Why you should focus on employee experience

The ongoing war for talent is intensifying, particularly in emerging disciplines, and organizations across industries recognize that they need to differentiate themselves to attract and retain top talent

- TANYA HENG

The pandemic has forced companies to rethink the customer experience globally, including in Singapore. Much as designing customer experience has dominated the thinking of companies competing in today’s digital environment, many organizations are now re-examining the employee experience. Companies are taking a more comprehensive view of influencing it, recognizing the impact experience has on employee engagement and productivity.

A good example is employee onboarding, or how fresh employees experience the whole process. Companies need to work with a broader set of players across the organization to get it right, ensuring the onboarding experience is memorable. An IBM recruit shared her experience as a new mom. She was apprehensive about joining IBM as she was still breastfeeding and was worried about balancing her need to nurture the baby – and her career. She was relieved at the onboarding when she was assured that IBM provided nursing facilities – as well as the sterilization utensils.

The traditional ways of assessing performance – by judging which businesses are worth learning from – were dramatically upended in 2020. The global pandemic and ensuing rolling lockdowns ravaged some industries (such as airlines and tourism) while boosting others (such as food deliveries and online access portals). The heavy impact of circumstantial factors meant that sometimes merely being in the right place was rewarded, and simply being in the wrong place was punished.