Optimize Employee Experience Pt 2: Manage Employee Journey

A new analysis found 48% of the working population in America is actively searching for a job or watching for other opportunities. The modern HR experience follows the philosophy of treating employees like customers, as in companies must “earn their business.” A high-quality, consistent employee journey from the moment a company connects with a candidate is critical to building trust and establishing a foundation for loyalty.

What is the Employee Journey?

The employee journey represents the total time an employee spends at a company. This time commences with the hiring process and ends with offboarding. It encompasses all phases and employee experiences, from the completion of the initial job application to the participation in the final exit interview.

Companies that take the time to understand the employee journey position themselves for long-term success. Mapping journeys assist companies in comprehending each component that has a positive, lasting impact on employees’ motivation and engagement while at work.

The better companies understand the journey, the easier it is to create a productive, upbeat environment where employees thrive.

Employee Journey Maps

The employee experience is a way to measure the employee experience at every stage of an employee’s tenure at the company. The employee experience is how the employee feels about workplace interactions and events.

Why is this so critical for organizations? The employee experience affects worker engagement. The higher engagement within a company, the better the entire culture. Productivity increases, which in turn positively impacts the bottom line. There’s an elevated level of customer satisfaction and greater opportunity to continually grow revenue and profits.

Journey maps create a narrative from user thoughts and emotions based on a timeline of actions. HR leaders and stakeholders can utilize the maps to discern areas related to the employee experience that need to be addressed and improved. Equipped with information, they can create strategies to better the journey. It’s crucial for companies to consistently update their journey maps to get a concise picture of the employee experience.

Employee journey mapping allows for:

• Prioritization of company resources and funding
• Clarification of roles and milestone moments that matter most along the employee journey
• Promoting “employee first” thoughts and actions
• Aligning leadership their view of the employee experience

Steps to Create an Employee Journey Map

1. Understand the reason for creation

HR plays a key role in the mapping experience, serving as a champion of the process. HR leaders must work with other departments to decide what needs to be accomplished.

Some maps are straightforward, while others are a bit more complex. They are not a one-size-fits-all and each needs to be tailored to the specific company and goals they are trying to attain.

2. Character mapping

All mapping journeys will not look the same. The journeys for teams within different departments will have vastly different looks. It’s not necessary to create a journey map for every employee, rather it’s important to segment based on departmental role as pain points and touchpoints differ.

3. Touchpoints

A touchpoint is critical as they plot important points throughout the employee experience and can include both work-related and life events.

Some examples include:

• Onboarding
• Training
• Reviews
• Processes for dealing with work interruptions, e.g., life events, COVID, remote work
• Exit employee interviews

4. Garner employee feedback

Feedback from employees will offer valuable insights on pain points. Uncovering problems is essential to creating new strategies that will better serve the employee experience.

Gathering as much information as possible is important, which means talking with both employees and managers at different tenures. Whether an employee has just come onboard or has been there for an extended period, performs poorly or is a high-performer, or quits abruptly, the feedback given is important for mapping purposes.

5. Updating journey maps

Mentioned earlier, it’s vital for companies to update their journey maps. Employee feedback provides the information to open discussions and create new strategies to bolster the employee experience. Even the information obtained in exit interviews is valuable as HR leaders can uncover breakdowns in communication and problems experienced with the onboarding process or difficulties experienced with managers throughout their journeys.

Stages of the Employee Journey

Companies who map out the journey are essentially creating a roadmap for their own success. Each stage of the journey allows HR to manage and decipher what helps to create a worthwhile employee experience.

The stages of the employee journey include:

• Recruiting – Competition is fierce for qualified candidates; HR continually needs to evaluate the best ways to obtain top talent
• Onboarding – A strong onboarding process can increase employee retention by 82%
• Development – Employees develop at different rates, so it’s crucial to offer ways to expand their skillsets
• Compensation and benefits – A critical stage of the journey, employees expect to be compensated based on experience and aptitude
• Continual engagement and communication – Throughout the journey, increased communication leads to higher employee engagement
• Rewards and recognition – Can be based on individual or departmental performance
• Performance feedback and review – Employee reviews lay the groundwork for advancement
• Advancement – This could be representative of a promotion
• Employee milestones– These could be life events, like marriage, birth, or adoption
• Company exit – An exit can be voluntary or involuntary and include retirement, resignation, or termination

Benefits of Employee Journey Mapping

Companies who embrace journey mapping realize important benefits including:

• Better employee experiences
• Greater employee satisfaction that leads to higher engagement 
• An increase in employee retention
• A positive, productive company culture
• Higher rates of customer satisfaction

Conclusion:

Every moment an employee spends with an employer is counted as their employee journey. Employees touch virtually every aspect of business and are responsible for driving customer satisfaction and helping companies to reach important goals. Especially in today’s business climate, it’s critical for companies to create a positive employee experience, exceed expectations, and maintain a positive experience throughout the employee journey.

Companies who map and understand employee touchpoints will find these actions are beneficial to the overall growth of the organization. Managing the employee journey helps to improve the experience and satisfaction of employees, and in turn, creates a better organizational culture which has a significant impact on employee retention.

The Apexon Employee Experience solution leverages multiple Salesforce Cloud products, including Marketing Cloud, Service Cloud, the Platform Productivity Cloud and Experience Cloud, to achieve end to end Employee Experience. To learn more, visit Apexon’s Salesforce Services or get in touch using the form below.

Want to learn more? Read part 3 here.