly important 

By Jonathan Berlinski, Director, Talent Acquisition  

Truly understanding what it takes to fill a role within an organization goes far beyond a list of skills in a job description: you must consider the managers’ needs, technical and soft skills, culture fit, etc. Finding great people is a challenging skill to duplicate with any tool or piece of technology.  

Relationships and ambassadorship remain core to the recruitment function. It certainly helps to have an outstanding employer brand. Still, it takes skilled recruiters to: 

• amplify that message,  
• actively engaging with the right talent in the market at the right time,  
• champion the brand, and  
• provide a first-hand experience of what it is like to work within a truly great company.   

Building a distinctive employer brand goes hand in hand with candidate experience. First impressions are lasting, and every touchpoint with a candidate is an opportunity to create a relationship. Fostering that experience is a little extra work, but it’s well worth the investment.

I also think we’ll see internal mobility becoming a trend in 2023. As many companies look to scale down external recruiting in the current economic context, they will invest in the growth and upskilling of their employees. Internal talent mobility also provides external candidates with a clear message that opportunities for growth and progression exist within this company — a powerful recruiting tool and stance. 

Organizations need to support their recruiters by equipping them with the latest tools and technologies and helping them keep up with the latest trends. It’s equally important for recruitment units to collaborate closely with other teams, such as legal, marketing, and HR, to maintain awareness of what’s happening within the organization. And make sure they’re in sync with company objectives. 

Insights into action 
In the age of digitization, constant change, and a cautious economic landscape, workforce planning is becoming mission-critical. No longer can leadership rely on guesstimates or instincts alone. They must adopt a new mindset that puts data (and the priorities it uncovers) over politics.

Learn more about the future of workforce planning and what to use to make data-driven decisions. 

Further reading to inspire people leaders

The workplace has seen fundamental changes over the last several years. And there are no signs that it's slowing down. But change can be profoundly cathartic. It can even act as the catalyst for resiliency and growth during disruptive times.

The second edition of VIBE: Inspiring people leadership aims to lift the fog on how HR teams can boost their people strategy by supporting their managers. It features thought leadership articles like this one, tips on how HR practitioners can strengthen engagement and improve employee retention, a look at the real cost of turnover (and how you can prevent it), and much more. Grab your copy and learn more about the deep connections between engagement, retention, and profitability. 

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What's in this article

• The challenges of M&A
• Using skill mapping to ensure a successful post-acquisition workforce integration
• How to use skill mapping for a successful post-acquisition workforce integration
• Workleap Skills helps remove the guesswork from M&A deals

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Mergers and acquisitions can be formidable chess moves that propel organizations forward. Think Microsoft's acquisition of LinkedIn or Facebook's acquisition of Instagram and WhatsApp. M&As can also all too often spell disaster, like NewsCorp’s spectacular fall with its MySpace sell or the very Googled Yahoo-Tumblr Failed Acquisition. 

On paper, the courtship between two organizations can look highly synergistic and very promising. But if the peanut butter and jelly doesn’t gel well, then you're toast. 

(Yes, the dad jokes are strong today.)

What makes or breaks beautiful M&A promises? People. It’s the employees, not the numbers, that make a business. In reality, M&A success is a function of the seamless integration of employees post-acquisition. Only then you can unlock true synergy (and make bankers deserve their bonuses).

According to a Harvard Business Review report highlighted in The Big Idea: The New M&A Playbook, between 70% and 90% of mergers and acquisitions fail to deliver their expected value. A major reason is the challenge of integrating two separate workforces into one harmonious team. Without a well-planned integration strategy, the post-acquisition transition can be a total disaster. 

Integration is the key to a successful transition and unlocking synergies. Thankfully, companies can ensure a perfect match of talents for a successful (and smooth) post-acquisition transition with skill mapping.

In this article, we'll explore how companies like yours can use skill mapping to ensure a smooth and successful post-merger workforce integration.

The challenges of M&A

Playing a great game of chess requires foresight, coordination and a solid understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of each piece on both sides.. In the same way, M&A can be complex, and without the right strategy or planning, they can be even more time-consuming and expensive than you could’ve anticipated.

Culture fit: Merging companies with different cultures can feel like putting a square peg through a round hole. Conflicts or differences in values, work styles, and communication styles can lead to tension and hinder collaboration. It’s estimated that between 50—75% of mergers fail because of culture clashes alone.

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🤼 Culture clash scenario: Say Company A has a laid-back and casual culture that values open communication and collaboration. Their employees enjoy flexible and remote work options. Company B however is traditional with a culture that values structure and hierarchy. 

When these two companies merge, Company A's employees may feel stifled by Company B's rigid mentality, while Company B's employees may feel disorganized in Company A's more abstract structure. This can create an ‘us versus them’ internal culture HR leaders want to avoid.

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• Changing roles and responsibilities: The post-acquisition transition can be a tricky move. In many cases, employees' roles and responsibilities will change after an acquisition. This can lead to—you guessed it—confusion, frustration, and a decrease in productivity.

• Redundancies: In some cases, there may be overlap between the two companies' workforces. How do you deal with two CFOs? Ill-managed redundancies lead to layoffs—a difficult reality for employees, that can cause emotional distress and damage a company's reputation.
• Post-acquisition turnover: If employees are unhappy with their new roles or feel undervalued, they may leave the company. This can be costly and impact the company's ability to deliver value from the acquisition.

Using skill mapping to ensure a successful post-acquisition workforce integration

Skill mapping is a process of identifying and assessing the skills and competencies of the workforce—like tuning each instrument in an orchestra. 

What companies can look to achieve using skill mapping:

1. Identify skills gaps: Skill mapping helps companies recognize areas where they lack expertise or talent, and a skills-based approach can help you better leverage a "build-buy-partner" framework to identify where to invest both internally and externally. This helps keep recruitment efforts focused, ensuring the right people are on board. ​​
2. Evaluate target companies: During due diligence (which occurs during the evaluation phase of the acquiring & merging), skill mapping helps companies assess the target company's workforce and identify areas of complementarity. This can help them make more informed decisions about whether to proceed with the acquisition.
3. Integrate the acquired company's workforce: After the acquisition, skill mapping can be used to integrate the acquired company's workforce into the existing organization. This ensures that employees are deployed in roles that align with their skills and interests, reducing the risk of post-acquisition turnover.

How to use skill mapping for a successful post-acquisition workforce integration

Employees are the heartbeat of organizations. Their skills are therefore critical to an M&A deal. Beyond valuable IP, companies first and foremost acquire smaller companies for their know-how, culture, processes, and skills... in other words, their people! 

Skill mapping, the understanding of what the key strengths and gaps are across the acquiring and acquired companies, is a surefire way to plan your consolidated workforce and understand how to best integrate newly acquired teammates.

Remember to consider the following:

Before the acquisition:

• Map your organization's skills: The first step in using skill mapping is to map your organization's skills. This will help you identify areas where you may be lacking in expertise or talent.

• Identify skills gaps: Once you've mapped your organization's skills, you can identify areas where you have skills gaps. This can help you focus your recruitment efforts and ensure that you have the right people in place to achieve your goals.

• Evaluate your options: If you've identified skills gaps, you'll need to evaluate your options for filling them. You can use a Build-Buy-Partner framework to evaluate your options. If buying is the most strategic decision, a clear assessment of your skills and gaps will help you narrow down on targets that are complementary—not just in terms of IP but also in terms of people.

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👀 The importance of pre-acquisition analysis
If you're acquiring a company that specializes in a particular technology or product, you'll want to assess whether their workforce has the skills to integrate with your own technology stack or whether you'll need to hire additional personnel. Skill mapping can help you identify these gaps early on and develop a plan to address them — and help you foresee the cost of needed investment in technology and hiring short and long-term. These insights might help shed light on whether to move forward or not.

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During the acquisition:

• Use skill mapping to assess the target company's workforce: This is a crucial step that can save companies from unpleasant surprises during the integration process. Assessing the target company's workforce will allow you to identify the skills gaps and overlaps, which can help you better determine the post-acquisition structure of the organization.
• Evaluate cultural fit: Culture fit is critical to the success of any M&A deal. The target company's culture needs to be evaluated in detail to ensure that it aligns with the acquiring company's culture. Differences in corporate cultures can lead to conflicts and a lack of cohesion among the workforce, which can ultimately affect productivity and hinder the success of the deal.
• Establish clear communication channels: Communication is key during the acquisition process. You'll need to establish clear communication channels between the acquiring and target companies to keep everyone on the same page. It's essential to keep everyone informed of any changes and progress made in the integration process. Setting up regular meetings and communication channels can help ensure that all parties are informed and on the same page throughout the integration process.

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📣 From announcement, to milestone communication, to narrative building, an M&A communication strategy can be complex and its own headache. McKinsey outlines an easy blueprint for both internal and external communication strategy to accompany the M&A process here.

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After the acquisition:

• Facilitate and accelerate the integration process using skill mapping: After the acquisition, you'll need to integrate the target company's workforce into the acquiring company's culture and structure. This process can be challenging and time-consuming, but skill mapping can help accelerate the process. By assessing the acquired company's workforce and identifying their skills, you can more easily integrate them into your own organization and put their talents to work in a way that benefits both parties. This can help to reduce frustration among employees and increase the likelihood of retaining key talent.

• Establish a clear post-acquisition plan: It's important to establish a clear post-acquisition plan to ensure that everyone is on the same page and that the integration process runs smoothly. This plan should outline the post-acquisition structure of the organization, including roles and responsibilities, and should be communicated to all employees. Having a clear plan in place can help to reduce confusion and ensure that everyone is working towards the same goals.

There are many success stories of M&As out there, and a skills-based approach can help companies reduce uncertainty and risk during the integration process. 

Let skill mapping be the roadmap to identifying skill gaps, evaluating cultural fit, and speeding up the integration process. — helping you achieve a smooth transition and boost your chances of success. 

Remember, M&A is a high-stakes game, and the stakes are only getting higher. In 2022 alone, the total value of M&A deals worldwide amounted to 3.8 trillion. But with the right approach and tools, companies can gain a significant advantage in the market and position themselves for success in the future.

Workleap Skills helps remove the guesswork from M&A deals 

Like a dance, M&As are about knowing what strengths to play off of your partner in order for both parties to come together in shared rhythm and harmony. But sometimes, there are beats and steps harder to master, and that's where Skills comes in. 

We help identify the skills gaps and cultural differences between acquiring and target companies. By mapping out the skills and evaluating cultural fit, you can ensure that everyone is dancing to the same tune. Sign up for a free trial!

We're living in a very different professional era than just a few years ago. And with this change came a shift in what it takes to keep top talent onboard. Remember when ping-pong tables and unlimited coffee were synonymous with great company culture? Well, people are rightfully asking for more thoughtful employee experiences. Band-aid solutions of the past aren't making the cut anymore.

Employees want to feel heard, appreciated, and supported. To do that, managers must stay attuned to how people feel at work so that they can put real change into play. The key to nailing retention is to be proactive at all times, instead of only reacting when turnover is on a hike.

Don't wait to act until you're handed a letter of resignation. If you sense your team is struggling (or if they simply aren't thriving), remember: there's always something you can do to help. Ready to get started? Read on to learn about top strategies to keep employees engaged and happy at work.

{emphasize}Implement these top retention strategies to keep your employees engaged

• Why is employee retention so important?
• 13 Employee retention strategies for an engaged workforce
• Implement and assess employee retention strategies
• Increase employee retention with an employee experience solution{emphasize}

Why is employee retention so important?

Before we take a look at what the most effective employee retention strategies are, it's important to understand why employee retention is so crucial. It goes without saying that it's good for business, but what exactly are the benefits of employee retention?

It helps your bottom line

Companies that keep their workforce going strong can reinvest the money they would've spent on hiring new employees. And when you consider that each departure can cost around a third of an employee's annual salary, the potential financial gain is significant.

Losing an employee is costly in more ways than one. In fact, the business impact happens both on the financial and on the human side (which can still impact your profitability down the line).

It increases engagement

Employees who remain engaged with the organization tend to be more motivated and have higher levels of satisfaction. So much so that engaged employees are 23 times more likely than disengaged employees to recommend their organization as a great place to work, according to Gallup.

Numbers like this reflect a workplace that continuously prioritizes employee retention within its engagement strategies, instead of tackling them separately.

It cultivates better customer service

Did you know that there is a direct and positive correlation between companies that retain their best employees and those that also retain their best customers? It's simple, really. Happy, engaged employees who have great experiences at work are more likely to relay their positive sentiments to their customers, ultimately creating a better experience for them as well. This situation is a clear win-win for everyone.

It supports greater efficiency

It comes as no surprise that when employees get to focus on their roles and gel with their team, they're ultimately more efficient. When employees leave the company, it can cause a real disruption for others.

From having to train new employees to asking others to cover tasks that may not necessarily be their responsibility, it can definitely throw off the momentum of the rest of the team.

It fosters a better workplace culture

Solid relationships are worth their weight in gold. Maintaining professional and personal bonds with fellow employees over time fosters a better workplace culture. Employee retention strategies play a big part in this as they create opportunities to build these relationships, foster camaraderie, and keep everyone aligned and motivated.

13 Employee retention strategies for an engaged workforce

While the costs and impacts of employee turnover are evident, the good news is you can minimize or even avoid them altogether. There are plenty of effective employee retention strategies you can implement to keep your entire workforce feeling engaged, valued, and wanting to stay for the long haul.

Did you know? Gallup found that 48% of American workers are actively looking for new job opportunities. The silver lining? That same study highlighted that 52% of voluntarily exiting employees felt their manager or organization could have done something to prevent them from leaving.

From defining core values to presenting a clear career trajectory, to showing your employees that they matter on both a professional and personal level, these effective employee retention strategies can make the world of difference:

1. Think about retention from the start

Retention strategies shouldn't only kick into crisis mode after a wave of employee resignations. If you want long-term success, it's important to focus on employee retention from day one. Just because an employee joined your team doesn't guarantee they'll stay long term. Your onboarding process is what makes them stay past the 90-day mark.

A great employee onboarding experience sets the tone for a person's time with the company. When planned with care and intention, employee onboarding plans help new team members feel valued and connected to the team. This is key to ensuring retention because it boosts their engagement and commitment to the organization.

2. Clearly define your mission and values

When employees feel a sense of purpose within the company, employee retention also tends to increase. And having a sense of purpose starts with defining your company's mission and values. Not only does this give employees something to get behind as a collective, but it also helps attract talent that shares these values.

Having everyone on the same page helps set standards, guide actions, and encourage alignment (which we'll get to next!).

💡Try this: Make your mission and values clear and concise, introduce them from the beginning, and explain how they translate into concrete actions.

3. Get aligned on company objectives

Much like defining your mission and values gives employees a sense of purpose, so does aligning on company objectives. Every employee should understand why their work matters and how their contributions are pieces of the puzzle.

When people work towards common objectives together, team synergies become more powerful, and great things ensue. True alignment encourages employees to collaborate as a team, have effective communication, and respect what each person brings to the table. This makes your company feel like a well-oiled machine with greater momentum and sense of purpose for all.

4. Set clear expectations

Setting clear expectations for each employee is also key. That includes deciding what success means to you and sharing it with your team. This helps clarify each employee's role and responsibilities and enables them to set attainable goals. Not only does this lead to better performance and employee confidence, but it also paves the way for career growth.

When employees feel they don’t have a clear outline of their role, a path for their professional development opportunities, or expectations in the way in which you'll evaluate them, it can cause frustration and a lack of purpose. If ignored for too long, these feelings can cause people to start looking for a new job elsewhere.

Align expectations and make sure employees feel satisfied at work by booking a one-on-one to clarify roles and responsibilities.

5. Provide fair pay and compensation

Great talent is valuable, so employee compensation should reflect that. If employees are considerably underpaid compared to fair market rates, your turnover will likely rise. While it isn't the primary motivator of retention, salary is the main reason employees seek new opportunities in the first place. And it's especially the case in today's competitive labor market.

It's important to pay your employees well if you want them to stay and grow with your company. If they feel undervalued, they’ll undoubtedly find a company that will compensate them fairly.

6. Come to the table with competitive benefits and perks

As we've already explored, pay alone doesn't make for satisfied employees, and it won't make an employee stay with your company. Benefits, time off, and other forms of compensation are all part of the mix, too.

These days, the non-negotiable staples include:

• Quality health insurance
• Ample vacation time and sick days
• Paid parental leave
• Retirement savings plans

If you want to kick it up a notch, you should also include benefits like tuition reimbursement, flexible schedules, health and wellness budgets, and other financial incentives (like stock options).

Employee well-being is a crucial part of an employee retention strategy. So if you can enhance it with your benefits package, your team is sure to appreciate it.

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7. Prioritize healthy work-life balance

Saying that work-life balance is important would be an understatement. Now more than ever, it should be an absolute priority. Gone are the days of neglecting one's well-being for the sake of their job. Today's climate has put the focus back on physical and mental health as well as personal and family time. And employees expect their employer to be respectful of that, and even accommodating.

In fact, a study by Oracle revealed that 88% of employees said their meaning of success has changed since the pandemic, with work-life balance (42%), mental health (37%), and workplace flexibility (33%) now top priorities.

Work-life balance benefits both the employee and the company. When employees feel stressed or lack a sense of balance, they tend to become disengaged. This can lead them to make more mistakes, miss work, or even quit their job, which is exactly what every company wants to avoid.

How does your team rank on the wellness front? Find out and uncover valuable insights with these 30 wellness survey questions.

8. Equip employees with the technology and tools they need

In the spirit of revolutionizing the way we work and communicate these days, we must remember that technology plays a huge role.

Having the right technological tools in place from day one can shape an employee's experience from the jump. Technology can help employees ease into processes, feel in control of their work environment, and enable them to feel empowered, independent, and productive.

This is especially true for remote work. Having the most advanced equipment and tools sets employees up for better performance. When you fail to do so, you're setting them up for frustration, wasted time, and even failure.

9. Train managers to be leaders

Great managers understand the role they play in employee retention. They build trust with employees, provide support and mentorship, encourage career development, and most importantly, know how to lead the pack. Training them to be capable of this to their best ability is pivotal.

When managers and employees have healthy communication, everyone feels part of the team, rather than isolated individuals. It makes for a healthier team that's more committed to the company’s long-term success.

Managers can significantly improve their team's engagement levels with the right leadership tools and listening mechanisms. They'll be equipped to act on pain points straight away, lowering the risk of employee unhappiness and dissatisfaction.

10. Give employees a voice and make them feel heard

If you want to know how your employees feel or what they need to feel better and more productive at work, ask them! Giving employees a voice and frequent opportunities to share their feedback is worth its weight in gold. Not only do they feel heard, but it also gives managers and employers valuable insights into what is and isn't working within the company.

Encouraging employees to share their thoughts — whether it be about the work environment, management styles, communication, or anything else — fosters a positive feedback culture and creates a feedback loop. By acknowledging the feedback, creating and communicating action plans, and acting on them, managers can build stronger relationships with their employees. This leads to higher engagement and better employee retention.

Thirdbridge fully revamped its employee experience by centering its people strategies around employee feedback shared on Officevibe. Read their full success story to learn more.

11. Foster positive work relationships

They say that your vibe attracts your tribe, and the workplace is no exception! Just like with any friendship or relationship, communication is key. Communication builds trust, and trust is essential for longevity and retention.

For employees to have great relationships with each other, it's important for managers to encourage open communication, build trust within their team, and encourage collaboration.

With today's remote and hybrid options, it's even more important to foster these relationships and keep connections strong, even without physical social interaction.

Does it smell like team spirit at work? Use this quick team spirit assessment template on Officevibe to find out.

12. Nurture a unique company culture

Great company culture isn't something you can force into existence. But it is something you can cultivate, nurture, and grow with the right mindset, values, and approach. Building a unique and positive culture requires consistency and initiative — and it's worth the effort!

Everyone contributes to company culture, so if you want to reap the benefits, be sure all employees feel included. You can foster a positive culture by embracing diversity and open-mindedness.

At the end of the day, your people make your company a success on both a professional and a personal level, so putting a focus on human-generated culture is key.

13. Celebrate successes

There's nothing worse than working hard day-in-day-out with little to no acknowledgment. It makes people question why they do what they do, and if they should start looking elsewhere.

But it doesn't have to be like that. Recognizing people's successes at work and sharing kind words doesn't need to take a lot of effort. And remember: it's not just the big wins that deserve all the shine. Little victories call for recognition too, and they have the power to make someone's day.

Big or small, employee recognition is a powerful tool to make people feel valued. And when people feel appreciated, they're more likely to stay on board.

✨ Add a little sparkle to a star employee's day with one of these eight tips to increase recognition in the workplace.

Implement and assess employee retention strategies

While these are all great methods worth implementing to help increase employee engagement and retain employees, you must remember that no employee retention strategy is one-size-fits-all. It's up to HR managers and leaders to craft the right retention strategy for their company and employees.

The best way to get the ball rolling is by collecting feedback through employee retention surveys, one-on-one meetings, stay interviews, and exit interviews. The data gathered is a powerful tool for recognizing what needs improvement, and taking concrete actions to help everyone feel aligned and engaged, with the ultimate goal of increasing employee retention rates.

Calculating employee retention rates

In addition to having a great employee retention strategy at play, it's also important to calculate, understand, and keep a pulse on your employee retention rate. Here's a simple way to crunch the numbers:

Step 1: Divide the number of employees on the last day of the given period (usually one year) by the number of employees on the first day.

For example: 23 employees at the end of the year ÷ 20 employees at the start of the year = 1.15.

Step 2: Multiply the number you got from step one by 100.

For example: 1.15 × 100 = 115% retention rate.

While there is no magic number, it's good to know that a good employee retention rate is considered to be 90% or higher — or, in others words, the employee turnover rate is 10% or less. A high retention rate is a great sign that your employee retention strategies are effective and that your employees are happy and engaged.

Increase employee retention with an employee experience solution

The strategies shared in this article are sure to help you increase retention if you're just getting started. Once you've implemented them, or if you're more mature in your HR practices, you can take it up a level by building a retention game plan unique to your business.

Tools like Officevibe's employee experience platform can help you get there by allowing you to gather feedback regularly, measure the effectiveness of your retention strategies, and adjust them as needed. By creating a data-driven approach to employee retention, you can continually improve your efforts to retain top talent and create a positive work environment.

As an HR manager, you know how challenging it can be to onboard new hires. It's a time-consuming and often overwhelming process that can lead to low employee engagement, productivity, and retention. The barrage of paperwork, meetings, and HR jargon on their very first day can leave new employees feeling frustrated and disoriented.

But what happens after the first day? What if you don't have a clear understanding of how new hires are engaging with the onboarding process or where they're getting stuck? This lack of insight can make it difficult to identify which departments are struggling with onboarding and why certain employees are leaving after only a short period.

These are the questions that can keep you up at night. Without clear data on your onboarding process, you can't make informed decisions to improve it. This guessing game can leave you struggling to understand why new hires are leaving or which departments are experiencing difficulties.

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What's in this article

• Why Measuring Your Onboarding Process is Important
• 🎉 Introducing Onboarding Pulse Surveys and Reports 📊
• [Actionable Tips] Leveraging Survey Insights to Improve Your Onboarding Process

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By improving your onboarding process, you can boost employee engagement, productivity, and retention. So it's essential to have a clear understanding of what's going on during the onboarding process. That way, you can identify any areas that need improvement and make data-driven decisions to create a more effective, stronger onboarding process.

Why Measuring Your Onboarding Process is Important

Measuring the success of your onboarding process is crucial to ensure that your new hires feel supported and engaged from day one. It's no secret that first impressions matter, and this is especially true in the workplace. In fact, up to 20% of employee turnover happens in the first 45 days, which is why it's essential to get onboarding right.

Tracking the performance of your onboarding process helps you identify areas that need improvement, and make proactive adjustments to ensure that your new hires are set up for success.

You'll also be able to customize your onboarding process to meet the specific needs of your organization and ensure that your new hires are getting the support they need to thrive.

As an HR manager, making proactive and guided adjustments to your onboarding process can make a big difference in your ability to excel at your job. With a well-designed onboarding process, you'll be able to attract and retain top talent, increase employee engagement, and drive business success.

🎉 Introducing Onboarding Pulse Surveys and Reports 📊

Making sure new employees feel welcome and supported when they start working is really important, but it can be hard to know how well you're doing it. One way to figure it out is to measure how effective your onboarding process is, but that can be a bit overwhelming. Luckily, Workleap Onboarding has just the solution for you: Onboarding Pulses and Surveys. These tools make it easier to evaluate your onboarding process and know where to focus your efforts for improvement.

With Workleap Onboarding and our Pulse Surveys and Reports, you can create an outstanding onboarding process by leveraging the helpful feedback it provides. Say goodbye to the guesswork and hello to a goldmine of insights.

We understand that it can be difficult to figure out where to begin when it comes to gathering feedback. That's why we've got your back. We have made it easy for you to gather valuable insights with our onboarding plans. Each plan includes a Default survey that is already enabled for all new onboarding plans you start right out of the box. This survey will help you collect tailored feedback from new hires, hiring managers, and other stakeholders involved in the process without any extra effort on your part.

With this new feature, you'll be able to identify trends, understand how new hires are engaging with the process, and discover any gaps or pain points in your onboarding process. It's like having a GPS for your process, providing real-time feedback and ensuring everyone knows where they are and where they need to go.

But that's not all - our detailed analytics and reports will give you a better understanding of your employees' needs, preferences, and opinions, allowing you to make data-driven decisions to improve your onboarding process. Don't let gaps in your process go unnoticed - use our Onboarding Pulse Surveys and Reports to uncover and address them.

[Actionable Tips] Leveraging Survey Insights to Improve Your Onboarding Process

Here are some tips and tricks for leveraging insights from onboarding surveys to improve your process:

• Identify common themes: Look for patterns and trends in the feedback you receive from new hires. Are there certain aspects of the onboarding process that consistently receive negative feedback? Are there areas that employees consistently rate highly? Use this information to prioritize areas for improvement.
• Share feedback with key stakeholders: Make sure to share the feedback you receive with other key stakeholders, such as hiring managers, trainers, and HR staff. This will help ensure that everyone is on the same page and working towards the same goals.
• Take action: Once you've identified areas for improvement, take action to address them. This could mean making changes to your training materials, revising your orientation process, or improving communication with new hires.
• Evaluate progress: Continuously evaluate the impact of the changes you make. Use follow-up surveys, send the same questions at different time intervals or other feedback mechanisms to determine if the changes you've made have had a positive impact on the onboarding process.
• Communicate progress: Don't forget to communicate progress to key stakeholders and employees. Let them know about the changes you've made and how they've helped improve the onboarding experience. Taking screenshots of the Reports Onboarding generates can also help you present your successes with visuals.

By following these tips and tricks, you can use insights from onboarding surveys to continuously improve your onboarding process and provide a better experience for new hires.

Optimizing your onboarding process is crucial for creating a positive experience for new hires and setting them up for success in their role. By leveraging tools like Workleap and our Onboarding Pulse Surveys and Reports, HR managers gain valuable insights and make proactive adjustments to improve their process over time. By investing in a world-class onboarding process, companies reduce turnover, increase productivity, employee engagement, and ultimately drive business success.

Corporate training resources are way too often short compared to actual business needs. Even though most SMBs would love to spend more money and time on developing their employees' skills, operations and daily routines often take over those resources. This is why efficient learning management processes are core to the success of a company’s corporate training program.

Let’s dig a bit more into the benefits of a strong corporate learning strategy and how Workleap LMS’ integration with ADP Workforce Now® will help make this process much easier for small and medium businesses.

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What's in this article

• What is a corporate learning strategy, and why is it important?
• What are the benefits of integrating an LMS with an HRIS?
• How can I use the Workleap LMS integration for ADP Workforce Now?

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What is a corporate learning strategy, and why is it important?

A corporate learning strategy is a plan that outlines an organization's approach to employee training and development. It details the goals and objectives of the corporate learning program, the methods and tools used to deliver training, and the measures used to assess the effectiveness of the training.

Here are a few reasons why such a corporate learning strategy is important for a growing SMB.

Improved Employee Development

A well-designed corporate learning strategy can help employees acquire new skills and knowledge that will support their professional growth and development. This, in turn, can contribute to improved job performance and increased productivity. A cohesive corporate learning strategy will also consider the company’s current skill gaps to enhance the global level of knowledge within the organization and ensure no opportunities are lost because of a lack of training.

Competitive Advantage

In today's rapidly changing business environment, organizations need employees who are equipped with the skills and knowledge necessary to succeed. A corporate learning strategy can help organizations stay ahead of the competition by ensuring that their employees have the right skills and knowledge to meet current and future business needs.

Increased Employee Engagement and Retention

Employee training and development opportunities can increase employee engagement and motivation. When employees see that their employer is investing in their development, they are more likely to feel valued and motivated to stay with the organization.

Improved Organizational Performance

A corporate learning strategy can support overall organizational performance by helping the business to align training programs with its goals and objectives. This can lead to improved efficiency, increased productivity, and better decision-making. This will also contribute to creating content that supports those goals and add more value to the corporate knowledge base.

What are the benefits of integrating an LMS with an HRIS?

Workleap LMS, a Learning Management System, is a platform where companies can create and distribute training content to their staff. Managers and HR teams can also monitor progress and generate completion reports.

ADP Workforce Now is an intuitive HR suite with extensive reporting, data-driven insights, and more. It can be used to store training-related information and individual career development strategies, for example.

Integrating an LMS with an HRIS brings many great benefits for SMBs with growing needs for corporate training but limited human and financial resources. When time is so precious, automating the connection between these two essential HR tools can make everyone’s life so much easier!

Through this new integration, ADP Workforce Now customers can now sync their staff’s data into Workleap LMS to accelerate account creation and enrollments to their corporate training courses and programs. This is a real-time integration that pulls your staff information from ADP® and loads the data into LMS.

With this integration, businesses will be able to manage all aspects of their corporate learning strategy within the ADP Workforce Now platform and bring that strategy to life into Workleap LMS, without having to multiply accounts and data management.

Here are a few benefits of integrating our LMS with ADP.

Improved Efficiency

Automating the account creation by syncing Workleap LMS to ADP will make employee training management seamless and effortless. Imagine onboarding a new hire - Once their account is created on the HRIS, they can be added to LMS and enrolled into a custom learning path with very little manual intervention.

This will improve the efficiency of the training process and save time for HR teams, as they will only need to access one system to track employee progress, monitor the effectiveness of their training programs, and manage their learning content.

Enhanced Employee Tracking

Using Workleap LMS as a corporate learning management tool allows administrators to monitor employee progress and training effectiveness in one central platform. Since your LMS will be connected to the customer’s ADP Workforce Now database, data will always be accurate and consistent.

Limiting the manual transfer of information between multiple systems is also a great way to reduce the risk of potential mistakes or lost information. Employees' training data and certificates will all be centralized and available on your LMS account.

Increased Convenience

Managing subscriptions to many products and services can be quite time-consuming. ADP Marketplace, ADP’s storefront of HR solutions that integrate with ADP, makes it easy for customers to subscribe to Workleap LMS. Clients will be billed for LMS through their ADP Invoice and can access the LMS through ADP Marketplace. Simplifying the purchase process will make the customer experience for SMBs more enjoyable and accelerate the implementation of an LMS into their business.

How can I use the Workleap LMS integration for ADP Workforce Now?

Depending on your current customer status, there are different ways to activate and start benefiting from the LMS integration for ADP Workforce Now. Here are the possible scenarios:

I’m a client of ADP Workforce Now.

Purchase Workleap LMS to enroll your employees in courses or learning paths. Implementation is free, quick and as easy as it can be! You can purchase LMS through ADP Marketplace or your local ADP account representative.

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Click here to access Workleap LMS (Didacte)’s application page on ADP Marketplace

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I’m already a client of both Workleap LMS and ADP Workforce Now.

Enhance your corporate learning strategy and management by connecting your two accounts.

You can purchase our connector through ADP Marketplace or your local account representative.

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Click here to access Workleap LMS (Didacte)’s data connector page on ADP Marketplace

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I’m a client of Workleap LMS but don’t yet use ADP Workforce Now.

Start using ADP Workforce Now for your payroll and HR and help simplify your employee data management — then integrate with Workleap LMS to build your corporate learning strategy. Contact our team at info@didacte.com and we’ll get you in touch with a local ADP representative.

ADP, the ADP logo, and ADP Workforce Now are trademarks of ADP, Inc. or its affiliates or licensors. The information in this article was prepared by Workleap LMS and Workleap LMS is solely responsible for its accuracy and completeness. ADP makes no representation as to the accuracy or completeness of any information contained herein.

Employee engagement and employee experience (EX) are popular terms in the HR space, though many people — incorrectly — use them interchangeably. EX covers all touchpoints an employee has in their role, while employee engagement measures how they feel about their physical environment, co-workers, managers, company culture, and more. A healthy employee experience encourages engagement and can provide your team and business with a bounty of positive benefits.

Understanding how employee experience and engagement relate can help you create a more positive work environment filled with a productive, engaged workforce. Below, we discuss the key elements of employee experience and employee engagement for increased retention and happiness that support positive business outcomes.

{emphasize}Learn the key elements of employee experience and employee engagement

• What is employee experience?
• What is employee engagement?
• Employee experience vs. employee engagement: What is the difference?
• Tips for creating a positive employee experience{emphasize}

What is employee experience?

The employee experience is every step an individual takes with your company, from their initial application submission to their exit interview to everything in between. A number of internal and external factors influence what employees experience during each lifecycle phase.

Let's paint a picture: imagine you work a job for 10 years, and someone asks how you felt about your role. To answer the question, you’d consider your daily life in the position, the workplace culture, each growth opportunity you received, the physical workplace, how your managers treated you, your work-life balance, your financial well-being, how connected you felt with co-workers, and so forth. All of these factors contribute to the overall employee experience.

Employee lifecycle phases

Understanding the different employee experiences in every lifecycle phase can help you understand how workers engage with their roles throughout their journey with your company. The primary employee experience phases include:

• Recruitment and hiring: In this stage, a potential hire has gone through the application process and has been in contact with the hiring team. They've maybe even met their future teammates and have gotten a better understanding of what their work-life will be like. The final step is reviewing and accepting an offer.
• Onboarding: Proper onboarding sets the stage for the rest of the employee life cycle. The way in which you train and prepare your new hire plays a huge part in their employee satisfaction and shapes their views on their role and team moving forward.
• Engagement: Employee engagement is a crucial step in any professional journey. Managers and HR leaders must work together to spark motivation and engagement in their teams. Helping people understand how their roles fit into the bigger picture and setting meaningful goals are some of the best ways to develop highly engaged teams.
• Development and growth: Your team of highly creative and skilled employees wants to feel challenged in their roles. If they don't feel there are adequate opportunities for growth within the organization, they might look elsewhere. Ask for feedback from your people to know how you can help improve their experiences and keep them around for the long haul.
• Offboarding: If an employee leaves your organization, the way you navigate this stage is just as important as any other in the life cycle. Conducting exit interviews will unlock key insights into their employee experience and could potentially help improve certain elements in the team for future hires.

Developing a healthy employee experience is multi-faceted, but it doesn't have to be scary. Dive deeper into the importance of a positive employee experience.

Employee experience factors

Creating an integrated experience across the lifecycle phases involves many factors. Employees want to feel supported by their managers with the equipment and training necessary to succeed and to feel connected with workplace culture.

The key pillars influencing a positive employee experience include:

• company culture and values
• empowerment and autonomy
• recognition
• communication
• well-being programs
• resources and technology
• training and career development opportunities

There are 11 key pillars to the employee experience. Read on to learn more about each one.

Why the employee experience matters

The employee experience directly impacts business success. According to Gallup research, teams with an increased focus on a positive experience can boost company profitability by 23%. Glassdoor data show that 77% of potential hires say the employee experience is a deciding factor.

A poor employee experience affects productivity, profitability, company reputation, talent acquisition, and much more. When employees experience top-notch encouragement and support throughout their journey, they work harder to see the company succeed.

What is employee engagement?

Employee engagement is a key element of the employee experience. Highly engaged employees who feel passionate about their work generally enjoy a positive employee experience. When you increase employee engagement, you can improve the entire employee experience across each major touch point.

Employee engagement primarily measures how enthusiastic and emotionally invested workers feel toward their position and their organization. Is your team giving 100% every hour because they're aligned with the company's mission and values, or are they just going through the motions of the 9 to 5?

Employee engagement factors

Many factors contribute to fostering an engaged workforce and engagement scores can come from various internal and external factors. Some of the most critical employee engagement drivers include:

• Meaningful work: When employees feel aligned with company values, engagement levels rise. Help your people rally around collective objectives and see how they contribute to the bigger picture.
• Employee recognition: It's crucial that your employees know they are valued not only for their work contributions but for who they are as people. Recognizing your employees’ dedication keeps them engaged and illuminates their value to the team.
• Psychological safety: It's of the utmost importance for employees to feel safe and secure in their work environment. Workplace psychological safety refers to a state where employees will not feel afraid of consequences for speaking up or sharing ideas.
• Work-life balance: There's nothing wrong with giving 110% in all your tasks, but employees need to feel comfortable unplugging at reasonable hours. Create an environment that allows for rest so that your team feels refreshed when they log back on in the mornings.
• Role clarity: It can be extremely frustrating for an employee to not understand the goal or intention behind a task they're performing. By emphasizing role clarity, managers can work with employees to create well-defined game plans for their short and long-term professional aspirations.

👀 Discover the other 10 key drivers of employee engagement.

Why employee engagement matters

Disengaged employees move many organizations backward. According to Gallup research, a lack of employee engagement caused businesses to lose a total of $7.8 trillion in wasted productivity. Engaged employees can increase company sales by 18%, performance rates by 202%, customer loyalty by 10%, and profitability by 23%.

Employee engagement provides many benefits for your business, including:

• better team performance
• increased employee productivity
• lowered workplace stress
• decreased employee absenteeism
• higher retention rates

The benefits of boosting employee engagement are countless. Check out these tested strategies to improve engagement on your teams.

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Employee experience vs. employee engagement: What is the difference?

The primary difference between employee experience and employee engagement is how they influence each other. Employee engagement directly contributes to the employee experience. While the employee experience covers every interaction between employees and the company, the engagement metric includes how passionately employees dive into their work.

To understand the difference between employee experience and engagement, let’s look at an example. Say you recently hired 10 employees who all went through identical hiring, training, and onboarding processes.

In this scenario, only half of the group has the opportunity to provide their managers with feedback and are recognized for their contributions. They are allowed to share thoughts during one-on-one meetings and have honest conversations about where they want to take their careers.

The other half, unfortunately, do not have the same deeper connections with their managers and members of leadership. They will inevitably lack a feeling of belonging to the organization and may complete tasks in a listless and dispassionate way.

Of the 10 employees, it is clear that the latter half of the group is actively disengaged from their work environment. If their employee experiences continue to go unnurtured, this organization will see employee turnover rise.

High employee engagement relates to lower turnover rates, increased retention, improved productivity, and boosted employee satisfaction, all leading to an excellent employee experience. Companies with strong employee experience and employee engagement rates enjoy more than double the performance levels of those who ignore these strategies.

Engagement during the employee experience journey 

Every touchpoint along the employee journey offers engagement-boosting opportunities. In today's competitive labor market, creating an excellent employee experience is what will set you apart from the rest.

Here are a few tips on nurturing engagement during every stage of the employee experience journey:

• Recruitment and hiring: Make expectations crystal clear during the initial recruitment and hiring phase. If candidates have questions, make sure you provide them with honest answers about what awaits them if they are offered the position. Even if the candidate decides not to accept the offer, if you're genuine and kind to them it will do wonders for your employer brand.
• Onboarding: Starting a new job can be a nerve-wracking time for some people. Ensure your new hire has the resources they need to get started and provide them with a list of people they can direct their questions to. You can even set up quick "coffee chats" for them with key teammates to break the ice.
• Engagement: Schedule regular check-ins with employees to gauge their engagement levels. During these one-on-one sessions, remind them that they are always welcome to share feedback on how they can improve their experience.
• Development and growth: Onboarding should not be the only time employees receive training. You can engage your teams with regular training and growth sessions that allow them to expand their skills and career with your organization. Promoting internal mobility is a great way to keep your employees engaged with the company at large.
• Offboarding: A person's relationship with an organization does not end the moment they hand in their resignation. If you want your people to leave on a high note, make sure to have the important conversation with them about their time at the company. You might be clued into invaluable insights on how to improve the employee experience for future hires.

👋 Need a hand in curating the perfect employee engagement strategy? Start by mapping out a typical employee journey at your organization with this template.

Tips for creating a positive employee experience

Improving the employee experience doesn't have to feel like a colossal task. Thankfully, you can incorporate a few simple day-to-day strategies to improve how your people feel about their roles and the company as a whole.

You don’t need to reshape your entire management strategy to create a positive employee experience. Instead, you should listen to what your team wants and take action. We recommend the following tips for creating a successful employee experience built on engagement:

1. Build trust: Trust is one of the most fundamental keys to any relationship. Create a safe space for your people, take accountability for your actions, and promote transparency to see employee engagement climb. When employees trust their managers, they remain loyal and committed. You can improve trust in your relationships with more one-on-one communication and recognition.
2. Give meaningful recognition: It's crucial to celebrate efforts regardless of the outcome. Create a culture of recognition by acknowledging your people's hard work and contributions. You can also increase recognition in the workplace by promoting peer recognition, acknowledging milestones, and recognizing efforts, not just successes.
3. Hold regular one-on-one meetings: You may chat with your direct reports on a daily basis via instant messaging or email, but it's important to get regular face time with your employees. Holding regular one-on-one meetings can help create genuine team connections and allow you to uncover any problem areas within your organization.
4. Perform stay interviews: If you get the sense that an employee might be thinking of pursuing a new professional opportunity, sit down with them and chat about their experience so far. Ask them how you could better support them in their daily projects and discuss where they see themselves further down the line in their careers.
5. Collect and act on feedback: Feedback helps you understand your team’s needs. Ask targeted questions, send surveys, and schedule one-on-one meetings to collect honest feedback and really tune into how your people are feeling. Offer transparency by showing your team the feedback results and acting on the desired changes.
6. Support employee mental health and well-being: It's crucial to support your employees’ mental health by offering more flexible scheduling and respecting individual circumstances. Work alongside your HR team to accommodate employee requests and create a healthy space for your teams to thrive.
7. Prioritize communication: Communication is key in all personal and professional relationships. Ensure that all your team members feel comfortable and confident to speak up about their opinions, ideas, and concerns.
8. Encourage diversity: Diversity and inclusion in your organization’s culture create a healthier and more positive environment for employees to thrive. You can use survey questions on diversity, equity, and inclusion to understand how your team feels about your current efforts.
9. Create mentorship programs: Mentorship programs between established and new employees help co-workers develop long-lasting relationships to feel more engaged, confident, and supported. You can try assigning mentors during onboarding so new employees have a go-to support system.

Measure your results! We recommend measuring your current state, then beginning new employee experience or engagement efforts based on your results. You can send out employee experience surveys and track key metrics like satisfaction levels, eNPS, retention rates, and more to see how your efforts improve business and employee outcomes.

Employee engagement and employee experience go together like peanut butter and jelly. You must nurture every phase of the employee journey and life cycle for a healthy, happy, and holistic experience. When employees are engaged and motivated, they are more likely to stay at the organization and can collaborate more productively with their teammates.

Prioritizing the employee experience by engaging your team doesn’t have to be hard. Learn how employee engagement software like Officevibe can take the guesswork out of understanding your team’s needs.

In our first Vibe Check episode, Julie Jeannotte, HR Expert and Researcher at Officevibe, chats with Andrea Kalavsky, People Consultant at peopleOsophy, to talk about all things alignment. More specifically, they dive into how prioritizing and maintaining alignment around a company's mission, values, goals, and general outlook keeps employees engaged in the long haul (and less likely to look for greener pastures).

Read on and watch the full episode to learn how you can get your team to row in the same direction, even in rough seas.

Watch the episode to learn about:

• How organizational alignment leads to better business outcomes
• How HR and leaders can foster and contribute to alignment
• The importance of prioritizing alignment in each stage of the employee life cycle
• The role technology plays in aligning employees and teams

How People Ops leaders can pilot alignment at work

Company-wide alignment isn't a given. It's something that organizations must actively work towards. And as our guest, Andrea, points out in this episode, People Ops teams have the power to pilot businesses to success by helping leaders, managers, and employees leverage the right tools and processes.

Use her key tips to get you started on the right track:

1. Help employees at all levels understand the power of listening mechanisms and how to use them. These can be all-hands meetings, one-on-ones, team forums, or employee engagement platforms like Officevibe.
2. Use these mechanisms as moments of connectivity where you can listen to and learn from one another. Psychological safety and trust are paramount to get your team fully in sync and aligned.
3. Give your team a voice to help you uncover misalignment. Evaluate pain points so that you can properly pivot your strategy or process.
4. Do the same to highlight your wins. Celebrate what's going great, contributing to a stronger company culture, and leading to better business outcomes.
5. Don't shy away from using technology as a sidekick. It enables you to analyze and quantify employee sentiment so you can act on hard facts.

📺 Watch the full episode if you want more advice and insights from Andrea's professional journey in people operations.

Meet our illustrious guest

Andrea Kalavsky

Coach, advisor, mentor, and leader (in no particular order)

Andrea’s route to People leadership has been non-traditional. She started managing tech, social, and digital teams before realizing she was a people People person.

Since then, she’s worked in some small (and large) people-centric, mission-driven companies, including Innocent Drinks, Daylesford Organic, People Against Dirty (the people behind Method and Ecover), Koru Kids, and a handful of deep-tech post-seed start-ups.

Driven by a strong desire to experiment and do things differently, Andrea is naturally attracted to places and people who aspire to change their industries or categories for the better.

...And our Vibe Check host!

Julie Jeannotte

Officevibe’s HR Expert & Researcher

Julie’s (or JJ as we like to call her) life’s mission is to help organizations understand the value of placing their people at the heart of their strategy and business. Her background, research, and innate curiosity give her a unique perspective on day-to-day team challenges and the ever-evolving world of work.

Anyone who knows JJ knows this: she’s a wildflower who speaks from the heart. Inspired by the uniqueness of individuals and driven by the power of collectivity, she focuses on bringing out the best in humans to create meaningful change.

Vibe Check: A conversation series filled with real talk & genuine advice

Vibe Check, Officevibe's brand-new conversation series, is a place where we have open, honest, and authentic conversations about the human side of business. Our goal is to help you achieve better business outcomes with people-led initiatives.

To set your business up for success, you need real, proven advice. And we have the right experts to give you just that. No sugarcoating or beating around the bush. Just real talk and genuine advice from people who've been there, done that. That's what Vibe Check stands for.

So, what’s a vibe check? It’s a phrase for asking "how are you really doing?" It opens the door to meaningful conversations between colleagues, professionals, but most importantly, human beings.

Organizations are constantly striving to stay ahead of the competition in today's digital world. By utilizing an enterprise learning management system (ELMS), businesses can maximize their employees' potential and improve performance with up-to-date learning materials and training programs. In this article, we discuss what an ELMS is, how it works, and its various benefits for organizations across different industries.

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What's in this article

• What Is An Enterprise Learning Management System?
• Why Do Enterprises Need An LMS?
• Benefits Of Using Enterprise Learning Management Systems
• Types Of Enterprise Learning Management Systems
• Customization Options For Enterprise Learning Management Systems
• How To Choose The Best Enterprise LMS
• The Best Enterprise Learning Platform

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What Is An Enterprise Learning Management System?

An enterprise learning management system (ELMS) is a comprehensive software platform designed to facilitate the delivery, tracking, and administration of online courses and learning programs. Used by businesses in many industries, it offers an efficient way to carry out employee training, safety training, compliance training, and even customer training.

ELMS can be used to manage various types of content such as documents, videos, webinars, and virtual classrooms. They can be customized so that organizations can tailor their materials to meet their specific needs. This type of digital solution has become increasingly popular among companies looking for ways to streamline their training processes. With its powerful tools and features, an enterprise learning management system can create effective learning experiences for employees, ultimately improving productivity and driving business success.

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How to use a learning management system

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Why Do Enterprises Need An LMS?

Enterprises need an enterprise learning management system because it allows them to streamline their corporate learning initiatives. An LMS is a platform designed specifically for the needs of organizations, allowing them to curate custom learning content and create learning experiences that are tailored to their specific objectives. With an LMS, enterprises can manage the entire learning process from start to finish.

An enterprise-level LMS also makes it easier for enterprises to track progress when it comes to their learning courses. This helps administrators measure success against set goals and learning objectives quickly and accurately, as well as identify areas of improvement or further growth to enhance the overall effectiveness of their training programs. Furthermore, with the right analytics tools integrated into the system, they can leverage data-driven insights to customize future plans accordingly.

By leveraging an enterprise level LMS solution, businesses can maximize efficiency while providing employees with access to high quality educational materials, which will benefit both parties in the long run. Employees gain knowledge faster, while employers save time by not having to manually track employees’ performance - freeing up resources for other tasks instead.

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How much does the average learning management system cost?

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Benefits Of Using Enterprise Learning Management Systems

An LMS can be used as an enterprise training platform that delivers both internal and external corporate training courses. The benefits of using an enterprise LMS are numerous. Here’s a list of key advantages:

• Improved training effectiveness: utilizing an enterprise LMS allows you to track employee progress during online training sessions, helping you measure success rates more accurately than traditional methods.
• Streamlined employee development: by monitoring progress through the system, businesses are able to provide personalized instructions based on individual performance levels which leads to improved employee development over time.
• Cost savings: with an LMS, businesses save money by reducing travel expenses associated with sending trainers out into the field or having them teach classes in-house. They also eliminate the need for physical materials such as textbooks or handouts since they are stored digitally within the system.

Overall, using an enterprise learning management system provides great value when it comes to creating an effective corporate training program while saving time and money in the process. Thanks to its key features, organizations have access to everything they need for successful career development at their fingertips!

Types Of Enterprise Learning Management Systems

Enterprise learning management systems provide corporate learners with a variety of tools to improve their online training initiatives. They offer companies the opportunity to create customized learning experiences that are tailored specifically for their employees and other stakeholders. These resources can range from instructor-led training modules to interactive courses and more.

Here are some common types of enterprise learning management systems:

• Learning content management systems (LCMS): This type of system allows organizations to easily manage all digital content associated with employee learning. It helps track progress and store data related to the development of course materials, such as text documents, images, video files, audio recordings, etc. The LCMS also provides an efficient way to deploy this material across multiple channels quickly and securely.
• Online training platforms: An online training platform is designed to help businesses organize virtual classrooms in real time. It also enables them to customize the user experience by adding quizzes, polls, surveys, and other interactive elements. In addition, this platform provides administrators with detailed analytics about how users interact with each lesson, so they can make informed decisions when it comes to investing in training materials.
• Instructor-led training module (ILT): an ILT offers employers a cost-effective way to train their staff members without having to invest in expensive hardware or software solutions. This module typically includes pre-recorded lectures along with hands-on activities designed to engage participants throughout the session. Companies can use this tool to update existing skill sets or introduce new concepts while providing feedback on performance metrics directly within the program.

These three types of enterprise learning management systems give corporate learners access to powerful tools that enhance their overall learning experience while ensuring compliance with company policies and regulations at every stage of the process. If you think you would benefit from these three types of ELMS, there are complete solutions that integrate them all such as Workleap LMS.

Customization Options For Enterprise Learning Management Systems

When it comes to enterprise learning management systems, customization options provide organizations with an opportunity to tailor their online learning platform to meet the specific needs of their audience. Many LMSs offer a wide variety of tools that can be used to customize and optimize the user experience. From customer service teams who need leadership skills development, to mobile responsiveness for internal enterprise certification programs, there are many ways organizations can use these customizable features to increase employee engagement and customer satisfaction.

Many enterprises choose all-in-one platforms due to the amount of time and money saved when using one system instead of multiple ones at once. With advanced customization options available, users can save countless hours by having everything they need right at their fingertips without needing separate software or services.

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The 5 must-have features of a learning management system

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How To Choose The Best Enterprise LMS

Searching for an ideal enterprise learning solution can be a challenging task. The right platform should provide employees with the ability to track individual progress and access key learning features easily from one central hub. But how do you know which enterprise LMS is best suited to your organization's needs?

Here is a list of steps to consider when choosing an LMS for your business:

• Analyze your training needs: before investing in an enterprise LMS, take some time to evaluate which e-learning solutions you need. Will you need lessons? Certifications? Understanding these details will help to narrow down your search for the best LMS solution.
• Research potential solutions: once you know what type of eLearning solutions you’ll need, start researching potential solutions. Look at reviews online and reach out to companies that sell LMS software to ask questions about their products. This will give you a good understanding of which systems are suitable for your needs.
• Explore system features and compatibility: when exploring the features and compatibility of different LMSs, make sure that they can integrate with other applications such as HR systems. 
• Evaluate customization options: it’s also important to investigate customization options when assessing potential systems. Ask if there are templates or customizable settings so that users can tailor their experience according to individual preferences or learning styles. This could be important if certain departments have unique requirements due to language or cultural preferences, for example.
• Check security and backup policies: data security and backups should always be high on the list of considerations when selecting any technology solution for your business. Ensure that data is securely stored within the system either through cloud-based applications or hosted on secure servers and verify who has access rights both internally and externally. Request detailed information regarding backups, storage encryption policies, recovery procedures, etc.
• Test drive the solution before buying: don’t forget about testing out each enterprise LMS prior to making a final decision. Most vendors offer free trials or demos, allowing users to see how well it works before committing financially.

The Best Enterprise Learning Platform

Workleap LMS is the ideal plaftom for businesses. We offer LMS service packages based on customer requirements and the nature of your business. Our enterprise learning management system stands out due to its ability to adapt to the constant changes in the digital ecosystem, and its unique set of features. It allows you to track your employees’ learning journeys and set personalized learning paths that perfectly match individual learning needs.

Despite layoffs and economic uncertainty, the stiff competition for talent can be felt across nearly every industry these days. And with reports indicating that we're experiencing an employee market, companies will need to go the extra mile to not only ensure they can attract the right people to fill open positions, but keep their top performers around for the long haul.

The key? Offer a knockout employee experience (EX).

{emphasize}Understand the ROI of employee experience and maximize it with proven strategies

• What is employee experience?
• How does employee experience impact overall performance?
• How to measure employee experience ROI
• How lg2 improved their employee experience with Officevibe
• Strategies for improving the employee experience and maximizing ROI
• Keep your people around for the long haul{emphasize}

What is employee experience?

To paraphrase a famous quote, people may forget what you said and what you did, but they'll never forget how you made them feel. And the same can be true in the workplace.

From the very first interaction an employee has with their employer during the hiring process, to the moment they leave the company following their exit interview, these moments and everything that happens in between shape the way they feel about the organizations they work for.

Beyond a paycheque, employees need to feel connected to their workplace. Do they enjoy the company culture? Do they have a great relationship with their manager? Do they have opportunities to grow professionally? Do they have the tools they need to successfully do their job? Do they have a healthy work-life balance?

What someone learns, does, sees, and feels at each stage of the employee journey contributes to the employee experience. So let's explore why it's so important to have solid employee experience initiatives in place.

How does employee experience impact overall performance?

While a positive employee experience is vital on a human level, it also has a huge impact on a business and its revenue growth.

When employees have a great experience, they're far more inclined to do great work, which in turn reaps better results for the company. Here's how a positive employee experience creates engaged employees and impacts overall performance:

Increased productivity

When it comes to employee productivity, the equation is simple: happy employees are more productive employees. When you enjoy where you work and love what you do, you feel more driven to perform. And the proof is in the numbers: an Oxford University study found that happier employees are in fact 13% more productive.

While increased productivity is obviously great for business, it also has a domino effect on others, helping to create positive employee experiences for all.

Greater customer satisfaction

Speaking of domino effects, positive employee experience and customer experience also go hand-in-hand. When employees are happy, they feel more engaged, and in turn more invested in the company’s products and services.

Gallup research shows that this directly affects the experience employees offer customers, so much so that high employee engagement results in a 10% difference in customer ratings and an 18% difference in sales. Who can argue with numbers like that?

Better business results

Hinging on employee experience and customer satisfaction is your business’s bottom line. So what does a stellar employee experience mean in terms of business performance and profitability? Well, motivated employees are naturally more engaged. The greater the levels of employee engagement, the more the quality of work improves, and this chain reaction can boost profitability by 23%.

Higher employee retention rates

When you put all the pieces together, a great employee experience also results in higher employee retention rates. And the numbers are very telling indeed. A Gallup survey found that teams with higher employee engagement see 18-43% lower turnover rates.

But that's not all. The icing on the cake is that engaged employees are also 23 times more likely to recommend the company to others as a great place to work. Win-win!

There are a number of things that contribute to a great employee experience. It's crucial for companies to factor in the pillars of a great EX which include:

• a comfortable workspace
• regular recognition
• flexibility and a healthy work-life balance
• open and honest communication
• clear alignment on goals
• up-to-date resources and technology

How to measure employee experience ROI

When you prioritize employee experience, you're making a smart investment in your business. And while investing in a great employee experience makes sense logically, it's also important to take a closer look at the value in terms of a return on investment (ROI) for employee experience initiatives — so that they can be even further justified.

Although we already know that a positive employee experience keeps employees engaged, motivates them to do great work, and reduces turnover, we can still look at it through a numerical lens. There are two ways we suggest doing this:

Manually with data

We know that it pays to invest in your employee experience. For one, it can greatly reduce costly employee turnover. Here's how to calculate your employee turnover rate:

Step 1: Add the number of employees at the start of the year with the number of employees at the end of the year.

For example: 20 employees at the start of the year + 18 employees at the end of the year = 38 employees.

Step 2: Divide the total you got from step one in half (by 2).

For example: 38 total employees ÷ 2 = 19 employees.

Step 3: Divide the number of employees who left during the year by the outcome of the first equation.

For example: 2 employees left during the year ÷ 19 employees = 0.105

Step 4: Multiply this final number by 100 to get your employee turnover rate.

For example: 0.105 × 100 = 10.5% turnover rate.

The real costs of employee turnover can be divided into two main categories: hard and soft costs. Hard costs refer to the more tangible and easier-to-measure costs that most people consider when turnover is on the rise. Their impact is more overt and often felt sooner by the team. Soft costs, on the other hand, are largely unaccounted for or unnoticed until they lead to bigger issues.

Read more about the true cost of employee turnover and learn how you can reduce turnover at your organization.

Using a designated calculator

Our simple ROI calculator can give you quick and easy insights into the return on investment of your employee experience. To calculate your future wins, you just need to answer three quick and simple questions:

1. How many employees does your company have?
2. What's your turnover rate (%)?
3. What’s the average salary at your company?

From here, you can start implementing initiatives to foster a happy, engaged, and productive work environment and ultimately save your company money.

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How lg2 improved their employee experience with Officevibe

When lg2, an independent brand marketing agency, was more than doubling in size, maintaining an innovative and positive culture was a challenge.

With this rapid growth, remote distribution, and minimal HR support, lg2’s managers struggled to keep a finger on the pulse of their teams. One-on-one meetings weren’t enough, and town halls elicited little engagement. With Officevibe, lg2’s production team manager was able to engage employees, solicit honest feedback, and build a meeting and recognition structure that solved problems, amplified strengths, and uplifted morale.

Their production team achieved an employee retention rate over 500% better than the industry average. Productive conversations and strong relationships now define this remote team, and the manager loves that it’s so easy to keep his people happy.

Read the full story.

Strategies for improving the employee experience and maximizing ROI

The right employee experience strategy can make all the difference to your ability to attract, engage, and retain high-performing employees. So now let's have a glance at key employee experience initiatives you can begin implementing right away:

1. Have a stellar onboarding process for new employees

An exceptional employee experience starts from the word go. First impressions leave a lasting mark on employee engagement, motivation, and retention, so a simple way to start a positive employee experience off on the right foot is to ask the right employee onboarding survey questions at the beginning of the employee journey.

The employee experience begins even before your new hire logs on for their first day. A great onboarding process can make all the difference in employee retention. Learn why.

2. Promote transparent communication

Great communication is the foundation of every healthy relationship, including those in the workplace. Keeping open channels of effective communication can have a tremendous effect on the employee experience and engagement, and counter struggling employee morale.

The cornerstone of strong employee-leadership relationships is crystal-clear communication. Check out these 10 tips to foster employee engagement with effective communication.

3. Create a culture of recognition

Your employees work hard — that's why you hired them. One of the most sure-fire ways to keep your people happy and engaged is to ensure they're being adequately recognized for their efforts and contributions. While some employees may prefer public acknowledgment of their work, some might feel more comfortable with subtler more private kudos.

Start improving recognition in the workplace with these eight tips.

4. Offer professional development

Every employee needs the opportunity to not just grow in their role, but to grow in their career. So when organizations offer paths to career development, employees feel valued, supported, and more motivated. It all starts with a great career development conversation.

5. Establish a feedback system

Consistent feedback is essential to helping employees feel heard and valued. Company leaders and managers need to take their feedback and demonstrate that they're putting it to good use. An efficient employee feedback system helps you take the pulse of how employees are feeling to assess factors like employee engagement, employee satisfaction, and other metrics.

When a feedback system becomes a part of your culture, you're truly elevating the employee experience for all.

6. Conduct stay interviews

We're all familiar with the exit interview, but did you know that it's just as important to conduct stay interviews as well? While you may not be able to convince your employee from pursuing other professional opportunities, the information you gather from stay interviews can be instrumental in your engagement and retention strategies for active and future employees.

Tapping into employee satisfaction levels by asking the right questions can be eye-opening Use our stay interview template to get the conversation going.

Keep your people around for the long haul

The adage "you get what you give" definitely rings true. If you invest in your people and offer a stand-out employee experience, you will reap the benefits of a happier, more engaged, and more productive workforce. But you don't have to go at it alone. With employee engagement solutions like Officevibe, you can gather invaluable feedback, implement data-driven strategies, and measure your initiatives. These real-time insights will go a long way in reducing turnover rates and improving business performance.