Employee Experience & Performance

A recent study by Harlianto and  Rudi published in 2023 in the International Journal of Professional Business Review, states that the corporate world is currently grappling with an unprecedented situation, one that organisations must address if they wish to thrive amidst intense competition.

It is crucial for companies to effectively navigate distractions, adapt to change, and navigate business uncertainties. Rather than solely emphasizing employee engagement, organisations should adopt a holistic approach by focusing on the entire employee journey.

This involves integrating workplace, HR, and management practices that influence employees throughout their tenure in the organisation. Human Resources Divisions are now prioritising the recognition and enhancement of this comprehensive journey experience to enhance Employee Performance.

 This paradigm shift has become so prevalent that we're witnessing the emergence of dedicated roles solely focused on employee experience within organisations.

Understanding the relationship between employee experience, engagement, and performance is paramount and requires prioritisation. By providing the right employee experience, organisations can achieve double the customer satisfaction and innovation, along with generating 25% higher profits compared to those that do not prioritise employee experience. Research such as the WorkTrendsTM 2016 Global IBM/Globoforce Employee Experience Index underscores the significance of positive employee experiences in talent retention and performance improvement. Employees in the top 25% of Employee Experience Index scores are reported to be 52% less likely to leave, 73% more likely to exceed expectations, and 32% more likely to achieve higher performance.

One study mapped out the journey of employee experience, moving from addressing basic needs for work to creating an environment where employees genuinely want to be.

Many companies mistakenly use "employee engagement" and "employee experience" interchangeably, but they're actually different. Employee engagement is about short-term changes, while employee experience involves a long-term transformation of the company. Employee experience encompasses employee expectations, needs, and desires, aligning them with the organisation's structure.

Another view sees employee experience as an ongoing journey with significant impacts on engagement, satisfaction, commitment, and performance. Empirical studies delve into specific HR processes, such as employee evaluation, highlighting the influence of managers and organisational context. HR departments are increasingly focusing on creating meaningful employee journeys, from recruitment to offboarding, to strengthen bonds with employees. Key drivers of employee experience include physical, cultural, and technological environments, providing a framework for organisations to build better workplace practices.

A framework of employee experience provides a complete approach that can assist many  organisations  to build  the  best  workplace  practices.  Many  scholars  have  provided  a study  to  identify  the  key  drivers  of  employee  experience.  One  study  identified  employee experience   model   that   consist   of   physical  environment,   cultural   environment,   and technological environment (Morgan, 2017).

IBM and Globoforce introduced the Employee Experience Index (EXI) in 2017, which assesses employees' personal experiences at work in terms of purpose, belonging, happiness, achievement, and vigor. Deloitte's Employee Experience Framework identifies elements contributing to a positive employee experience, including meaningful work, positive environment, supportive management, growth opportunities, collaboration, trust in leadership, and connection (Abbatiello et al., 2017).

Another study compiled drivers of employee experience such as employees' experimental needs and desires, embracing holistic thinking, radical participation, trust, appreciating the process, experimentation, making intangible experiences tangible, better workplace practices, and leadership and management practices (Itam & Ghosh, 2020).

Additionally, Gheidar and Zanjani (2021) identified components of employee experience as career, personal, business strategy, technology, cultural, physical environment, brand, and leadership components. Another empirical study found that job situation and management support have the greatest direct and indirect impacts on job performance, while adaptability and intrinsic enthusiasm directly affect performance (Diamantidis & Chatzoglou, 2019). While some studies focus on factors affecting employee performance, others emphasise its dimensions. For example, Pradhan and Jena (2017) revealed three dimensions of performance: task, adaptive, and contextual.

Task performance involves job-specific behaviors outlined in an employee's job description, adaptive performance requires effectively handling unstable working situations, and contextual performance involves prosocial actions demonstrated in a job setting. In terms of the relationship between employee experience and performance, one study suggests that employee experience is the ultimate level of fulfillment that an employee can achieve.

After thoroughly examining the key drivers of employee experience and assessing their impact on employee performance, it was determined in the Harlianto and  Rudi study that the cultural environment significantly influences employee performance positively.