The New Worker

A positive experience is a powerful thing. In any context, it's one that we tend to think of favorably and are happy to repeat. Think of your favorite restaurant for a second. Yep, the one with the cozy ambiance, the waiter that always greets you with a smile, and the fresh food that's second to none. It's the overall experience that keeps you coming back.

The same is true at work. Fostering a positive employee experience attracts the right people and ultimately keeps them at your company in the long run. While competitive salaries and great benefits are important to upkeep, they're easily replicable. The overarching experience your employees have with your organization is what's bound to set you apart.

Having a memorable employee experience is a win-win for all. It makes people happy, motivated, and productive, which naturally increases employee retention, customer engagement, and profitability.

Want to drive your business there? Follow our tried-and-true best practices to foster a positive employee experience and happy company culture.

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12 best practices for enhancing employee experience

The employee experience best practices you adopt can have a huge impact on creating a positive experience, encouraging employee engagement, and boosting job satisfaction. These simple yet effective tips apply to new employees and longstanding team members alike, so being mindful at each step is important.

Keep these 12 best practices in mind when building your employee experience strategy:

1. Make first impressions count

You never get a second chance to make a first impression, so making it count off the bat is key. In the workplace, creating a positive employee experience starts with the hiring process. Are your job descriptions representative of the roles you're hiring for? Do you keep a clear and open line of communication with your candidates? Do you share relevant feedback at each stage of the hiring process? Start with asking yourself these questions and tackling the basics.

Your first interactions are also a time to establish fit and connection. It's when you should share your company values, stance on equal opportunity, mission and vision of the future, and all the fundamental elements that make your organization what it is. Making this clear from the get-go ensures alignment from day one and sets your new hires for long-term success at your company.

2. Ensure role clarity

If you're looking for a sure-fire way to put employees on a path to great performance, you need to make their roles crystal clear. Role clarity helps them understand what is expected of them, what tasks they’re responsible for, how their work impacts their own goals and those of the company, and how they can expect their work to be evaluated.

Establishing role clarity and key performance indicators also makes every part of the employee journey smoother. During onboarding, role clarity leads to quick integration and employee engagement. Once team members are in full swing at work, understanding what their main purpose is gives them a sense of accountability, and ultimately helps them be more productive. And finally, in the development phase, clear roles lead to clear career goals and objectives.

Align on goals and expectations with a handy one-on-one template for clarifying roles and responsibilities.

3. Equip and enable managers

A huge part of a healthy employee experience stems from the quality of personal relationships team members establish with one another — and perhaps most notably with their managers.

Ensuring successful, healthy relationships between employees and their managers starts with equipping managers with effective managerial and communication skills. When employees feel respected, supported, seen, and heard by their leaders, it has a significant impact on positive employee experiences.

No matter their level of experience, you should provide managers with the tools they need to effectively engage their employees. The right training, conversation guides, and toolkits can help managers grow their own skills, so they can better provide professional and personal support, give honest feedback, and play a meaningful role in the employee journey.

🔑 This best practice is so key that we recently explored why manager enablement should be a top priority in 2023.

4. Champion internal communications

Good communication is at the heart of the strongest and longest standing relationships. This is true at work, too. For the sake of consistency and transparency, it really pays to standardize processes so that all employees feel included and informed.

We're talking about making important information easily accessible, sharing company announcements in a clear and timely way, and giving employees and managers the tools they need to communicate effectively with each other.

It's especially important that employees frequently feel heard and able to engage in effective two-way conversations with their leaders and peers. This starts with a supportive environment, proper listening (which is something we can all improve on!), and the right tools to enable it.

Advance your employee experience and ignite meaningful conversations with Officevibe's leadership and conversation tools.

5. Promote team collaboration and trust

Without trust at work, your teams won't pass the vibe check. A huge part of employee satisfaction comes from being part of a team you trust and enjoy working with. While building trust does take time, it's easier to foster when it's prioritized from the start. To get there, managers and organizations should encourage collaboration between new hires and their teams to start building trust right away.

Building strong, trusting relationships in the workplace takes a human touch, authenticity, and empathy. When you have these, employee engagement goes up, as do retention and business outcomes.

Create a team culture worth raving about with these 5 strategies to build team trust and boost collaboration.

6. Make employees feel valued

Engaged employees are ones who feel valued, recognized, and acknowledged for doing meaningful work. They not only have great personal experiences at work, but they also give back to the broader employee experience. That's because proper employee recognition contributes massively to employee engagement and a positive workplace culture. Employees who feel valued at work are usually happier, more collaborative, and less likely to search for employment opportunities elsewhere.

Recognition programs offer great outlets for teammates to share a little love and appreciation. From listening and taking action on employee feedback, to sending personalized "thank you" messages, to celebrating important milestones, there are tons of ways to increase recognition in the workplace.

A delightful way to say thanks

Officevibe's recognition features let you reward the little deeds and outstanding successes alike.

With prompts like "Who radiates positive energy?" and "Who's been bringing their "A" game lately?", your team can celebrate real moments, without cloaking it with corporate.

7. Provide a supportive work environment

Remote employees and those who prefer going to the office both need a supportive work environment to thrive. Everyone should have the freedom to work in the way that's best for them, whether they need a comfortable space to collaborate, or the privacy to work without distraction.

A supportive work environment is far more conducive to encouraging employee engagement and creating a positive employee experience. It's a place where employees can feel confident going to their managers with their concerns, and where employees are recognized for their hard work. It cultivates growth and encourages healthy work-life balance, which takes us to our next best practice.

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8. Prioritize health and well-being

Health is wealth, and at the end of the day, nothing is more important. That's why prioritizing employee wellness has become more of a focus than ever before.

Leaders should support employees through consistency in a healthy company culture. This means regularly checking on their well-being, creating a caring environment where employees feel comfortable expressing themselves, and offering schedule flexibility to accommodate their physical and mental health needs.

Employees with healthy work-wellness balance tend to be happier in the long run. And happy employees are more likely to be engaged, take initiative, and have positive interactions with others. Making sure employees have access to the tools, resources, and support they need is a worthwhile investment on both a human and business level.

Take a pulse on your workforce's wellbeing, keep tabs on company-wide metrics over time, and use feedback to develop your wellness programs with employee wellness surveys.

9. Listen to your employees

As we touched on before, employees who feel truly heard and acknowledged have a far more positive employee experience. Employee feedback is beneficial for both sides, so keeping communication channels open is key. You can collect feedback through regular one-on-one meetings between managers and their employees, pulse surveys, and even anonymous channels.

Gathering feedback allows you to understand what your employees really want from their roles, their manager, or the company in general. It can help you understand what inspires and motivates them, as well as the things that are holding them back.

Consistent listening and acting on employee feedback are huge factors in maintaining a great employee experience.

Give your teammates a safe space to share their honest thoughts using an anonymous employee feedback tool like Officevibe.

10. Set a performance management process in place

While the idea of performance evaluations might seem daunting to some, they actually play a key role in employee development and growth. Fair and transparent evaluations can build employee confidence and strengthen manager-employee relationships.

Performance management includes frequent performance reviews to give employees clear benchmarks on their progress. By having performance chats on a regular basis, everyone will be better acquainted with the process and less intimidated by it. Setting clear expectations leaves no room for surprises, as does being properly prepared.

We've put together 10 tips on how to handle performance review meetings with your employees to help you do just that.

11. Provide career development opportunities

If you want employees to be in for the long haul, you need to give them the opportunity to grow. Honing in on each employee's strengths and skills, helping them build knowledge and expertise, and providing ample training improves the employee experience and helps establish loyalty.

Development programs give employees a better vision of their future with the company. So it's important that managers support and guide them in their professional growth. Regular coaching, feedback, check-ins, training tools, and courses should all be available to your employees to make sure they're getting the enriching employee experience they deserve.

Are employees feeling stuck in their roles? Is your organization growing and thinking of opening senior positions? Are people looking for opportunities elsewhere? It may be time for your managers to have the career development talk with their team members.

12. Nurture diversity, equity, and inclusion

Perhaps above all, a positive employee experience comes from feeling truly comfortable, safe, and valued at work, regardless of who you are. When employees' differences are not just respected, but also celebrated, they have the opportunity to shine. A diverse team also offers different perspectives and helps overcome challenges more rapidly, which drives the entire company forward.

Everyone should feel welcome and included, which is why diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policies and training are non-negotiable in the workplace and a key element of a healthy employee experience.

Diversity, equity, and inclusion surveys give you the feedback you need to inform your DEI policies and initiatives. Pull from these 21 DEI questions so you can regularly take note of everyone's thoughts and sentiment.

The benefits of a great employee experience

The benefits of a great employee experience are abundant for both companies and employees:

Increased employee engagement

Employee engagement is the cornerstone of success, and employee experience is a huge factor in this. A Gallup study revealed that 65% of employees are disengaged, which highlights the drastic need to make employee experience a top priority.

Higher productivity

You hear it time and time again: happy employees are more productive employees. It really is true, though. A study by Oxford University found that happier employees are in fact 13% more productive. It's no secret that increased productivity is great for business, but it also adds to an overall feel-good experience for all.

Lower employee turnover

High employee retention is a reflection of a great employee experience. Gallup surveyed 2.7 million employees and found that engaged teams benefit from 18-43% lower turnover rates. And as an added bonus, they also found that engaged employees are 23 times more likely to recommend the company to others as a great place to work.

Enhanced customer experience

Every business wants to offer the best experience to both their customers and their employees. And the two go hand in hand. When employees are happy, they feel more engaged and invested in the company's products and services, which has a knock-on effect on the experience they offer customers. Highly engaged teams achieve a 10% difference in customer ratings and an 18% difference in sales.

Better business results

We know your business's bottom line is important. The good news is that you can have an impact on it by curating a stellar employee experience that motivates employees and keeps them engaged. The more motivated employees are, the more the quality of their work increases, which can boost profitability by 23%.

The impact of a highly engaged workforce on business outcomes can be staggering. Discover how to effectivelyquantify the ROI of employee experience in our comprehensive blog post.

Improve your employee experience with data-backed software

Embracing and implementing these employee experience best practices should be part of your employee experience strategy. An employee experience platform like Officevibe offers effective tools like pulse surveys, anonymous feedback, and guides for one-on-one conversations to help you keep track and improve your employee experience at all times.

With your busy schedule, and a million and one tasks, every second counts. Let technology take care of capturing your employees' sentiment regularly, so you can focus on building out your employee experience strategies.

Workleap Officevibe is loved by managers and HR teams worldwide. But more and more, C-Level executives are taking notice (and advantage) of the tool. We sat down with Martin Gourdeau, President and General Manager at Workleap, who shares how Workleap Officevibe has become an integral part of his daily reality — informing decisions at all levels, delivering true business value, and benefiting the company’s bottom line.

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The golden rule for great leaders

[Workleap Officevibe] We’re stoked to chat with you today, thanks for taking the time! Officevibe has been successfully adopted by thousands of managers and employees worldwide, and we’re excited to have an inside look into the business value it has highlighted for Workleap from your executive perspective.

Before we jump into things, we want to better understand you as a leader and businessperson. So, what’s your golden rule when it comes to leadership?

[Martin] Well, right off the bat, everything I'm going to say is linked to one of my core beliefs, which is that people are the most important part of any business. I've never heard any rational argument stand up against that notion, ever, so I have to put that out there before we get started because it plays into everything great about Officevibe.

Having a good read on your people and how they feel is key if you’re looking to have any real, honest visibility on your business’s health. I’ve always believed that, but this is especially true in distributed environments, where visibility becomes five, probably ten times more important. And that’s why Officevibe is now part of my everyday workflow.

How to use Workleap Officevibe for optimal visibility of employee insights

Considering so many businesses, including Workleap, now operate with hybrid or distributed teams, that’s more relevant than ever. So can you walk us through your relationship with Workleap Officevibe and how you use it to gain better visibility on the business and its people?

In general, and I think most executives will relate here, my morning routine starts by looking at a bunch of data — business metrics, like products and value delivered, roadmaps, and so on. One of the first things I do is open Officevibe to get a sense of the state of affairs of our teams.

I look at engagement trends — especially the eNPS (employee Net Promoter Score). ​​I also take a quick look at employee feedback as it gives me information on how the business can be improved at different levels and from different perspectives.

The employee Net Promoter Score (eNPS) is a simple way to track loyalty and pride for your organization. It’s an important part of Officevibe's engagement metrics. Learn how to calculate your company’s eNPS.

Another feature I look at almost every day is the comparison report. I mainly look for discrepancies — ​​that’s usually when I'll look into an issue further or flag it at the right level.

​​​There’s also the goals feature which, in my opinion, is one of the most valuable and underused features of Officevibe. I use the “tree view”, so I can drill down to understand every single OKR and how they connect back to top-level objectives. In my professional experience, I haven’t found any other tool that helps with strategic planning as well. For me, those features help me make correlations between how things are going in terms of delivery, sales, retention, and churn, across all other product, business, or finance metrics.

What’s super interesting is that engagement metrics can also be considered predictive indicators for business metrics. They point towards a confidence level of how things are going now and how they're going to be going over the next few months.

For example, let's say an event occurs that causes engagement metrics to start dropping. You could expect that to have an impact on business metrics, although there’s usually a delayed effect. If engagement starts going down, it's almost inevitable that business metrics will follow at some level — this could mean sales, retention, or product metrics.

​​​Like I said, people are the most important part of a business, so being able to visualize the state of a company from the perspective of its employees is incredibly helpful to run your operations. Sort of like a strategic looking-glass from the inside-out… with a bit of foretelling.

There are many engagement metrics executives can consider, and each one plays a role within the big picture of an organization. Officevibe also offers a sub-metrics view, which contributes to the employee experience. Discover our top 10 engagement metrics.

We love the predictive aspect and how you use Workleap Officevibe day-to-day. Was it a natural adoption process for you when you first got access to the tool? ​​​​​​

Ha! As one of our products, you’d expect I was using it since day one! But the truth is, I wasn't spending much time using it in the beginning. Don’t get me wrong — I had heard a lot about Officevibe. But I had no idea of the powerful business insights that could come from it.

It was once I had a sit-down with Simon [De Baene, Co-Founder & CEO], where we talked about the tool, that things really clicked for me. Simon shared how he was using Officevibe and that got me curious. Once I started playing around with it and experiencing its value myself, I was hooked.  

For someone in my position, a tool that can give you business insights that help with your decision-making process is incredibly valuable. So, I’ll admit — I didn’t give Officevibe much love the first few weeks. But once I saw I could chase real business value through the tool, it naturally became a part of my reality.

Improving daily operations with an employee experience platform

As a leader, in what other ways has Workleap Officevibe helped improve your daily operations? How would you say it helps the specific realities of an executive?  

Officevibe gives you a good understanding of a team or an employee’s capacity, and that can provide very useful knowledge. If I need to talk to a team leader about something, I check the general state of how their team is feeling beforehand to get some context.

A team’s state reflects on the person leading it, always — it’s human nature. So, I tie these insights into my interactions with that leader. Since I look at Officevibe every day, I’m able to keep a general sense of awareness of how things are going, which is just as important for planned conversations as unplanned ones. Knowing how specific teams are doing helps me manage conversations more effectively.

Thinking of a time before we had a tool like Workleap Officevibe, you wonder how executives ever managed to have a good understanding of their teams.  

Martin laughs. Around a whole lot of water cooler conversations!

Even then, those insights aren’t as in-depth or data-driven, wouldn’t you say?  

Agreed. These types of insights are biased to how a person is feeling at a specific point in time. A more anecdotal type of feedback — nowhere close to the quality of information you get from Officevibe. Not to mention the ability to look at trends over time.

Facing business challenges with confidence

You spoke about how you're using the tool to predict things. How does that help you face business challenges?  

In terms of forward-looking, if I see a business opportunity that requires putting specific teams under more pressure for a certain amount of time, I'll look at different engagement metrics — like culture, equity, or happiness — to evaluate how much they can take on in terms of mental bandwidth or stress.

The other part of it is the retro-looking capabilities, which are actually built into the platform and help us face business challenges with confidence. We did this for ​​​​our company restructuring — a massive change, which is usually stressful for everyone.

My hypothesis was that the business was going to come out happier and more engaged, so we built this hypothesis into the design of the project, rolled it out, and communicated it.

As predicted, metrics started going up. People were able to perform better with the clearer roles and responsibilities that came from the restructuring. The hypothesis that engagement metrics were going to improve after a stressful event is a bit counterintuitive, but everything was measured and that's exactly what happened.  

If the opposite effect happened, where the restructuring didn't go well, you would probably see metrics drop and be able to devise a new action plan, correct?  

Exactly. We’d use that in our retrospection, to see what we could have done better.

Workleap has been going through periods of high growth, which naturally comes with its own set of challenges. How do you feel Workleap Officevibe can help businesses navigate changes?

Growth is great. Although you have to be aware of the honeymoon period. I don’t love that term, but it’s a real phenomenon, where everything seems to be going great when new people first join, and where engagement is high. The data tends to skew the state of affairs more positively. But as long as you keep that in mind, you can use data to your advantage and have a good understanding of how the business is absorbing new talent.

In that sense, I find that the best way to determine the success of onboarding is by observing how engaged teams are over time — not just during or immediately.

Growth phases add a load at all levels of management, so the state of a team is also reflected through the manager of that team — that’s another great insight to pull from Officevibe.  

Do you find that using Workleap Officevibe facilitates reaching milestones for every level of management, even all the way down to the employee level?  

At the management level, for sure — if it's used properly. At worst, it'll derisk how you're managing your team. And at best, it'll optimize how you're managing your team.

There's a distinction between risk management and optimization for managers and executives. If I look back at my Officevibe journey, I started looking at data from a risk management perspective. Eventually, I understood its insights and moved towards using it to get the best out of people.  

The cost of not using Workleap Officevibe

You cover the benefits of using Officevibe. How would you describe the cost of inaction — in other words, what companies might lose out on not using Officevibe?  

​​​​​​​​Not using Officevibe is like driving without insurance — the biggest cost is whatever could come out of flying blind. That's how I would put it. Although, if​​​​​​​​ you're immature with the product, as in you don’t learn how to leverage its full potential, then of course it’s difficult to understand how it could contribute to your visibility and overall business success.

That’s the case with any tool. But Officevibe is, in my opinion, so easy to use and integrate into existing processes. Now that I use Officevibe, it blows my mind how many businesses miss out on using this kind of technology. ​​​​Every business is different, but one thing is certain: You need visibility on your people to manage them well.

Are there any KPI improvements you’ve been able to tie back to Workleap Officevibe?  

You can tie engagement back to the product execution of the teams. Engagement promotes better performance. When you cross reference performance with engagement, you have your business case. As a product company, it's one of our most important metrics.  

Team dynamics can truly dictate how quickly we can turn big projects and decisions around. There's trust and there's alignment when people work well together and have good communication.

You mentioned, at the very beginning, that you check the employee Net Promoter score often. On a final note, can you share what that metric looks like for Workleap today?

​​​Right now, we’re scoring 60 for eNPS across the whole company, which is a very good score. Our overall engagement is between 60% and 66%, and our participation rate is at 90%.  

Realistically, we’re not going to stay at 60 forever. We will experience normal business cycles where there will be harder times than others, which will impact engagement.

What's most important, as an executive, is that the numbers fit with your perception of what's going on. If there's a disconnect, it means you have a blind spot and you need to look into that.

But, to me, the score itself isn’t everything: what's most important, as an executive, is that the numbers fit with your perception of what's going on. If there's a disconnect, it means you have a blind spot with your business and you need to look into that. That’s why tools that give you visibility are so important. And that’s why Workleap Officevibe isn’t just ideal for mid-level management — there's a big potential for leadership members and executives there.

The customer experience is arguably one of the most important elements for a business to consider and nurture if they want to succeed within the landscape of modern work. While the customer journey cannot be overlooked, organizations must apply the same energy and resources into engaging their workforce if they want to thrive for years to come.

The concept of customer journey mapping is nothing new: you use the mapping process to identify customer pain points and improve upon them. You can use this same concept with the employee journey.

Employee journey maps allow you to identify critical moments during employee experiences that affect your people and business outcomes. By identifying key stages between the recruitment process and potential exit interviews, companies can dive deeper into the employee lifecycle to identify pain points and ultimately create a better work experience for current and future employees.

What is employee experience journey mapping?

The employee journey (also called the employee lifecycle) covers every interaction an individual has with their employer brand, from the first contact to the post-employment interview. Employee journeys differ greatly between businesses, industries, and departments. For example, a new intern with minimal experience beginning a sales role will have a different journey than a seasoned exec switching companies.

The employee journey typically involves the following stages:

• Recruitment: The recruitment stage includes application screenings, interviews, and contract negotiations.
• Onboarding: The onboarding process for new hires prepares them for their role by introducing them to the company's goals, core values, culture, and processes.
• Engagement: Employee engagement happens as new members join their team, connect with co-workers and managers, and become motivated by a common goal.
• Development: As new employees settle into their roles, the development phase includes the first performance review and push toward improvement.
• Offboarding: Current employees may be seeking other professional opportunities. If they've decided to leave, exit interviews and other wrap-ups should be performed in this phase.

An employee journey map creates a holistic view of an employee's journey using simplified visualization to identify issues, plan career progression, and gain valuable insights into experiences at any given stage. To retain your top talent for the long haul, you can build an employee journey map to discover improvement areas in your employees' experience.

So, what does an employee journey map include? Your employee journey map template should arrange data relating to the most important touchpoints, employee stages, and bigger-picture focus areas. Typically, an employee journey map covers the following:

• An employee experience overview
• Employee personas with individual journeys
• Micro touchpoints for each employee persona
• General employee goals and objectives
• Improvement goals
• Employee feedback
• Improvement area insights
• Actionable strategies

The employee journey map should provide a holistic view, critical to creating a positive experience for your team. Let's explore how to include these key elements in your employee experience journey map.

Steps to map the employee experience journey

1. Define goals for your employee journey maps

Before you begin employee journey mapping, you should align your team on the context and objectives of these conversations. What do you want to achieve, and why? Your employee journey mapping goals should be specific, actionable, and measurable so you can use data models to analyze results.

We recommend using a tool to define and track goals throughout the employee journey mapping process. For example, with Officevibe's goals and OKR tool, you can set overarching objectives and then determine realistic steps toward success, for easy progression tracking and better team alignment.

Here are a few goals your company could shoot for:

• Identify the root cause of high employee turnover
• Improve the onboarding experience
• Align other departments with HR initiatives
• Help new employees understand their role in company growth
• Drive revenue growth and increase market share
• Improve employee experience and satisfaction
• Focus on more positive experiences in remote work environments
• Improve employee loyalty and reduce turnover rates

These goals may sound like lofty concepts, though by pinpointing problem areas along the employee journey map, you can develop specific strategies that align with your organizational objectives.

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2. Identify employee personas

Employee personas are invented characters portraying an average team member. You can create and use personas for diving into your employees' mindsets to better understand their problems, desires, and goals. Personas include basic demographics and descriptive details like their personal background, life goals, primary skills, and biggest pain areas.

Identifying employee personas for all major groups within your company is key to understanding employees' experiences. Personas help you appreciate how your employees' journey stages and touchpoints vary. You may have a persona for each company department and skill level.

For comprehensive employee experience insights, you can include the following details with each persona:

• Name
• Job role
• Age range
• Education
• Years of experience
• Location
• Expected income
• Preferred technology
• Career goals
• General worries
• Frustrations with the company
• Skills
• Hobbies

3. Outline the employee journey stages

Now that you've explored the employee experience and understand who your team members are, you can begin outlining their exact journey stages. You should develop a separate employee journey map for each persona since their experiences will be unique. The employee journey map can include bigger-picture concepts, like their professional development or career objectives, the pain points they experience, and the phases they move through with the company.

Follow these steps to outline the employee journey stages:

1. Define upper-level stages: While each persona will have a different employee journey, the upper-level stages will remain the same. Think about the main processes every employee must follow: hiring, onboarding, etc.
2. Add details to each stage: The details within each stage are how you discover improvement areas. For example, for the hiring process, consider the initial contact, screening methods, the job interview, the offer process, etc.
3. Map stages to persona goals: Now that you've created a detailed employee journey map template, you can tailor the information to each persona's goals and expectations. Map the data across each of your personas, contextualizing the details based on their personal needs, goals, and challenges.
4. Locate problem areas: Once you see the employee journey map through the eyes of all your employees, you can see what issues they have. For example, an employee might be struggling to engage in their role after a few months due to a lack of team alignment.
5. Develop solutions: After identifying specific challenges from your journey map, you can develop strategies and solutions. Using the previous example, your solution may be to incorporate more group meetings and collaboration tools to create better alignment with the team.

The above steps can seem overwhelming at first, but they offer resounding positive effects for your employees, teams, and for the overall health of your business. We recommend using an organizational tool to keep all your information in one place for easier mapping and tracking. For example, you can use visual collaboration tools like Miro boards to create and repeat your journey map templates across each persona.

4. Gather feedback on the employee experience

Identifying problem areas by looking at a map will only get you so far. You need to learn from your employees which changes they'd like to see. Employee feedback tools like pulse surveys, anonymous feedback channels, and one-on-one meetings help gather invaluable insights into the employee experience at each stage.

For example, you can use onboarding feedback surveys after training new employees to see how team members feel about that phase in their journey. With targeted questions, open-ended responses, and anonymous settings, you can discover minor pain points you may not have located on the map. For example, a few employees may respond that the software used for training is challenging and requires additional support — which is a fairly simple fix.

You can gather feedback for each stage of the employee journey to measure how your improvement plan performs. By asking the right employee experience survey questions, you can get into the nitty-gritty details of each phase.

At Officevibe, we simplify developing insightful and engaging custom employee surveys so you can take the guesswork out of your employee experience strategy.

5. Take action and measure results

Once you've gathered your feedback, it's time to put the pieces together and spring into action. Establish initiatives with realistic scopes and timelines that can help you improve the overall employee experience based on the problem areas you've discerned. Set milestones and identify key metrics that you can incorporate into your employee experience template to help you measure your team's engagement.

6. Follow up on progress

While it's extremely important to keep tracking trends and fluctuations in your employee experience over time, it's vital to follow up on your initiatives so that you can see if they're worth the time and resources you've put into them. Following up on the progress of your initiatives also boosts transparency and keeps the members of your organization collectively accountable for fostering a better employer brand and improving the employee experience.

Example of an employee journey map

For this employee journey map example, we will use a persona called "Sam." You just hired Sam and they start on Monday. During the onboarding phase, their employee journey may look something like this:

OnboardingObjectivePrepare new hire for their role by introducing them to the company's goals, core values, culture, and processes.Employee expectationsSam expects to meet their colleagues, learn more about their role and team culture, and ensure they're a good fit with the organization.TouchpointsSam will engage with their HR reps, new manager, and colleagues.Action itemsHR and other members of the organization provide Sam with resources to start their role.Pain points/barriersSam may have to take in a lot of information in a short period of time, which may be overwhelming.SolutionsSam can work with HR and their manager to organize the intake of information in a more realistic fashion.Follow-upsHR will check in with Sam after their first week to ensure they have all the tools and resources to dive into their role.

You can answer any concerns and engage new employees by providing the right onboarding touchpoints, motivating content, and measuring tactics. Applications and tools like Softstart help you build a more personalized onboarding experience and shows your new hire that you're committed to their employee experience.

This process applies to all different phases of the employee journey, so analyze each in-depth. You can use this employee journey map template to learn more about the employee experience at your organization.

Build the best employee experience

Employee journey mapping is the best way to develop a successful employee experience strategy. By gathering feedback through targeted surveys, locating problem areas, and measuring results, you can improve each phase in the employee lifecycle and create better experiences for your employees.

Keep making the employee experience a priority at your organization with tools that make it easy to gather insightful employee feedback responses with customizable templates, anonymous surveys, goal alignment, meeting support, recognition tools, and more.

Your employees play a major role in advancing your company's mission. When they're engaged, they work towards the right goals, communicate effectively, and contribute to a positive work environment.

Employee experience (EX) trends and standards continue to evolve as more HR leaders discover the value of happy employees. But reaching the employee experience pinnacle means thinking beyond snacks in the office and including deeper management practices that help employees feel valued.

Providing simple things like flexible working hours and a good work-life balance strengthens employee satisfaction. And naturally, that improves performance, employee retention, and the company's success.

The rippling effect of a positive employee experience is now the primary focus of employers in today's workplace. So what can you do to keep your team happy and motivated? Read on to learn more.

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Why should you work on your employee experience strategy?

Teams excel when each player gives it their all. But getting the most out of your team doesn't just fall on your employees. It's crucial to put thought into your employee experience and work towards exceeding their job expectations. Doing so allows you to:

• Increase retention rates: Employee churn is at an all-time high, with over 37 million Americans quitting their jobs in the last year alone. That means employers need to consistently give employees reason to stay. You can do this by enforcing job security and career progression through positive employee experiences.
• Boost productivity: Employees who enjoy their job and value their company, coworkers, and managers want to help everyone succeed. Constructive employee experiences increase productivity and efficiency, improving the organization's operations.
• Improve employee engagement: Engaged teams activate critical thinking skills and creative mindsets, leading them to do their best work. When employees feel engaged at work, they're also more likely to collaborate better and vitalize the company culture.
• Strengthen brand reputation: Modern consumers weigh your company culture before making a purchase. People trust organizations that value their employees, so your employee experience management will directly influence your company reputation scores.
• Acquire top talent: During the talent acquisition process, seasoned workers look for a positive workplace culture with flexibility, health benefits, and room for growth. Prioritizing the employee experience will help you acquire experts who will launch your business toward success.

Need more convincing? Read more about how an effective employee experience strategy can help your team succeed. Spoiler: we share 12 concrete EX strategy examples you won't want to miss.

The 11 key pillars of employee experience

Providing an excellent employee experience means meeting and exceeding employee expectations. Keep reading to learn about the eleven pillars you should incorporate into your employee experience strategy.

1. Office space

Employees need a physical environment that enables productivity, comfort, and collaboration. To achieve this physical space, you need to provide your team the following:

• All necessary tools and resources: Employees should have access to everything they need to complete their job, including tech tools, managerial support, and more.
• Public collaboration spaces: Your diverse workforce will deliver the best results when unified. Collaboration spaces, like meeting rooms or digital chat tools, allow employees to work in harmony, which improves engagement.
• Private focus areas: Employees also need private areas for downtime and focus. Providing a fair balance between collaborative and independent work allows employees to excel.
• Comfortable break spaces: When employees spend 40 hours a week in one building, they want to feel comfortable and happy to be there. You don't need to exhaust the company budget on a cutting-edge breakroom, but providing access to healthy snacks, comfortable seating, informal spaces, dedicated exercise areas, and even showers can help employees feel more relaxed and at ease in the office.

Don't forget the home office

The above tips apply to remote employees as well. You should nourish at-home teams with the same tools and opportunities for optimal engagement and remote team collaboration.

Pro tip: If your team is largely remote, you should consider allocating each employee a special budget for their home office tech and furniture needs.

2. Company values and culture

All humans want to feel valued, especially in the work they do. Be sure to build your organizational culture on employee-focused ethics and values — always prioritizing respect and integrity.

A distinguished company culture recognizes employee value and acts on it. For example, if you want to prioritize diversity, implement new hiring protocols, rethink your perks to fit everyone's needs, and organize safe space trainings with your HR team.

👀 Have you read our first ever magazine? We dig deep into workplace culture, how it's created (and by who), and how to rethink it in the new year.

3. Recognition

Recognition is the number one managerial response employees seek. Positive recognition throughout the employee journey empowers hard work, personal growth, and satisfaction. That means recognition should never be a one and done situation.

Getting your managers and employees to recognize each other doesn't have to be a big feat. The key is to empower them with processes and tools that facilitate and guide them through the art of giving recognition. A tool like Good Vibes, for example, features prompts that inspire people to highlight their teammates' positive efforts and brilliant moments.

Use our tips on improving workplace recognition to ensure that no hard work goes unnoticed.

4. Empowerment and autonomy

Each member of your team has unique backgrounds, training, and value that shapes their ways of thinking and working. Empowering employees to speak up, take charge, and voice their opinions helps them understand their contribution within the organization. And ultimately, leads to better employee engagement.

Part of this empowerment is learning to master employee autonomy at all levels, which is especially important in remote contexts. When managers trust employees to take control of their everyday work, employees tend to feel more respected and valued. So if you want to build a high-performing team, don't forget to embed empowerment and autonomy within your employee experience.

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5. Communication

Communication inspires engagement and collaboration. When peers and managers check in on each other, brainstorm and ideate, and talk through challenges together, they develop mutual trust and respect. What's more, they'll also align better on goals and work together towards a common purpose.

Communication can come in many forms:

• Meaningful feedback
• Expectation alignments
• Listening skills
• Task context
• Regular check-ins
• Team meetings
• One-on-one meetings
• Digital communication tools

Do your team members communicate well with each other? Sometimes employees just need a nudge in the right direction. Help them connect and collaborate better with these 13 tips to improve communication at work.

6. Employee feedback

Great employee feedback is the backbone of a happy and high-performing workforce. It helps employees work towards excellence, while also giving them a voice to help drive the company forward. And in trying times, it can be the difference between a struggling organization and one that is thriving.

A successful feedback loop consists of two main parts:

• Giving feedback: Constructive feedback doesn't just tell employees how to improve. It shows them their manager values them and cares about their growth at the company (and in their career in general).
• Taking feedback: Gathering feedback allows you to understand what your employees desire from their roles, manager, or the company. For example, you may discover that most of your employees want more one-on-one meetings. You can even use feedback from employee experience survey questions to shape your entire employee experience program.

Want to give your organization a competitive edge? Focus on creating a solid employee feedback system so you can continuously enhance your employee experience.

7. Alignment with company goals

A train cannot run without tracks, and your team is only as successful as the goals you point them toward. An aligned team focused on a specific, achievable, and measurable goal works harder to see results. Team alignment should include the following:

• Crystal clear goals
• Understanding and audit of the resources needed
• Transparent communication
• Consistent check-ins
• Progression tools to keep everyone on track

8. Well-being programs

Working 40 hours a week — or more for many people — while balancing other aspects of life can be tough and even exhausting. Employees "burn out" when they don't get the chance to prioritize their mental health and emotional well-being. Now more than ever, they're choosing to take charge of this prioritization, and expectations for well-being at work are on the rise.

"The long-term success of many organizations may depend on whether they can rise to the challenge of addressing workforce well-being, given that 57% of employees said they may soon quit for a more supportive job."

Deloitte & Workplace Intelligence study

It's clear then that companies can no longer put well-being programs on the back burner. But how can you address it when well-being means different things to different people? A great place to start is by using an employee wellness survey. Such polls help you understand how your team feels and give you the data to back up your wellness efforts.

9. Flexibility and work-life balance

Like the point above, every employee has different needs when it comes to flexibility and work-life balance. Some employees have young children, some are studying on the side, and others may simply love recharging with social or sportive activities on the daily.

As more businesses move online, more employees embrace remote and hybrid work. Letting employees work in their most comfortable environments and at their own rhythm leads to work-life flexibility and satisfaction.

💡Julie Jeannotte, Officevibe's in-house HR Researcher and Employee Experience Expert, shares her take on work-life balance for managers and what it looks like in today's environment.

10. Resources and technology

Technology should make employees' lives easier. Equipping teams with the knowledge, tools, and tech they need to do the job efficiently improves their day-to-day satisfaction and engagement. Introducing technology advancements, access to external support whenever needed, and adequate software licenses into your workplace can also boost productivity and streamline the employee experience.

11. Training and career development

If you want employees to stay, you have to help them grow. From nourishing soft skills and building knowledge and expertise, to providing on-the-job training, you can bridge gaps in your workforce's needs while establishing recognition and loyalty.

Creating development programs can also help employees think about their future at your company, while helping managers support them throughout their growth. Setting one-on-ones dedicated to the career development talk is a great way to get the conversation going.

Start improving your employee experience

Improving your employee experience can seem overwhelming when you don't know where to start. Thinking about the pillars above and adjusting the status quo accordingly will guide you and your team in the right direction. By gathering insights through employee surveys, feedback systems, and one-on-one meetings, you can uncover the best ways to exceed employee expectations.

If you need help along the way, employee experience platforms like Officevibe, take the guesswork out of collecting feedback, measuring employee engagement, and sharing recognition.

Goal setting is an important part of learning any new skill or embarking on any new project. So it comes as no surprise that setting goals is also an important part of creating a fantastic onboarding experience. Setting clear goals is as important as great welcome emails or a solid onboarding structure.

After all, if we aren’t tracking metrics, it’s hard to know whether what we’re doing is working. This means that successes could be passing us by before we can even realize it. In this article, we’ll suggest a number of onboarding goals that you could set to make sure that your process is smooth for everyone involved.

Why are onboarding goals essential?

Setting up onboarding goals is a vital part of designing an onboarding process. Not only does setting onboarding goals set you up to be able to give yourself and your team a well-earned “pat on the back” at the end of your onboarding process, but it also does a great job of setting expectations for both the hiring manager and the newcomer. 

Onboarding goals can be organized into three different categories: learn, grow, and master. “Learn” goals are the most obvious and consist of introducing a new hire to the expectations and performance indicators of their new role. 

“Growth” goals go beyond the introduction phase and include goals that ensure new hires have cemented themselves within the team and can handle tasks autonomously. Lastly, “master” goals—which occur only after a new hire has been in their new position for at least three months—means setting goals that reflect the newcomers status as an active contributor. 

Below are a selection of goals that relate to the three categories of learn, grow, and master. If you can deliver on any of the below goals, then you know you’re on the right track to an impressive tenure. 

Six great onboarding goals to set

Goal 1: the new hire will get to know their team (learn)

Starting a new job is hard. A big part of this is likely because a new job delivers a lot of unknowns, and uncertainty is a major stress contributor for most people. To make matters worse, new hires don’t know any of their coworkers yet, which makes it harder for them to orient themselves and access a support system.

Add a remote environment to the mix, and it’s even harder. For all of its perks, there is sometimes just no replacement for those coworker coffee breaks that help new hires acclimate. 

You can help melt away some of your team’s uncertainty by properly introducing them to their coworkers and helping them situate themselves within the ecosystem of your organization. 

Introductions can look like real team-building experiences that give everyone involved a chance to learn a thing or two about their new coworkers as well as small icebreakers that create a simple but friendly connection between two people who will likely seldom work with one another. 

By the end of your onboarding process, your new hire should understand not only their role, but the roles of those around them, and should have had a proper introduction to the majority (if not all) of the teammates that they will be working alongside. 

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🎯 The goal: Team integration

💡 Ideas for implementation: Orientation sessions, team lunches, manager 1:1, etc.

📊How to measure it: your new hire has met all key people in your organization

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Goal 2: the new hire will have a sense of psychological safety (learn)

Psychological safety in the workplace is a topic that has gained more traction lately, and rightfully so. In short, psychological safety means that every person in a workplace feels safe to share themselves—whether through their ideas, thoughts, questions, etc. —without being belittled or ridiculed. 

Psychological safety isn’t a given, and must be cultivated. Your onboarding period is the optimal time to encourage a strong sense of psychological safety. It goes beyond friendly meetings to include things like ice-breaking games, happy hours, and any other activities that make an effort to get to know your newcomer as the human being they are. 

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🎯 The goal: Psychological safety.

💡 Ideas for implementation: “Get to know you” sessions, ice breakers, games, 1:1 check-ins.

📊How to measure it: is the feedback that you’ve received positive? Would your new hire feel comfortable reaching out to request feedback if they need to? 

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Goal 3: your new hire will understand their job perks and benefits (learn)

Even if we would rather onboarding just be about big, exciting ideas, there are always going to be practical topics to discover at the start of any new job. However, this doesn’t mean that these practical sessions have to be boring. You can provide your new hires with fun, laidback sessions that allow them to easily absorb the many perks and benefits offered by their new position. 

This is a great opportunity to get them excited about the many positive parts of their new position. You can also add in other HR-related sessions like company policies, processes, and procedures. 

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🎯 The goal: Understand perks and benefits.

💡 Ideas for implementation: Welcome meeting with HR, benefits intro session, overview of company policies and processes.

📊How to measure it: has your new hire received a benefits booklet and had an opportunity to ask questions?  

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Goal 4: your employee will understand the basics of what their job entails (growth)

This one might seem like it goes without saying. But there is so much to uncover during an onboarding experience that it would be easy to breeze past the practical expressions that each job entails. 

It’s not possible to create an expert overnight. That takes time. But by the end of your one, two, or three week onboarding sessions, your employee should feel set up for success. They should know which software they’ll be using, which tasks they’ll be in charge of, and should know which communication tools that your company uses (as well as key people to work with). 

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🎯 The goal: Learn more about your role and expectations.

💡 Ideas for implementation: Intro session to company communications and brand guidelines, hands-on software training, product hands-on experience, sample calendar.

📊How to measure it: is your new hire able to do basic tasks and deliver assets with assistance from their peers?  

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Goal 5: your new hire will have some foresight (growth)

Most work environments are fast-paced and should change overnight. However, you should still try to give your new hire as much clarity as possible when it comes to what the first few months in their role will look like. 

A great way to do this is by aligning them with company goals from the beginning. For example, it could look like sharing your existing quarterly goals or including your new hire in a quarterly planning session if the timing is right. 

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🎯 The goal: Learn to master the role and responsibilities.

💡 Ideas for implementation: Quarterly planning session, inspiring readings, company goals.

📊How to measure it: can your new hire perform autonomous tasks without assistance?  

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Goal 6: your new hire is engaged and feels at home (master)

We’ve talked a lot about the stressors of a new job, but at the end of the day, it should feel exciting! A new job is a fresh start and a sign of career development. 

You can help ensure your new hire feels excited by letting them in on company values that make employees proud of what they do. You can also help foster a sense of excitement by reinforcing any new initiatives down the road and even highlighting things like upcoming company events. 

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🎯 The goal: Alignment.

💡 Ideas for implementation: inspiring reading material, plans for upcoming company events.

📊How to measure it: onboarding has confirmed that this position is what the new hire was looking for.

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Of course, the specific goals for each onboarding process will depend on the organization, job role, and the length of the onboarding process. But what all goals have in common is that they are specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-sensitive (easily remembered as the acronym “SMART”). 

Have you ever thought of one-on-one meetings as a secret ingredient essential to effective leadership? One-on-ones are a valuable time (and in some cases the only time) to connect with your direct reports on a personal level. One-on-one meetings offer the opportunity to share constructive feedback, tackle difficult conversations, discuss career goals, and much more.

This is true when one-on-one meetings are thoughtfully planned, both parties are fully present, and respect everyone's time. On the other hand, a misused meeting can be frustrating and leave employees feeling confused without a clear understanding of their roles or tasks. That’s why we’ve rounded up some efficient one-on-one meeting tips to help you facilitate insightful conversations, develop trust with your employees, and inspire results from your team.

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What are one-on-one meetings and why are they so important?

A one-on-one meeting is (you guessed it) a discussion between two employees with an intended purpose. These chats can be formal events or more casual in nature and are usually between a manager and a direct report, between peers in the same unit, or between colleagues in different departments.

Purpose of a one-on-one meeting

The goal of a one-on-one meeting will vary according to your and your employee's needs and may change over time. Some of the main reasons for scheduling one-on-one meetings include:

• Setting goals
• Building and maintaining the manager-employee relationship
• Working on career development plans
• Giving and receiving honest feedback
• Checking in on your team members' well-being

The purpose of your one-on-one meetings may evolve as your relationships change and as projects progress. From here, you can set weekly meetings and start building a more collaborative agenda with each of your direct reports.

Benefits of one-on-one meetings

Much like team meetings, a one-on-one discussion allows you to connect, collaborate, and communicate more easily with another team member. As a manager, a one-on-one meeting can help you:

• Celebrate and recognize employee accomplishments
• Overcome project roadblocks
• Align on personal goals and company objectives
• Support employee professional development
• Collect employee feedback

13 Tips for great one-on-one meetings

1. Make one-on-one meetings a priority

One-on-one meetings with employees are a great opportunity to check in with how your team is doing overall. During stressful periods or in moments of change, it’s even more important to take the time to understand how your team members are affected.

Make sure you schedule your one-on-ones at a dedicated time you know you can make regularly. Do your very best not to cancel, or let them cancel the meeting. Keeping your commitments builds trust with your team.

⏰ Don’t be late! You may be running back-to-back meetings all day long, but your team members don’t necessarily know that. If you have multiple meetings, be clear at the start of each one when your hard stop is, and stick to it. Showing up late sends a negative message that you don’t respect their time — not the best way to set the tone for the meeting ahead.

2. Meet frequently

Get in the habit of scheduling one-on-one meetings frequently to build a better relationship with your employees. Scheduling one-on-ones at regular intervals with every member of your team keeps communication ongoing. Once a month isn’t enough to make meaningful progress. Instead, aim for either a weekly or biweekly recurring meeting. This pace is especially important when a direct report is new to a role, new to the company, or facing challenges with performance.

Not to fret: Everyone can recognize that things come up, and it might not always be possible to meet this frequently. If you have to push an upcoming meeting because of pressing priorities, consider either rescheduling the one-on-one for later in the day or week, or shortening the meeting time for the day as an exception.

It’s still possible to run an effective meeting in 15 minutes instead of 30 minutes. Your commitment to maintaining frequency will show your employees that you value your one-on-ones with them.

3. Prepare for each one-on-one meeting

Just as it would be for any other meeting, preparing in advance for one-on-one meetings is key to making the most of everyone’s time together. Review your notes from the last meeting and plan your discussion points ahead of time. Keeping a consistent meeting structure with a one-on-one agenda template will save you time and help you stay focused on the issues that matter.

Remember: You might not be the only one with an agenda. And this is a good thing! Employees might have pressing issues of their own that they want to bring up in the meeting. Encourage this engagement and be sure to dedicate time for them to bring up their issues, challenges, and ideas.

4. Share the agenda before the meeting

Improve employee engagement and participation in the conversation by sharing the agenda before the meeting. Ask them if there are any topics they would like to talk about and meeting agenda items they want to add. Sharing the agenda in advance gives you both visibility on what you’ll be discussing, making it easy to arrive at the meeting prepared.

Officevibe's one-on-one software lets managers and employees set talking points in a shared meeting agenda throughout the week. You can save on prep time by using the customizable one-on-one meeting template offered directly in the app.

5. Start with a check-in

One-on-one meetings offer the opportunity to build rapport with your employees and connect on a personal level. Spark free-flowing conversation by asking them about things they’re interested in, like hobbies, what they did over the weekend, or upcoming vacation plans. Dedicating time in the meeting to talk about more than just work shows your team members that you care about them and their well-being and encourages open and honest dialogue.

Stuck for some fresh conversation starters? Here are some different ways to check in and get to know your team members better.

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6. Ask open-ended questions

One-on-one meetings are a conversation, and often the best way to lead a meaningful conversation is to ask questions. Open-ended questions are a great way to guide the conversation, exchange important information, and find solutions collaboratively.

Come prepared with more one-on-one meeting questions like:

• What’s been on your mind during the past week?
• Can you share a recent example of a work situation in which you thrived?
• What were the key components that led to your success?
• Do you feel like your workload is reasonable? If it isn’t, can you suggest solutions that we could implement together to address the problem?
• How can I support you?

Officevibe’s one-on-one meeting tool helps you plan, track, and follow up on every conversation in a single place. Plus, dozens of recommended talking points live in our Conversation Engine so you get to the topics that matter most, every time.

7. Let them talk

Nothing is worse than being set up for a good conversation (*cough* tips #1 through #6), and then when it comes your time to talk, the other person interjects their ideas or consumes the conversation. Doing so is a surefire way to kill employee engagement.

Be open to hearing what your employees have to say with the intention of understanding, and aim to listen 80% of the time and speak only 20% of the time.

Remember: One-on-one meetings are great opportunities for employees to provide feedback and raise concerns. Create a safe space for your direct reports and have more genuine conversations with these proven tips.

8. Listen to your employees

Now is the time to be “all ears.” Do less of the talking and focus on them. Everyone’s communication and management style is different, and it’s crucial to create an environment where your employees feel comfortable expressing themselves freely. Whether it’s a virtual one-on-one meeting or you’re having it in person, being present (*hint* silence those Slack notifications) is going to make the difference between a fruitful experience or not — for both you and your employee.

💡Idea: Use active listening techniques to strengthen your interaction and build a better understanding. By giving your undivided attention while mirroring and validating what they say, you may pick up on underlying issues they hint at — and be able to bring the challenge to the surface by asking relevant follow-up questions.

9. Avoid status updates on current projects

It’s reasonable to think that you and your employees will want to touch on work priorities during your one-on-ones. However, this is not the time for a performance review. Try to avoid spending too much time on status updates and focus on the bigger picture instead. Chances are there are other meetings dedicated to those kinds of discussions. It’s also likely that others on your team need to hear status reports too, and having to repeat updates is an inefficient use of time for everyone.

10. Take meeting notes

Taking notes during your one-on-ones not only shows your employee that you value what they’re saying, but it helps you remember it, too! Writing notes will help you stay organized amid multiple meetings, track progress, bring new topics to the discussion, and keep meetings fresh. Having a clear record of what you’ve discussed helps you follow up in your next conversation.

One-on-one software like Officevibe can help you centralize your meeting notes so you have a record of your conversations with each employee on your team. You can create shared one-on-one agendas, set and track action items, and keep private meeting notes that only you can see.

11. Ask for feedback

One-on-one meetings are a perfect moment for both giving feedback and collecting critical feedback from employees. An easy question like “what can I do to help you this week?” can reveal insights that help you better support your team. Fostering a culture of feedback is a vital part of maintaining your team’s health and improving your role as a manager.

The benefits of giving and receiving feedback are countless. Check out these tips for creating a feedback culture on your team.

12. Set goals for both you and your employee

As a manager, you are uniquely positioned to align your professional ambitions with serving and supporting your employees on their career paths. One-on-one meetings are an ideal time for career discussion — for getting deep into both the wins and challenges in their current role and setting future career goals. By gaining insight into your employees’ aspirations and skill sets, you can then help structure and expand opportunities for career development.

🎯Hint: Goal setting shouldn't be an overwhelming task. We recommend getting started with these simple, straightforward goal-setting tips for every manager.

13. Be specific about the next steps

Take a moment at the end of each one-on-one meeting to decide on the next steps. After having discussed the current challenges during the meeting, now is the time to talk specifically about how they will be addressed and who will be responsible for what actions. You can then sync up on those action items at the start of the next one-on-one meeting. It’s another way to track progress over time.

Remember: Make sure you’re keeping your promises. Actionable next steps are likely to fall in the hands of both you and your employee. Lead by example and follow through on your action items on time.

Master your next one-on-one meeting

Your one-on-one meetings are a dedicated time in your busy schedule for you to connect with your employees. Just like team meetings help bring visibility to your team’s work and dynamics, one-on-ones focus on employees’ individual development and how it drives the team’s success. By providing a safe space to discuss anything from stresses and wins to performance, you build stronger relationships with your employees, enriching your experience as a manager.

In short, the many benefits of one-on-one meetings are well worth taking the time to prepare and commit to a regular schedule. And you don’t have to do it alone. With Officevibe's simple one-on-one meeting tool, you can plan meetings, set goals together with your team, and track progress easily. It’s a win-win!

Taking over an existing business is widely regarded as an excellent opportunity for entrepreneurs or businesses looking to either launch a new project or take the reins of an existing organization and set it on a new course.

Sounds good, right? But even with a solid plan and a fully operational business, what will make it successful?

• Its sales?
• Its financial status?
• Its position on the market?

Perhaps. But it all stems from one thing: the expertise of its crew.

Because your employees are a key factor in the success of your business!

It’s your employees who get the work done and keep your projects moving. It’s also they who ensure the growth of the company and its success. So their drive, knowledge and skills all actively contribute to the growth of the organization.

More than anything, they convey the internal culture and act as ambassadors for the external culture. They’re on the front line in dealing with customers and the realities of the marketplace.

Yet, they also have the power to tear down those relationships if left unengaged.

You guessed it right: the quality of their employee experience directly influences the customer experience they will provide.

So how do you nurture internal expertise when you take over a company and leverage it to the fullest?

Well, let’s find out why you need to involve employees in the buyout process and how to ease the transition to a new business model.

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What's in this article

• Uncover the Value of Current Expertise
• Involve your Employees in the Takeover
• Implement a Recognition System
• Build a Strong Learning Culture
• Use an LMS to Support Change Management!

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Uncover the Value of Current Expertise

Employees are the very heart of a company. From the moment you decide to acquire a company, it is crucial to safeguard existing in-house expertise.

As you settle into your new company, be humble and listen. Display a keen interest in getting to know your current team members and their roles and contributions to the company.

It’s all about communication! Communication in business is the key to a successful change in management.

Beware: it may happen that some people find it difficult to deal with this change and react poorly to your approach.

You must therefore be patient and adopt tools or strategies to ease the process. Don’t be afraid to spend time in the office with employees to understand their daily lives and create a stronger bond!

When you experience and value their expertise, you’re giving them a sense of security regarding their job. This is often a major stress factor when taking over a business.

Involve your Employees in the Takeover

The Golden Rule of change management is to look forward.

« The secret of change is to focus all your energy not on fighting the old, but on building the new. » — Dan Millman

If you want to document organizational knowledge, you have to come up with a way to do it that is innovative and motivating. Establishing a transfer committee is one solution that could inspire the team while adding value to your change management.

Change that comes from the bottom-up is generally the most effective!

The goal of this committee is to set an internal structure for documenting expertise to ensure a smooth transition between the former and the new owner. Its role is to preserve the quality of operations during this change so that the clientele will not see it as a surprise.

Another way to help your employees feel more involved in this transition is to encourage intrapreneurship! New beginnings equal new ideas, so…

What better way to drive innovation and growth throughout the company than to encourage employees to think and act like entrepreneurs themselves?

Not only will you benefit from the valuable ideas and creativity of your employees, but it also promotes collaboration between different departments within the company!

Implement a Recognition System

Earlier we saw that it is important to connect with employees when taking over a business, but to further engage your new team, you can also set up a recognition system.

Offer points or bonuses to those who participate in documenting their expertise.

The trick is to match behaviors with a reward to develop a habit. The more content your employees create, the more they receive in return!

Invest in this documentation system by creating topic-specific training. You’ll be looking to clarify how to create an internal procedure and best practices for ongoing process improvement. 

Working with an online tool that supports the content creation and collaboration of your different departments will make your life even easier.

But it’s not the end of the story! In addition to encouraging and rewarding them for their efforts, you can provide them with new opportunities and training, additional responsibilities and involve them in professional and/or personal development projects. It’s just as rewarding.

And remember: by helping them get involved and contribute to the takeover, you can get them to build a stronger bond with your company and become even more engaged in their work.

Build a Strong Learning Culture

Needless to say, all these suggestions will work on one condition: you must create a culture that fosters knowledge sharing.

The internal culture that existed prior to the acquisition will slowly evolve, but the process will take time. One thing you can do right now is to add a corporate value that supports the change and pushes the handover forward

Training and learning are good ways to bring the whole team together and set the mood for innovation.

In order for the culture to change, you’ll need good internal ambassadors. It’s a safe bet that the members of the transfer committee will be good allies, as they are already showing interest in preserving workplace happiness and internal efficiency.

Ultimately, that’s what everyone wants, right?

Use an LMS to Support Change Management!

Change management is a key factor in any business takeover, if not the most important. And with a learning management system (LMS), you can better manage the transition and ensure that all employees are informed of the changes!

A good LMS can provide:

• A platform for training, sharing and feedback, for smoother transitions during the company takeover
• Centralized resources to help employees understand the upcoming changes to the organizational structure and how it will affect their work

By implementing an LMS, you can ensure that your employees are prepared for the changes ahead and support the new management of their company.

Find out how to choose the right learning management system for your business!

Over the past year, Officevibe has been partnering with Oyster HR to bring insightful content to both our audiences. Their expertise in distributed work pairs beautifully with our knowledge of employee experience. We're thrilled to have Kim Rohrer, Head of Employee Experience at Oyster HR, collaborate on our blog to share some of her insights on their transition to a distributed work model and how they maintained their company culture.

With remote and distributed work becoming more common, HR and People teams will need to double down on fostering a strong company culture — especially as companies expand across borders and around the world. How do you create and maintain a common set of values and a consistent experience across geographies, time zones, languages, and cultural norms without a co-located office to serve as a nucleus for company culture?

During the year and a half, I’ve been at Oyster, first as Interim Head of People and then as Head of Employee Experience, I’ve seen our team grow from 75 people in 30 countries to almost 700 people across 70 countries. That kind of hypergrowth is just mind-boggling, but I’m especially proud of the culture we’ve built, guided by our values and a strong sense of mission. Of course, it requires hard work and it hasn’t been without serious growing pains, but the challenges of scaling are all part of the process.

Looking back on the journey, here are some tips and insights I’ve learned firsthand on establishing, maintaining, and evolving company culture as your distributed team grows. 

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• What is company culture?
• What does company culture look like in a distributed environment?
• Handling the growing pains of distributed team culture
• Strengthening trust in distributed teams
• Belonging as a priority in distributed organizations
• Tips for maintaining and evolving culture as your distributed team scales{emphasize}

What is company culture?

Culture is hard to define because it’s something you feel rather than see. In fact, an organization’s culture is made up of all the things you don’t see, but which operate behind the scenes to shape your employee experience.

People sometimes think culture is about the employee-of-the-month award, the perks you offer, or the parties you throw. But those things are merely a reflection of your culture. The real heart of your culture is what determines the actions or behaviors that will be recognized and celebrated as opposed to being questioned or course-corrected. The culture determines how you hire people as well as how you handle terminations. The culture is not the perks or benefits — it’s how you choose the perks and benefits you offer, and all of the intentional (and unintentional) choices you make regarding the way you support people. Of course, all of this is true regardless of whether a company is co-located or distributed. But when you can’t rely on physical proximity to provide visual cues and cultural signals, you have to work a little harder to fill in the gaps.

Creating culture is not the responsibility of People teams alone — every single employee is a carrier and steward of team culture and has the potential to impact the direction in which your culture grows. That said, it’s important to have guideposts and guardrails from management; a company’s culture and values should be fully embodied by its leaders and executives, which will help set the tone for the rest of the organization.

What does company culture look like in a distributed environment?

In an office-based workplace, it’s easier to feel the company’s culture by virtue of being physically together and having countless casual micro-interactions throughout the day. A shoutout in an office meeting might lead to a spontaneous celebration of a colleague, which isn’t possible in quite the same way on Zoom.

In a distributed environment, you have to work harder to make your culture visible since you can’t rely on casual interactions, spontaneous occurrences, or visible artifacts on the office wall. You have to work harder at documenting your culture, celebrating wins, and recognizing strong efforts. The work of building and maintaining culture needs to be much more intentional.

Of course, cultural norms and habits can and do develop organically in a distributed workplace. Whenever human beings come together and interact with each other, a culture will develop based on how they work, how they communicate, how they collaborate, and so on. This will happen naturally whether you want it to or not. But what can (and should) be intentional is choosing the behaviors you want to celebrate and champion versus the ones you want to discourage or adapt. The important thing is to focus on elevating the behaviors and attitudes that reflect your intended culture by making them visible and accessible.

Handling the growing pains of distributed team culture

If a distributed company is going through a period of hypergrowth, it can be quite challenging to maintain the culture. When you add new people one at a time, it’s easier to bring them into the fold and have them adapt to the existing workplace norms and expectations. The new hire absorbs the institutional knowledge held by tenured employees and soon becomes an active participant in carrying out and shaping the culture. Conversely, if you have many new people joining very quickly, then the ratio of tenured to new employees shifts quite suddenly, and it can have a destabilizing effect. It’s harder to thoughtfully train and absorb recent hires into the existing culture when a high percentage of your employee base is relatively new.

When a company is growing quickly, it’s important to keep a close watch to ensure that team subcultures remain consistent with the broader culture you’re trying to uphold. Of course, some variation is normal and healthy, but ideally, it should be consistent within the umbrella of the overall company culture. For instance, if the company encourages work-life balance but a particular team lead expects staff to work unsustainable hours, it can create a disconnect that negatively impacts the employee experience.

So how do you maintain culture during rapid growth? Ideally, team and department leaders should be fully bought into the company culture and values, and actively involved in sustaining the culture and upholding the values as they bring new people on board. By acting as stewards and ambassadors of company culture, they can help ensure coherence and consistency across the organization.

At Oyster, we’ve experienced the growing pains of hypergrowth and sometimes the way a team operates might be inconsistent with the broader company culture and expectations. If that happens, the Workplace team (which looks after traditional People functions as well as the operations and infrastructure required for a successful distributed workplace) gathers employee feedback to understand the discrepancies and then works with the team’s management to realign objectives. This way, we can ensure a more consistent employee experience across the organization.

Strengthening trust in distributed teams

Trust is foundational for distributed teams because when you can’t see your teammates in person, you have to feel confident that your coworkers are each doing their part — and doing so effectively and in line with the company’s values.

As a globally distributed organization, building trust is one of Oyster’s core values. On the Workplace team, earning and maintaining trust is always top of mind. We build programs, products, and processes with a high level of integrity and consistency so that we can continue to build trust both within the Workplace team and from the Workplace to the rest of the organization. We know that a trustworthy Workplace team impacts both the high engagement and strong culture we have at Oyster.

One expression of this is our “Follow the Sun” philosophy. This is our internal process of handoffs and collaboration based on trusting your coworkers to pick up your work and carry it forward while you’re offline. This process has four pillars: project management, handoff, meetings, and connection — all of which help us avoid the “always on” trap that many distributed teams can fall into. 

The people I work with on a daily basis are spread all over the world — I’m based in California and I have colleagues in other parts of the US as well as Scotland, Nigeria, Serbia, Cyprus, and Australia, just to name a few. Sometimes we have no overlapping hours and it’s not possible to have synchronous meetings, yet we are able to work together and collaborate with relative ease — thanks to having a very intentional set of operating principles.  Distributed teams need to have incredibly high levels of trust in order to enable autonomous work, and to allow employees to feel safe and build connections despite the distance and time zones that separate them.

Belonging as a priority in distributed organizations

A common misconception about belonging is that you have to find people who are similar to you and who will understand you innately by virtue of your shared demographic characteristics. In reality, belonging isn’t about sameness; it’s about acceptance. It’s not about having a similar background, culture, hobbies, or interests; it’s about feeling like you are valid and valued, that you are good enough, and treated as a respected member of the team. A sense of belonging derives from being seen, accepted, and welcomed as you are.

As teams grow and expand into different countries and time zones, it’s vital to prioritize belonging and build an inclusive culture. It’s not just about having inclusive policies, but also inclusive practices. This might mean bringing awareness to who you’re naturally inclined to include, and considering how you can expand that to the entirety of your team. It might mean finding people who challenge you or have very different lived experiences from your own and finding ways to bridge those gaps. 

In other words, trying to establish community and belonging across differences, requires an environment of trust, safety, understanding, and acceptance.

Tips for maintaining and evolving culture as your distributed team scales

Let’s explore how can you build a stronger, more connected company culture as your business grows and expands in terms of size and demographics. 

1. Identify what you want your culture to be

Identify and focus on the best parts of your culture, and how you celebrate them in visible and public ways, both internally and externally. How are you reinforcing the things that are going well? And how are you course-correcting when things are not going the way they should? Just as it’s important to celebrate what’s good, it’s also necessary to be accountable to your values if things aren’t going well.

2. Encourage everyone to be stewards and ambassadors of your culture

Culture isn’t created or maintained by People teams alone! Everyone in the organization plays a role in shaping company culture. Encourage and empower people to become active participants so that each individual feels they have something to contribute to making the company the best it can be.

3. Agree on a plan for accountability

It’s important to have a plan for how to hold yourself accountable to your culture and values. The People team can help the executive team figure out what it means to live the company’s values, and then agree on a plan for accountability — how to safely call each other out in a trust-based environment that assumes the best intentions. The details will depend on the culture you’re defining, but the important thing is to make sure there are both celebrations as well as accountability.

4. Measure engagement and seek feedback from your team

How do you know if your culture-building efforts are working? Make sure you put mechanisms in place to measure engagement and get a pulse on the employee experience. Intuitive platforms like Officevibe make it easy for People teams to collect feedback and measure engagement across an organization.

In the long term, building and committing to a clearly-defined culture that’s rooted in your values will help ensure stability, consistency, and continuity as your company grows and expands. It’ll pay off in terms of employee well-being, job satisfaction, productivity, and business success. And it’ll feel good, too.

About Oyster HR

Oyster is a global employment platform that enables companies to hire, pay, and take care of brilliant employees — wherever they are in the world. As a fast-growing company, you need an all-star team to help you reach your full potential. Instead of battling over top local talent, broaden your talent pool with Oyster—the all-in-one global employment platform that allows you to hire compliantly, pay instantly, and provide localized benefits to your team in 180+ countries.

About the author

Kim Rohrer is a passionate people person with over a decade of experience building inclusive, sustainable, values-based company cultures at tech companies and beyond. She is currently the Head of Employee Experience at Oyster and is also the founder of and advisor to OrgOrg, a global community of over 3,500 people operations professionals. Kim believes fiercely in holistic support for working caregivers and is proud to be a part of the movement to create change as a cofounder at TendLab. Her eclectic career has taken her from theater to tech, always with the common threads of community and care.

When organized efficiently, a team meeting can be one of the most powerful tools in your workplace arsenal; it can enable closer collaboration, help with brainstorming, and facilitate communication with the whole team.

When a team meeting is used incorrectly, though, a manager or meeting leader might end up looking out at a sea of disengaged faces on their screen or in the conference room. The trick, then, is to establish the purpose of your team meeting and the subsequent action items even before hitting send on your invite. Knowing how to run your meeting ahead of time can make all the difference and avoids the dreaded meeting fatigue.

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What is the purpose of a team meeting?

The name says it all: a team meeting is one that allows all the members of a unit or organization to convene, communicate, and collaborate on shared objectives. There are different types of team gatherings, though, and each serves a different purpose. To run an effective team meeting, take the time to evaluate your needs and plan accordingly.

In any organization you'll find the following types of team meetings:

• Daily status updates. These quick check-ins help employees update their colleagues on what they're working on and are a great place to ask for support on upcoming projects in real-time. The daily cadence isn't necessary for all teams, but it can be very useful for development teams working on time-sensitive sprints, for example.
• Weekly team meetings. If scheduled on a Monday, a weekly team meeting can be helpful for aligning priorities and addressing issues or roadblocks. They’re also a great moment for managers to reflect on the previous week's work and give recognition for strong team efforts.
• Town hall meetings. Large-scale meetings like town halls gather the entire team and are a great opportunity to have an open discussion on high-level topics like strategies and company roadmaps. These are helpful for aligning people across teams or departments.
• One-time meetings. This is the type of meeting that managers schedule as needed and as important things come up that need to be addressed in a timely fashion. For example, if there’s a major change that will impact the team, like a departure, strategy shift, or restructuring.
• Retrospectives. Post-mortem, debrief, wrap-up; regardless of your preferred moniker, a retrospective meeting is one that takes place at the end of a project or campaign and gives you the chance to look back on your work. In retrospective team meetings, units take the time to review results and understand what went well, and take note of what can be improved on for future projects. Retrospective meetings help a team improve its methods and grow stronger as a group.

The importance of team meetings

Like their one-on-one counterparts, team meetings (or staff meetings) have a host of benefits, contribute to team cohesion, and encourage participation. Let's dive into the benefits of effective team meetings and how they boost collaboration.

Key benefits of team meetings

• Getting everyone on the same page. Regular team meetings are a great way to develop team alignment. When people connect frequently, they’re more in sync with what they’re working toward together and each of their roles in that mission. Team meetings are also an effective way to help your team understand its objectives, goals, and responsibilities. This also helps individual employees understand how they fit into the bigger picture.
• Building trust and rapport. High-performing teams are happy and comfortable teams that know, trust, and understand each other. Getting everyone together creates genuine connections between colleagues, regardless of whether they're in person or virtual.
• Improving communication. Effective team meetings allow for information sharing and for the flow of new ideas. Without body language and vocal inflection cues, some things can get lost in translation via email or over a Slack message. If you're trying to share a major announcement like a staff restructuring, a team meeting can create a channel of open communication and leaves space for questions or comments.
• Creating space for feedback. As a team leader, encouraging employee feedback is essential for future success. Make efficient use of your meeting time and open the floor for comments and problem-solving at the end of your session. Team meetings are also a great opportunity for imparting feedback on past or current projects.

When do you need a team meeting?

To make the most of your team's time, there are a few key considerations before scheduling your meeting.

Purpose

It goes without saying that you should have the purpose of your staff meeting established before inviting your team. Visualizing your end game can help you stay on topic and help establish clearer next steps.

Timing

An important part of your team meeting preparation boils down to when you schedule it. Flex your leadership skills and make sure you set time aside before the launch of a new campaign or project to discuss ideas and review details that will impact your employees' tasks. While scheduling a team meeting at 4:30 p.m. on a Friday is sometimes a necessary evil, avoiding inconvenient time slots can go a long way toward keeping your team engaged.

Frequency

Determine whether this session will necessitate future meetings. If you're tackling an ongoing project with different components, scheduling several touchpoints over the course of your campaign can be helpful for keeping your team members in the loop.

Format

While many companies now offer the option to work remotely, consider it might be beneficial to gather on-site for your meeting. Sometimes employees need only be surrounded by like-minded creative people to get their creativity flowing.

7 Best practices for running productive team meetings

1. Define the goal of the meeting

We've said it before and we'll say it again: establish the goal of your group discussion before sending your invites. Having a clear objective can make all the difference in keeping your team engaged and will (hopefully) deter your employees from reaching for their phones to scroll through social media.

2. Set a team meeting agenda

Effective team meetings are ones where all members feel like they're contributing. Send out a clear agenda so that your employees can come prepared with questions, comments, and ideas. This is also a good opportunity to share any other scheduling details including the length of the meeting, if there will be any intermissions, or if there will be interactive break-out sessions.

3. Invite the right people

Including the right meeting participants is key to a successful team meeting. Reflecting on the goal of your meeting and clueing in the right people can help you avoid scheduling many more unnecessary follow-ups, and ensure that the appropriate people are informed every step of the way.

4. Encourage feedback

Effective team meetings are all about collaboration. Make sure that you're making time for questions and comments throughout the meeting or at the end of the session to allow your employees to speak their minds. Similarly, it might be beneficial to share overall feedback from other teams or from members of leadership to help move projects along.

5. Summarize and determine action items

If a team member can't make a virtual discussion, it's good practice to record your meeting and send out the link for review or send out a detailed summary with the main discussion points. From there, you can determine the appropriate next steps and assign tasks.

6. Follow up on action items and track progress

Stay on top of your to-do list by following up on action items. If need be, schedule a follow-up meeting to ensure you're accomplishing team goals in a timely fashion. Following up on action items also helps overcome any roadblocks and resolve issues before they escalate.

7. Consider team meeting alternatives

While team meetings are helpful and necessary under the right circumstances, sometimes a different format lends itself more appropriately to the context. If there are fewer items to address, consider an asynchronous meeting where team members either record a short video explaining their tasks or fill in a shared Excel spreadsheet.

Make the most of your team meetings

A good team meeting allows all members of your unit to collaborate, share ideas, voice concerns, and ask questions. Go a few steps beyond with the considerations and best practices above, and you'll take each of these benefits to new heights.

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With the right leadership and conversation tools, your focus can stay on setting and reaching your objectives without getting lost in the admin of it all. Leave the meeting organization and tracking to a digital sidekick so you can set team meeting priorities, take notes, and establish action items with ease.

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Whether you are giving or receiving them, annual performance reviews can be stressful. Employees often feel nervous about the constructive criticism they might get, while their managers worry about treating every team member fairly and giving appropriate feedback.

A performance review meeting doesn’t have to feel so fraught, though. When managers and employees approach them with the right mindset and proper preparation, these conversations can build employee confidence and strengthen manager-employee relationships.

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What is a performance review meeting?

Performance reviews are a two-way conversation between a manager and an employee, and a key part of employee development and growth. They’re a chance to assess an employee’s performance, highlight their progress, and celebrate all the ways they make your team (and your organization) better.

Traditional performance reviews were (and in some cases still are) conducted annually with a focus on evaluating an employee's performance over the span of the year. However, modern performance reviews are now more typically (and effectively!) conducted quarterly or monthly, with a focus on how to improve future performance.

For example: During a performance review, you might commend your introverted employee for the steps they’ve taken to become more engaged with the team and discuss which of those steps have been the most effective.

Why is it important to have frequent performance reviews?

Because performance reviews give employees clear benchmarks on their progress, you want to have them on a regular basis. Ideally, you’ll have a performance evaluation every three to six months. Why?

• Frequency reduces any stress around the process. The more often you host performance reviews, the better acquainted everyone will be with the process, and the less intimidating they’ll be.
• Performance reviews are part of a broader employee performance development strategy. These meetings go alongside one-on-ones, goal setting meetings, feedback sessions, and employee engagement discussions to help you keep up with how people are progressing.
• An employee performance review is an opportunity to celebrate your team member. If you're in need of some inspiration on how to tell someone they're doing a great job, check out some examples of employee recognition messages.
• Performance reviews open the door for growth and salary conversations. Performance reviews are often a time to discuss salary, roles, and potential promotions, which can add to the stress of them. Having them more often means lightening the weight of these discussions and creating more opportunities to have them, rather than looking at the coming year as a whole.

Out with the old: Why should annual reviews be a thing of the past? Because with too much recency bias, an annual review is no longer a responsible or effective way to evaluate. It's overly ambitious to think that managers can collect accurate, year-long notes on each of their employee's performance. It can also be demotivating for employees. The review period matters.

Performance review meeting tips for success

These helpful tips will help you have the best performance review meetings possible, so you and your team members leave on the same page.

1. Make sure you're prepared and understand the process…

As a manager, having a clear process makes sure that you cover everything that needs to be discussed in your meeting. It removes the potential for any surprises in how the conversation will unfold, and allows both you and your employee to properly prepare for the review ahead of time. It's a great idea to compile some specific examples and data to back up your points with each person.

If your employee is unsure about how the process works, feel free to walk them through it to help make them more comfortable. We'll elaborate more on this in tip #3.

2. …and use the same process for all employees

It’s important to keep the performance review process uniform for every person on your team. This will help you be clear in every evaluation because you have a standardized structure. Plus, consistency is the best way to treat everyone fairly, which will inspire trust — both in you and the process.

Before setting it in stone, just be sure that your framework can be applied to every member of your team and account for different competencies. You shouldn’t need a separate performance review process for a graphic designer, a content marketer, or administrative assistant. You want to be able to apply your process to all types of employees, regardless of what or how they contribute to the team.

If a process doesn’t currently exist, you’ll want to find a performance review framework that works for you. This way, you'll have a clear agenda template to use for your meeting.

3. Manage expectations

As we touched on in tip #1, just because you understand the performance review process, it doesn’t necessarily mean your employees understand it. If you don’t explain it to them ahead of time, they might feel overwhelmed, unprepared, upset, or even blindsided.

Prior to a performance review, make sure you:

• Take the time to explain the process to your team, and walk your employees through what you’re going to discuss during the meeting.
• Let employees know what they should come prepared with, whether it’s a self-evaluation, talking points, questions, notes, or examples.
• Give everyone the opportunity to ask any questions about the process, in a group setting or one-on-one.

4. Come prepared

Just like you would show up to an important one-on-one meeting prepared with talking points and relevant meeting questions, you also want to show up to your performance review prepared with notes, data, and specific examples that speak to your employee’s performance.

Why? Because notes, data, and examples will elevate the conversation. You’re not just giving your opinion — you’re sharing facts.

Need help with note taking during employee performance conversations and goal-setting discussions? Officevibe's one-on-one software keeps track of all your meeting notes in one place, so planning reviews is a breeze.

5. Connect with your peers

Syncing with other managers at your company helps create consistency within the organization. And reaching out to your network outside of your company can bring a new perspective on how other people do performance reviews.

If you're a new manager or haven't done a performance review at your company yet, connecting with an HR rep is a great place to start. Oftentimes, Human Resources departments will have pre-set processes and tools to help managers navigate through tasks like performance reviews.

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6. Make every review a two-way conversation

You want to have an agenda when you walk into a performance review meeting. But performance reviews aren't just an opportunity to talk at your employee for an hour straight. To be effective and productive for both parties, a performance review needs to be a two-way conversation.

Once you’re done sharing with your employee what, in your view, they’re doing well and where you see opportunities for improvement, give them the opportunity to share their perspective. This can help you both get a broader view of the employees’ performance, and ensure you both walk away feeling heard and understood.

7. Clearly define performance appraisal criteria

To clearly communicate with employees during performance review meetings, managers should have a clear understanding of what constitutes good or poor performance, and how to explain it. Easy-to-understand performance criteria can help managers and employees define success, measure impact, assess performance plans, and decide what steps to take next.

While gathering information and data is important, managers should also be mindful about approaching performance reviews with a coaching mindset. If they can highlight and distill information clearly, it makes it easier for their employees to understand and absorb the feedback they receive.

8. Provide support and build trust

While business is business, we're all human at the end of the day. That's why the approach and delivery should focus more on what employees are doing well, rather than dwelling on their weaknesses or negative behaviors.

That said, constructive criticism is key. See it as a way to correct the course if needed and uncover opportunities for improvement. Work on building trust by guiding employees in the right direction. Help them evolve and grow confidence by reinforcing their strengths. When employees feel supported by their managers, they'll be more receptive to the performance feedback they've been given, and more likely to reflect on their own performance in an objective way.

⭐️ Learn how to motivate (not stagnate) your teams with our complete guide on performance management and employee development.

9. Ask effective questions

Perhaps one of the most important tips of all is to make sure you are asking the right performance review questions. The right questions help keep both you and your employee focused on each individual's success, as well as the success of the company. The feedback you gather from asking these questions is imperative in helping you manage expectations, set a clear path for growth, identify areas of improvement, and define short and long-term goals.

Here are some examples of questions you can ask during feedback meetings with your employees:

• What recent accomplishments are you most proud of?
• What goals do you have set for the next quarter?
• Do you have obstacles standing in your way?
• As your manager, how can I improve?

Always remember that this is a conversation between two people. Encourage your employees to ask you questions in return. Open the floor to discussion during these meetings, whether it be about learning from past performance or achieving goals in the year ahead. Talk about how you can help guide and support them, and touch on any point they feel comfortable addressing during the conversation.

10. Define actions and next steps

Once you've had your performance review meeting and shared your feedback, both the manager and the employee should leave with a to-do list of actionable items that they can then later follow up on. Long or short, the list serves as a valuable action plan that should feel achievable by both parties.

Next time you check in on your employee's performance, you can review the past list together before setting new action items for the next quarter, or even the year ahead.

Walk into your next performance review with confidence

Performance reviews can be stressful — but they don’t have to be! And now that you know how to manage the performance review process, you have everything you need to walk into future performance review periods and conduct them with confidence. In turn, you’ll inspire that same confidence from your team.

Performance management and open discussion are made even easier with one-on-one tools like Officevibe. See how it can help you get the most out of your next performance reviews.

The only constant is change in today's modern employment market. From mass layoffs in 2020 to hiring sprees in 2021 and now quiet quitting, it can sometimes feel impossible to keep up.

That's why it's more important than ever to stand out from the crowd and attract top talent who'll stay engaged and stick around for the long haul.

Whether a small business or a Fortune 500 company, you need the right employees to help grow your brand and achieve your goals.

So if you're looking for the best-kept secrets and tips on attracting the best talent and boosting your competitiveness in a modern employment market, this article is for you.

Are you ready to learn more?

Let's dive in.

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What's in this article

• Invest in professional development opportunities
• Double down on your company culture
• Prioritize diversity and inclusion initiatives
• Create a strong online presence
• Time to stand out in a modern employment market...

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Invest in professional development opportunities

Nearly 6 out of 10 millennials say that development opportunities are critical when deciding whether to apply for a job.

Think about it this way: Why would a candidate willingly apply to a role at your company if there isn't room for growth or opportunities to learn new skills? It's like venturing down a dead-end road.

Plus, it can set a presence that your organization treats employees like cogs in a machine instead of valued contributors to long-term business growth.

That said, there's no better way of attracting new talent than by showing off how much you value the current people who work with you — and what better way to do that than by investing in their personal and professional growth?

Show potential and current employees that you care about their career paths by offering training and development programs and mentorship opportunities.

Step it up by investing in a learning management system to streamline your training programs while providing additional opportunities for employees to learn new skills.

Through a structured online course, employees can learn how to improve the necessary skills for their jobs, such as time management, teamwork, communication, conflict resolution, and decision-making.

You can also offer courses on learning new skills like graphic design, financial literacy, or other industry-specific topics. But don't stop there — the more opportunities for growth, the better.

You don't have to implement everything at once! Start with a good onboarding program, and keep improving the experience to keep your employees hooked from day one and beyond. That way, you’re sure to retain your recruits for the long term.

Double down on your company culture

Don't underestimate your company culture as a driving force to stand out in a crowded employment market.

Employees want to feel like they are part of something bigger than themselves, and a strong company culture provides that for them. Take Google as the perfect example. Its unique company culture is a top-selling point for working there, which ultimately attracts 3 million applicants annually.

A good company culture should also reflect the values and beliefs of your organization, which means it's not just nice to have — it's essential for success.

Why? Because values are important to employees. For instance in the USA, according to the America@Work Report, 36% of employees agree that good company values are the best way for employers to stand apart from competitors when attracting talent.

So if your company's values don't align with those of your prospective employees, it'll be challenging to attract your ideal candidates.

Be proud of your corporate values and make sure they're communicated clearly and consistently throughout your company. This simple gesture solidifies your commitment and showcases to potential candidates that your organization is aligned with their exact goals and ambitions.

So where should you start and how could you show that your company is the place to work? Applying the principles of business marketing to human resources management to develop your employer brand through HR marketing is the way to go!

Prioritize diversity and inclusion initiatives

Diversity and inclusion are no longer buzzwords leading into 2023, but rather important concepts in our society.

A diverse workforce leads to better decision-making and problem-solving, employee satisfaction and retention, and financial performance — and it's an effective way to attract the future of your workforce.

Gen Z is the most diverse generation ever: almost half (48%) of Gen Zers self-identify as "racial or ethnic minorities" compared to 39% of Millennials.

Suppose you want your company culture or team strategy to evolve in ways that reflect what matters most in today's modern world. In that case, you need people with different experiences than you do working together toward common goals.

Because of this diversity, Gen Z employees are bringing fresh perspectives on everything from workplace dynamics to leadership styles.

And diversity and inclusion have made a prominent appearance on the checklist of requirements for employees deciding whether to take a job with a new organization.

A 2022 Gallup study shows that 42% of US employees agree that it is important for an organization to be diverse and inclusive of all types of people.

As many employers have found out, job candidates today want concrete, substantial change when it comes to these issues, not just promises. Be prepared to discuss those changes and commitments.

Create a strong online presence

LinkedIn is one of the largest professional networks in the world and offers a unique opportunity to attract top talent.

Fifty-two million people use LinkedIn each week to search for jobs, so it's essential to focus on a strategy that builds a strong online employer brand that you can use to find candidates and engage with them during their online job search.

For instance, when you want to fill specific roles for your organization, don't be afraid to put yourself out there and advertise that you are actively hiring. You can start by conducting cold outreach via LinkedIn messaging or posting on job boards like Salarship or Indeed.

And remember to tell your current employees to add that your organization is hiring into their own LinkedIn bios. You can even spruce up your own organization's LinkedIn cover page by using a collage maker to gather different images, effective business videos, or text that might attract new candidates.

Building a robust online presence is imperative in today's digital age. Having an attractive website, making sure all social media outlets are active and being consistent with any other marketing efforts you have in place are the name of the game.

Time to stand out in a modern employment market...

Employees are looking for more than just a job.

With the rise of the gig economy, new generations entering the workforce, and the blurring lines between personal and professional lives, it’s time to adapt your approach to recruitment.

Rather than focusing on traditional job descriptions and salary packages, you must create an environment that attracts people who want more than a job that pays the bills.

The key is to recognize that people want these different things from their jobs and be sure that your company culture reflects what employees are looking for regarding work-life balance, personal growth opportunities, and diversity and inclusion.

With these things in place, you can shine above your competition. And soon, the floodgates will open, with highly qualified candidates coming pouring in. 

But hiring doesn't end when you sign a work agreement with a recruit. A good onboarding strategy will ensure that new hires not only perform well but also feel motivated from the start.

So you get it, the onboarding experience you can provide will have a huge impact on staff retention and recruitment ROI (if you’ve read this far, just for you: here are 7 strategies to calculate and optimize the ROI of new recruits).

Happy hiring!

Our current work landscape presents daily challenges and promising growth opportunities for both employers and employees. It's no secret that the aftermath of COVID-19, the adjustment to remote work, and the Great Resignation turned the global workplace upside down. The flip side is these events created the perfect environment for positive change. And there's so much more in store in the new year.

As we move into 2023, key employee experience trends continue emphasizing flexibility, employee wellness, hybrid and remote work, and a better work-life balance. Read on to learn how you can stay ahead of the pack and keep your employees happy and burgeoning this year.

{emphasize}What's in this article

• Trends expected to shape employee experiences in 2023
• How employees are driving the future of work{emphasize}

Trends expected to shape employee experiences in 2023

As we enter the new year, you can expect further evolutionary shifts in the entire employee experience. With the Great Resignation leaving many companies short-staffed and virtual workplaces becoming the norm, many employers need creative ways to promote talent acquisition, stop attrition, and enhance productivity.

Below, we discuss the top trends shaping the state of the employee experience in 2023, all centered around remote employees, well-being programs, and retention tactics.

1. Strengthening team connections for a positive employee experience

Last year alone, approximately 4 million employees quit their jobs. While many factors contributed to the Great Resignation, one key driver was the lack of connection.

While the world of in-person work was far from perfect, it was great for fostering camaraderie, collaboration, and culture. If your company never looked back after going fully remote, you can vouch that replicating this over video calls and instant messaging is tough. But that doesn't mean strengthening team connections should be sidelined.

When tackling this, it's important to look beyond having fun. Sure, a fun work environment usually leads to a positive one, but there's much more to it that leads to strong one-on-one, team, and company-wide connections. In 2023, many organizations will embrace more digital tools that allow for easier team connection in remote settings. The improved connection can strengthen employees' mental health while fostering a more unified, successful team.

{emphasize}You've heard it time and time again: water cooler chats are a rarity these days. But that doesn't mean relationships need to take a hit. Learn how you can maintain connections across remote teams.{emphasize}

2. Prioritizing employee well-being and work-life balance

As more companies embrace employee satisfaction tactics, employees expect their organizations to prioritize their needs, whether that means reduced hours or improved employee benefits. Flexible perks are key here. Many employees are no longer satisfied with working overtime for a bigger check.

Employees want to expand their careers without sacrificing their home life, families, free time, and mental health. Many companies have adopted the flexible work schedule idea, allowing remote workers to get the job done when it's most convenient.

All your employees have different at-home lives and schedules. Letting them choose when and how they work (with a little guidance and structure) can improve the employee experience, increase engagement, boost productivity, and reduce burnout.

3. Refining the hybrid work model

The hybrid work model is a not-so-new concept for employees and organizations around the world. However, it's shifted a lot and we're finally reaching a point of refinement.

In the last few years, many companies began adopting gradual tactics for returning to the office, resulting in partial in-person and digital work hours. For some, it also meant opening the horizons for hiring, which led to teams that are physically distributed across cities, countries, and even the world. More on this later.

Perfecting the distributed employee experience is challenging because every team member works differently and has different preferences.

Most companies have taken two approaches to this puzzle:

• Staff splitting: Many organizations give their employees full decision power and flexibility. Workers can choose between in-office or remote work, depending on what will keep them engaged. This tactic can offer a positive experience for most team members, although you may never see a full staff in the office at once.
• Digital and in-person days: Other companies prefer more organized schedules that require employees to work from home some days and visit the office on others. This hybrid model can allow your team to collaborate regularly on projects, then divide and conquer when necessary.

{emphasize}2023 will be the year to see what works best for your team so you can set clear, long-term policies. Why not use a hybrid work software to back you up with that?{emphasize}

4. Adopting the distributed team model

After spending so much time at home, many employees and employers have realized the benefits of remote work. Companies can expand their talent supply chain by reaching national and even global audiences. Rather than seeking local employees only, you can find industry experts from around the world ready to help your company thrive.

{emphasize}

Balancing flexibility with connection

Companies following this model may no longer have the luxury of seeing their entire workforce at the office on a weekly or even monthly basis. If your team is scattered across the country with many employees far from the HQ, you can choose the staff-splitting method for those living near the head office and take a remote-first approach for employees who live elsewhere.

In 2023, employees will seek this flexibility and autonomy more than ever, but that doesn't mean they shouldn't see their colleagues in person at all. You'll find it useful to host at least one mandatory in-person event to make sure you build connections and foster a great company culture.{emphasize}

Working from anywhere allows employees to explore new life experiences and work at their own rhythm while keeping the security and stability of their current job. The days of leaving a job because of a cross-country move are over.

{emphasize}Is your distributed team thriving? Collecting feedback with a distributed teams survey template can help you gauge how your remote employees feel and how you can improve their employee experience.{emphasize}

5. Enhancing digital experiences

The significant increase in remote work will likely revolutionize the HR technology market. Many people think of HR professionals as hands-on leaders, though much of the role involves analytics, performance management, talent acquisition, payroll, expense reports, and other tasks that can be digitalized. As companies embrace work-from-home models, HR teams can expect exciting advancements in HR technology that streamline managing tasks.

HR tech is not the only mechanism that will improve with the movement toward remote workplaces. The entire employee journey with your company will likely include more advanced technology offering streamlined workflows, integrated customer journey tools, enhanced productivity, and deep employee insights.

Digitization can improve the employee experience and subsequently the customer experience, offering comprehensive benefits for your company. For example, HR teams can have an easier time mapping careers for employees, new employees learn the ropes more rapidly and efficiently, and managers can nip team problems in the bud following a quick data analysis.

[ov_cta id="5118061"]

6. Providing meaningful work for improved employee engagement

Everyone wants to feel like they're contributing to something important. Often, employees experience burnout when they don't fully understand the "why" behind their role. Providing more meaning to the employee experience will likely reach the forefront of employee retention tactics in the upcoming year.

How exactly can you help employees understand their purpose? You don't need to add meaning to your existing jobs, per se, as your employees already play integral roles in the organization. If their work was meaningless, their position wouldn't exist. Instead, you want to help your employees better understand how their day-to-day efforts contribute to the bigger picture and why it's crucial to the business's success.

Boosting employee engagement isn't just about fostering a positive atmosphere. In fact, the ROI associated with enhanced employee experience can lead to a considerable improvement in your bottom line.

{emphasize}

Setting your team up for success with OKRs

Meaningful work starts with the right alignment and motivation. Enter OKRs: the key to helping your employees work towards goals that will push your company forward.

Officevibe's OKR goal-setting tool lets you collaboratively map out employee goals that awaken accountability and pave the way for team excellence.{emphasize}

7. Focusing more on diversity, equity, and inclusion

Diversity, equity, and inclusion are hot topics for all HR leaders and company executives entering 2023. Data from a recent McKinsey & Company report shows that organizations with above-average gender and ethnic diversity outperform competitors financially, with as much as 43% higher profit margins.

Companies with healthy diversity, equity, and inclusion boast stronger investment and performance rates, creating better company landscapes with teams built for long-lasting scalable success. When human resources departments offer equal opportunities to each new employee, teams can flourish with healthy competitive environments for optimal professional growth, reducing the widening talent gap.

{emphasize}he perks of having a diverse workforce are abundant, but these are the three benefits of diversity that are sure to make a world of difference in your team.{emphasize}

8. Improving onboarding and candidate experiences

Employee performance begins with the candidate and onboarding experiences. The first few interactions you have with potential employees are critical opportunities for shaping their motivation, passion, and skill sets. The onboarding experience not only trains employees to be successful in their roles, but it tells them how much they will care about their job from here on out.

Imagine you interview for a position with a human resources professional who's incredibly passionate about their role and excited about your potential at the organization. In your first few interactions, your new manager clearly explains how your role will shape the company's future. Then, you're scheduled to meet the right colleagues at the right time throughout the rest of your onboarding process. This type of onboarding nurtures employees who want to work their hardest daily and consistently feel fulfilled.

We expect more onboarding experiences in the upcoming year to prioritize employee importance. With improvements in HR tech, employees will likely see more comprehensive and advanced training tools for optimal role preparation.

{emphasize}If you're tackling onboarding from an HR perspective only, it's time to rethink your strategy. Learn what makes a stellar onboarding plan, and how it creates ambassadors as of day one.{emphasize}

9. Giving employees a stronger voice with feedback

As more organizations make conscious efforts to prioritize employee satisfaction, they'll discover the need for in-depth, helpful, and effective feedback mechanisms. Consistent and targeted feedback cultivates a better workplace environment that celebrates growth and loyalty.

You can use innovative ways to get employee feedback and uncover improvement opportunities in the following areas and more:

• Compensation and benefits
• Hours or scheduling flexibility
• Communication
• Workflows
• Feedback
• Onboarding
• Diversity and inclusion
• Wellness and mental health
• Managerial tactics

Feedback helps you understand how the team feels so you can support them where they need it most. With targeted questions and responses, you can empower teams with the programs, tools, and resources needed to succeed. Regular check-ins also show your employees that you care about their opinions and actively want to improve their experience with your company.

{emphasize}As we enter 2023, more HR tech departments will seek advanced feedback collection software that goes beyond a few yes or no questions. At Officevibe, we offer comprehensive employee feedback software that allows you to prioritize employee development, turn talking points into action items, foster team alignment, understand key improvement insights, and be there for your team when they need it most, no matter how busy you are.{emphasize}

10. Upskilling and training employees to retain top talent

As the number of open jobs rises and employers seek new ways to fill advanced roles, upskilling might become the go-to tactic in the upcoming year. Upskilling and training involve investing in novice workers and nourishing their careers in your organization. By doing so, the employee gains experience and knowledge through their position, encouraging them to expand their career and remain loyal to your company.

As digital education and HR tech advance, upskilling becomes more attainable for many smaller companies hoping to retain and improve their team. You can encourage employees to take various online courses or certifications to refine their skills and reach new career heights.

{emphasize}Do you know where your employees are headed professionally? Do they need guidance to figure it out? It might be time to have the career development talk.{emphasize}

11. Offering benefit flexibility

Another side effect of the post-pandemic remote workplace is the change in benefit priorities. When teams worked in the office daily, they cared about clean break rooms, fresh fruit, holiday parties, in-office gyms, and other luxuries that simply don't apply to at-home work. As we reach 2023, we must shift benefit priorities to what employees care about most, which you can discover by surveying your team.

Remote employment also poses a new challenge regarding payment equity, with workers experiencing different living costs. For example, you may have one employee living in New York City paying $3,000 in rent, while other team members reside across the globe paying just $800. Many larger corporations now adopt more personalized benefit policies based on team members' locations and benefit preferences.

12. Focusing on employee engagement in hybrid environments

Keeping teams engaged in digital environments boils down to one thing: human connection. Human connection can feel impossible when working with colleagues across the globe, but accessible software solutions make it more feasible each day.

The modern hybrid employee experience must include intuitive communication tools for optimal engagement. For your business, this may mean one-on-one video calls, group chat sessions, and unified dashboard planning systems. You can uncover your team's preferred tech, communication, and engagement methods by collecting feedback and trying out different tools until you find one that works.

{emphasize}Great hybrid environments call for effective meetings for all. Follow these 17 remote meeting best practices to help your distributed team succeed.{emphasize}

How employees are driving the future of work

Creating a great employee experience is essential for any organization hoping to thrive in the 2023 work landscape. Companies worldwide continue paving the way for upcoming employee experience trends, focusing on employee engagement, retention, flexible benefits, and culturally sensitive, people-focused team experiences.

Regular, constructive employee feedback can help you make the right decisions to improve the employee experience, ultimately offering business success. With Officevibe's intuitive employee engagement platform, it's easy to gain meaningful insights into employee experience trends in your organization.