The Evolution of Employee Experience

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How we work now is dramatically different from how we worked 20 years ago. It’s different from how we worked two years ago!

The world of work is constantly changing. Our current evolution shifts organizational priorities towards focusing on people and bringing humanity to organizations. What an exciting thing to see!

Years ago, businesses were focused primarily on utility. That focus slowly shifted towards productivity and getting the most out of people. Then, we saw the emergence of engagement, which is all about making employees happy and engaged at work. Now, we are shifting to what I believe is the next and most important area: employee experience. 

Let’s look at the evolution and how we got here:

Utility

Decades ago, the relationship we had with our employers was pretty straightforward. Employers had jobs they needed to fill, and employees needed money. This basic relationship meant that work was about utility and just getting the job done. The only tools or resources employees had were whatever they needed to work. Can you imagine bringing up health and wellness programs, catered meals, bringing dogs to the office, or flexible work efforts in the past? You would have been a laughing stock! These things are all relatively new phenomena that are only now starting to gain global attention and investment. Unfortunately, some companies are still stuck in the utility era and providing bare-bones experiences for their employees. 

Productivity

Next came the productivity era, when companies focused on optimizing employee performance. Just like swimmers and sprinters try to shave seconds off their times, managers literally used stopwatches to time how long it would take employees to complete a task to shave off a few seconds here and there. This was designed to improve productivity and output while emphasizing repeatable processes, such as the famous factory assembly line. Unfortunately, we didn't have robots and automation to do these jobs, so instead, we used humans. As with the utility era, there wasn't much focus on creating an organization where employees truly wanted to be. Productivity was simply utility on steroids.

Engagement

Next came engagement, a radically new concept where the collective business world realized that paying attention to employees is more important than getting the most out of them. This revolutionary approach shifted the focus to what organizations can do to benefit employees and understand how and why they work. This is where we have been for the past two or three decades. 

Some people think employee engagement has to be replaced by employee experience, but they actually work together--engagement as the short-term perks and initiatives and experience as the long-term cultural changes and organizational redesign.

Employee Experience

Today's focus is employee experience. Essentially, employee experience is creating an organization where people want to show up. This typically falls into three categories: culture, technology, and physical space. One crucial thing to remember is that organizations can't create employee experiences unless they know their employees. This means leveraging people analytics and having a team of leaders who have the capacity and the desire to connect with people on a truly individual and human level.

We've come a long way since the days of focusing on utility and productivity, and employee experience allows us the chance to refocus on employees and drive our organizations towards the future.

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The #1 challenge for organizations right now is how to attract and retain talent. Organizations are stuck in old ways of thinking about work and they are struggling! In my new PDF, I outline 7 ways the workforce is changing and what you and your organization need to do to adapt. The Great Resignation is The Great Opportunity if you are willing to take action! Click here to download the PDF.