5 Ways to Build a Great Employee Experience

Once you know what employees want in a great work experience, you can start putting the pieces into place. A satisfying experience begins with having some key elements in place that work together to influence the environment in which employees live and work. Here's the five you need to know:

1. Leadership - Visible Leadership commitment and support; leaders can't just go through the motions, but must demonstrate consistent behaviors that support creating the desired employee experience.
2. Vision and Mission - Not just a reworking of the organization's vision, but one that inspires people to want to be a part of what you've created.
3. Measurement - Clearly defined and measurable outcomes; employees who know and understand what's expected of them and what they can expect of the organization are much happier employees.
4. Accountability - Where everyone knows who's responsible for what.
5. Reward and Recognition - A program that reinforces desired behaviors.

The Families and Work Institute National Study of the Changing Workforce showed that earnings and benefits have only a 3 percent impact on job satisfaction. More importantly, "workplace support" and "job quality" have a combined 70 percent. These factors are solely dependent upon the tone set by Leadership.

Study best practices.

Leadership, along with Mission and Vision, often go hand in hand. A committed leadership team will take the organization's vision and mission and make it come alive for employees every day. Look at the visions and missions of organizations outside of healthcare and study how they do it.

For example, Disney's latest purpose is "Where Dreams Come True." Every Disney employee knows that their role is to do just that for their guests, and they do so at every turn.

What's the purpose that you've set at your hospital to compel and guide employees every day? How have you taken your organization's purpose and translated it in meaningful ways for yourself and every employee in your part of the organization?

Define your mission.

Living that purpose then becomes a key for Leadership. As soon as the leader is inconsistent in behavior, communication, decision-making, he's just given permission for everyone else to be inconsistent, too.

It's nice to say that the employee experience is important, to ask questions and to talk about purpose, but if measurement and accountabilities aren't put into place, then the other pieces are just words-either spoken or on paper.

Set benchmarks for achieving goals.

Therefore, it's key to set some very specific goals for achievement. It may be to say that employee satisfaction scores in a particular area will increase by a certain percentage by a certain point in time. It may be to set deadlines for the implementation of new policies to address concerns. Whatever the defined action is, it's as important to set defined goals and timelines and to communicate progress regularly to employees.

Too often, employees give their opinions, only to find that nothing ever really was done or was changed as a result of their input. If that experience happens more than a couple of times, employees will stop giving their input. Accountability spells out specifically "who is responsible for what."

Expect accountability from everyone.

Among the leadership team, it's clearly defined which executives are assigned to which responsibilities. Conversely, employees are also held accountable to being a part of the changes that will enhance their experience, assisting in the evaluation process and implementing where appropriate. The measurement piece provides the end goal, and the accountability piece makes sure that the journey follows a defined path.

Give a pat on the back.

Reward and recognition is the glue that holds it all together because it's the opportunity for leadership and members of the employee team to recognize the efforts toward the end goal. Reward and recognition doesn't need to be elaborate; most employees just want a simple thanks. But, it does need to be sincere, relevant and timely.

A consistent dose of that type of recognition goes a long way to creating the kind of employee experience we would all like to have. Take a moment to see how well you think you're doing in these areas. Compare these results as you talk with your employees.
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