L&D Best Practices

Placing the employee experience at the heart of onboarding programs

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Employee Experience at the Core of Onboarding Programs

Human beings are made to respond to experiences. It is this concept that has contributed to the success of companies such as Amazon and Netflix (and the downfall of their competitors). Today, the understanding and optimization of both the user experience (UX) and customer experience (CX) have become strategic priorities for business leaders. But there is another aspect to consider: the employee experience—particularly during onboarding. 

Why offer an Employee Experience (EX)?

Though “CX” has a wider scope than “UX”, both these disciplines are focused on the ways in which individuals (users or customers) interact with products, brands, and companies, as well as their feelings regarding these interactions. Human-centered design is essential in today’s ultra-competitive global economy. As such, a positive user and customer experience is, without doubt, a major differentiating factor. 

Likewise, as the race to recruit talent intensifies, more and more companies are becoming aware of the need to concentrate on their human capital and to improve the employee experience. According to a recent study by Mercer, over 90% of companies expect an increase in competition for talent. This will be further exacerbated by greater competition from emerging markets [1]. 

This context of increased competition to attract and retain the best talent has led to the concept of the employee experience (EX). EX refers to the “way in which employees perceive their working experiences, resulting from their interactions with the company“. 

Furthermore, it has been demonstrated that a positive employee experience is associated with better performance and higher retention rates [2]. However, 59% of companies do not feel ready to take on the challenge of the employee experience. 

Employees assess their employers from the very beginning of their working relationship [3]. As such, the time to act is in the creation of onboarding programs! What specific actions can be carried out to improve candidate and new-recruit engagement?

Offering the best employee experience during onboarding!

The employee journey can be divided into stages to be optimized in order to offer a better employee experience. The integration of new employees is, without doubt, one of the most important stages of this journey. An exceptional onboarding experience is directly linked to engagement, performance and retention of new recruits [4]. 

A new approach to onboarding, based on EX, consists of moving from a transactional and process-oriented approach, to human-centered programs that respond to the needs and expectations of new employees. 

The following actions, as identified by Deloitte, can be carried out to design employee-focused digital onboarding training courses [5]: 

Based on these EX-oriented actions, CrossKnowledge has identified three key, interdependent needs of new employees. Any employee-centered onboarding program must respond to these key objectives: relationships, engagement and performance. 

Relationships

Establishing links between the individual and the organization creates a feeling of belonging to a community among new employees. These new recruits are looking for more opportunities to get to know their colleagues and manager during their onboarding. 

Offer your new employees social-learning experiences, for example via group activities, which allow them to interact with their peers and strengthen links with both their colleagues and the company. 

Engagement

A well-designed integration program is essential in order to offer a positive employee experience and improve engagement. New recruits want: 

Create a personalized and unforgettable environment dedicated to onboarding that reflects the company’s values. 
What’s more, the engagement of millennial employees must be stimulated in order to ensure their success. Compared to other generations, millennials have very different expectations: they place great importance on optimized, interactive, user-friendly experiences, accessible on mobile devices. The same also applies to Generation Z employees. 

Performance

Thanks to the development opportunities offered to them, your new employees can become operational faster. Provide them with self-guided and blended learning experiences. This will allow them to acquire the necessary skills and accelerate their performance. 
Implement regular feedback sessions, ongoing discussions, and a coaching and support system for their role. By allowing new employees to quickly contribute to the company, you’ll generate a feeling of satisfaction. 
With the growing importance paid to the employee experience, HR managers and business leaders must rethink the design of their programs. They can also make use of platforms developed for an effective employee experience. Human-centered onboarding places the emphasis on new employees’ needs, limitations, expectations, and values. 

References