Enhancing Workspaces with Employee Experience Software

We’re living in a people experience era where employees expect more from work than ever before. And rightfully so: We spend much of our lives at work, so why not make it the best possible experience? Employee experience software plays a big part in making that happen.

With so many HR technology products on the market, the challenge is determining what you need from employee experience software.

We’ve got you covered: Use our quick guide to learn about employee experience software, what it can do for you, and how to choose the right product for your needs.

Employee experience software, also known as an employee experience platform (EXP), is a digital tool that simplifies HR management and delivers a better daily experience for your people.

Historically, many employee experiences were transactional. Employees have a question or request and turn to a self-service portal or their manager for help. By contrast, an employee experience platform creates an ongoing journey with a seamless experience. Everything your people need, including employee recognition and performance management, is housed in one place.

While there’s still a lot happening on the back end (after all, you probably use dozens of tools to manage the workforce), EXPs streamline and consolidate all that information into the content employees need. This unified experience helps employees see what’s happening inside the organization, access the necessary tools and information, and do their jobs.

With all this information in one place, employee experience software can house custom workflows, including nudges to help managers keep in touch with their reports and reminders for upcoming tasks. These platforms also can incorporate artificial intelligence for additional insights and automation. AI-driven employee experience software can deliver personalized experiences at scale.

Each day brings a new deluge of data, technology, and news to your employees, making it hard to focus. Employee experience software can cut through the noise to deliver the information your employees need to their communication channel of choice.

Employee experience software is more than another HR tech product. It’s a platform with the potential to connect your workers to each other, managers, and anyone else throughout the employee journey. Check out some benefits employee experience software can create within your business.

Higher Employee Engagement Through Connection

A little meaningful human connection goes a long way toward improving talent outcomes. With more people working remotely or on hybrid schedules these days, connection at work is more important than ever.

Nearly all (94%) of the people we surveyed for our Guide to Building Human Connection at Work agreed that they’re more productive when they feel connected to their colleagues. We also learned that employees who felt connected were more than four times as likely to be very satisfied at work and 50% less likely to leave within the next 12 months. Those are significant outcomes for something as simple as human connection.

Our survey also revealed that colleagues play a big part in creating that connection. The individual relationships between employees form an unbreakable bond that can drive higher engagement and improve productivity.

The more connected employees are to each other, the more connected they’ll feel to their work, which contributes positively to employee engagement. When your people see their role in the company and how their work empowers their colleagues, they’ll also connect to your organization’s sense of purpose.

Employee experience software can bring your people together and unlock the power of human connection. One way is by having this software deliver nudges and other notifications to each employee’s favorite communication channel. This approach reminds managers and employees to connect more often and more meaningfully.

Better Employee Journeys

Employee experience starts with onboarding and continues across the employee life cycle, encompassing cultural changes, personal growth, and each employee’s eventual departure. A unified employee experience platform gives you more control over that journey for each person at your company.

Employee experience platforms give you control over the experiences you want your people to have. A configurable system, for example, allows you to plot out the sequence of events with the greatest impact on helping people feel valued, at home, and productive within your culture.

If HR leaders are the architects of employee journeys, direct managers are the builders. Employee experience software functions as the blueprint they need to guide their daily actions so they can create those powerful, positive experiences.

Improved Employee Productivity

When employees feel valued for their talents and who they are, they’ll be more motivated to do the work. Feeling valued is a big part of building great experiences — and digital experience platforms can help.

For example, change is a given in today’s fast-moving world, but change can also be disorienting and uncomfortable, which puts employee experience and productivity at risk. With an employee experience platform, you can deliver timely communication to help employees anticipate change and understand why it’s happening. Informed employees are more likely to buy into organizational changes. These platforms can help you track progress and collect feedback on how employees handle change.

As the architect of the employee journey, you can adjust the journey until you land on the right experience for everyone in your workforce. This is another place where your experience platform can gather valuable feedback from managers and employees. Use that feedback to learn what elements of employee experience help employees feel more valued, engaged, and productive ⁠— and which don’t.

Just adding an employee experience platform won’t magically fix your workforce and culture. You have to select the right tool and integrate it meaningfully. If managers and employees don’t see the platform’s value, your investment will become just another tool that didn’t work out.

Use these steps to find the right tool for the job and win over employees.

Think About Your Key Players

Your people are your first and most important users, so any new software you introduce has to be something that really improves their experience and is easy to use without formal training or prior history with the product.

Your managers are key users, too — and many organizations struggle with getting managers to buy into and actually use new software. Look for software that is simple to use and integrates with the tools and channels that managers are already using.

Key stakeholders across the employee journey aren’t limited to managers and employees. Think about the average employee’s interactions with co-workers, upper management, and across departments, like your HR team, finance, or IT. An effective employee experience software merges all of these touch points into one platform instead of sending employees all over the org to find what they need.

Listen to What Your People Need From You

Before adding employee experience software, you must identify the problems you want the platform to solve. Solicit employee feedback to find out what they like and dislike about the current experience you offer.

Maybe remote workers don’t feel like they’re fully integrated into the team or are struggling to communicate with their managers. Perhaps employees spend too much time on paperwork and navigating outdated processes, which hurts their productivity and willingness to engage.

Anonymous surveys are a great way to get started with such feedback. Ask employees to rate their experience across various categories (such as communication, growth and development, or daily use of tools). These surveys can shine a light on how employees perceive their experience and where there’s room to improve. Following up on surveys with employee focus groups can help you dig even deeper into what your people want from the employee experience.

Remember to engage with all your key stakeholders: It’s crucial to find out where managers feel the employee experience could be better and what tools and key features they’re most likely to use. Our research found that management is the most significant factor that will make or break your employee experience.

Look for an employee experience platform that offers special attention to managers, including learning resources, tools, and training to help them spark connection.

Outline the Ideal Employee Journey

Once you’ve gathered feedback from your key players, pull all of that data together to map the ideal employee journey that covers onboarding, offboarding, and everything in between.

A configurable platform allows you to plot out the ideal employee journey and to offer support to managers and employees along the way. Look for a tool that supports good communication practices, helping managers become better at connecting with their teams through scheduled reminders and on-demand resources.

Communication is the cornerstone of connection. You’ll realize the best results from employee experience software that keeps communication moving in all directions. By that, we mean that communication is not one-way or top-down. Real-time feedback from employees, for example, can help managers figure out when employees are struggling so they can provide proactive support. And employee surveys allow your people to feel safe providing important feedback to leadership.

Find Options That Integrate With Your Tech Stack

Employee experience software combines the information, communication, and resources employees need to do their jobs confidently. But for that information to flow into your employee experience platform, you need to find one that integrates with the tech tools you already have.

To integrate with as little disruption to daily life as possible, find software you can configure to support the workflows and processes you already have. New hires, for example, can be overwhelmed by the number of logins they’re receiving and the documents they need to sign. Integrating the onboarding process with your e-signature software can make paperwork easier and more efficient for everyone.

Seamless integrations help you meet managers and employees where they are while delivering the best possible digital experience.

Prioritize Vendors Who Align With Your Culture

Culture is a big part of any HR tech decision. Your culture is validated when people’s behaviors align with values. Those values help your people make decisions and set priorities that support your mission. To carry those values into your employee experience, you need vendors who share your priorities.

Incorporating your values and culture into the employee journey makes that experience more genuine and reminds your employees of what’s most important in everything they do.

Your employees constantly use tech platforms and tools, and keeping track of them is hard. Managers have a lot of competing priorities. Remote and hybrid working environments can leave people feeling isolated and disconnected. These are constants in today’s workplace, but they don’t have to define the employee experience.

When employees have a streamlined platform to access services across the organization, they get their questions answered faster and get more done. Managers who receive automated nudges and reminders to carry out important tasks are more productive and interact better with their employees.

Employee experience software helps you own the employee journey every day and in every interaction, regardless of where your people are.