What is Employee Experience Cycle (EEC) and how you can improve it?

Employee Experience is a big focus are in HR departments across the globe. Managers are now focusing on improving the employee experience to make sure the company’s work environment is happy as it should be.

From day one to the last day in an organization, employees go through multiple stages of their experience. Companies with great culture (like Front app, AirBnB, Skcript), have dedicated teams looking after the experience of their employees in every single stage of the company.

UnderstandBetter, being a tool that helps managers grow a good feedback-driven culture in organizations, went deep into learning about Employee Experience Cycle (EEC) for companies across the world.

Today, let me help you understand what companies with exceptionally engaged workforce do things differently, and how you can too in your organization with these simple data points that will flow later in this article.

Stages of Employee Experience in your organization

There are multiple stages for an employee in a company. To give you a little bit more perspective, think about your first job. How did you feel when you walked into your office for the first time, how your perspective changed overtime in the company, and how well you gelled with the team as time passed. Finally, what made you leave that company.

Here are the stages each and every employee, no matter their position in the company go through:

1. Stage #1: Onboarding
2. Stage #2: Growth
3. Stage #3: Evaluation
4. Stage #4: Shopping for confirmation

The five stages are exactly what your employees are going through in your company. If you take a look at your existing workforce, you will be able to bucket people into any one of these stages, and know what they are going through in the company.

Onboarding

When does this stage start: This stage starts as soon as the employee start their job at the company. From day 1 of their employment at the company.

What would the new person expect: The expectation a new person would have is high. Every new job is a fresh start in their life. Many people switch jobs to get a clean start in their careers. For not repeating the mistakes they did in the earlier organization. The employee would expect a warm welcome, and a sense of trust the company has on them during the first three months in the organization.

How long does this period last: 0 to 3 months

What should you do to help the employee: The impression of a good organization with great culture is created in a person’s mind in the first hour of them coming into the company. Read more about making a really good onboarding experience here.

How to track if their onboarding experience is going well: A tool like UnderstandBetter comes with analytical data that helps you see if they’re aligned to the organization and if they are having a good experience getting to know the organization, sitting well in their job.

Growth

When does this stage start: This stage starts when the new employee knows what they are doing in the company, their roles and responsibilities and also the way the company operates. This is the phase where things get real for them. This is when they start delivering.

What would the new person expect: They would expect clarity in their role and ownership to deliver the work they are best at doing. Above all, a buy-in from their peers that they are capable of getting the job done.

How long does this period last: 4th month to 24th month

What should you do to help the employee: This is the longest stretch anyone will have in their first few years of their career unless and until the company provides them with enough space for growth and deliver what they expect from the company. To make sure the employee is having a great experience, run Voice of the Employee programs in the company, involve their opinions and also, make sure you follow these three steps to implement the same.

Evaluation

When does this stage start: This stage starts when the employee is well-known in the organization for their work, and they start getting their feedback from their managers/peers. This is when they feel a little accomplished, and feel a sense of contribution to the company’s growth.

Providing feedback to help them understand what they are good at and what they can improve is crucial. Exactly when using data to run your peer-review meetings. UnderstandBetter helps you do that with no major investment.

What would the new person expect: No one wants negative feedback all the time. Instead they would expect to know what they are good at and what they can improve. Humans are complex. Human mind is powerful in analyzing emotions of other people. Making sure they receive valuable and actionable feedback to improve their careers is essential, especially from their managers.

How long does this period last: 12th month to 30th month (runs parallel with the Growth stage)

What should you do to help the employee: Making sure you have the right data to talk to them during one-on-one is crucial. Chances are that the employee is older than you in the organization, and they come with a sense of ownership as well, when talking to new people. Sit down with them, take them out to the cafe for a coffee, know how it is going for them in the organization and see if you can pull some strings to improve their experience.

Shopping for confirmation

Confirmation bias is a big term. People, when provided with negative feedback always, tend to look out for other peers who would make them feel safe. Creating an organization that enables free flow of information and creates a sense of trust among peers is the game-changing trait here.

This phase is when the employee starts to look out for other opportunities. Knowing why they are looking out for what we call “Shopping for confirmation” could be complex. They are burnt out or they are not seeing a growth path in the company or there could be other reasons. Knowing these details before the employee feel this way could help them understand how they are perceived in the organization. Also solving them right then and there will give them a sense of important in the company.

What can you do next?

Learning about people’s emotions and helping them out as a manager could be game changing for the organization. UnderstandBetter helps you do just that with questions that are relevant to each and everyone’s job role. This makes it easy for your people to know that they are being cared for, and the engagement rates could go up like many others who are using UnderstandBetter do.

Need help in knowing more about Employee Experience Cycle (EEC)? Write to me at [email protected]. Would be happy to help.