{"id":5862,"date":"2024-08-23T13:32:06","date_gmt":"2024-08-23T13:32:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.brightmine.com\/us\/?post_type=resources&p=5862"},"modified":"2026-02-16T06:44:30","modified_gmt":"2026-02-16T11:44:30","slug":"a-complete-guide-to-the-employee-experience","status":"publish","type":"resources","link":"https:\/\/www.brightmine.com\/us\/resources\/talent-management\/employee-engagement\/a-complete-guide-to-the-employee-experience\/","title":{"rendered":"A complete guide to the employee experience"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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by Natasha K. A. Wiebusch<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Research shows that companies with a better experience can increase their revenue by more than 50%. This statistic comes from an in-depth joint study of a large retailer by Salesforce and Talenteck. The study also found that investing in the employee experience increases profits by a whopping 45%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Clearly, investing in your employee experience has a real, significant return on investment (ROI). Not only does it improve talent outcomes, as expected, but it also has a measurable business impact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The million-dollar question is: What does it take to create a winning employee experience? As you might expect, the answer is slightly different for each employer. Still, there are key steps you can take to set yourself up for employee experience success…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is the employee experience?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The employee experience is the sum of all the experiences an employee has with their employer throughout their tenure. This includes the experience at every stage of the employee journey from recruitment and onboarding to exit. Employee experience evaluates every aspect of the job, including the social, organizational, physical and work experience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Defined this way, the employee experience can seem overwhelming and maybe even amorphous. With so much potential information to analyze, it may be hard to pin down what matters most. The key to designing an excellent experience is to discover the moments that matter in the employee journey.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Approaches to employee experience design<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

To find the moments that matter in the employee journey, leaders use an employee experience framework. A framework provides structure to helps identify important variables and narrow the scope of information to analyze. With a solid structure, organizations are better able to design an experience they can evaluate using key metrics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The following are common frameworks for understanding the employee experience:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Employee experience environments<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The employee experience environment framework, also called the Employee Experience Equation, focuses on three elements of the working environment:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The cultural environment<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

The cultural environment is the company culture in which the employee finds themself. A company culture is the shared values, beliefs, norms and behaviors of an organization. It consists of both written and unwritten rules that employees come to know and understand. The culture influences how an employee interacts with others at work and their relationships.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The physical environment<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

The physical environment is the physical space in which the employee works. This may be an office, a job site or a home office. Though a physical environment within the office is usually the priority, HR leaders often consider the surrounding area. For instance, the city where the company is or the actual location of the building.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The technological environment<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

The technological environment refers to the experience employees have with the technology they use to get work done. Also called the digital employee experience, the technological environment refers to everything from the laptops employees use to software programs. Beyond computers, it can also refer to practical tools, like power tools or POS systems.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Together, these three environments either help create or detract from a positive employee experience. According to Jacob Morgan, the framework’s creator, employers must focus on each of these environments to be successful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mckinsey & Company’s nine employee Experience Elements<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Another approach to framing the employee experience is Mckinsey & Company’s nine employee experience elements<\/a>. Similar to Morgan’s environment framework, it breaks the experience down into three primary domains:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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  1. Social experience.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  2. Work experience.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  3. Organization experience.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    Mckinsey’s research found that these three domains accounted for most of the variance in employees\u2019 experiences with their employers. Unlike Morgan’s model, however, Mckinsey’s model goes a step further. It identifies 9 elements of the experience, each of which falls under a domain:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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    Social experience<\/h4>\n\n\n\n