employee experience vs customer experience.

Is employee experience becoming as important as customer experience, or has it already moved to the top of the priority list?

For most businesses, their focus has generally been on the customer and enhancing the overall customer experience (CX). CX is considered paramount in generating success for a business, but the disruption and transformation to our working lives have meant that to some, the employee experience (EX) is a top priority.

What drives the employee experience?

Several areas are making the EX become the new CX. The main factor is the mounting pressure on attracting and retaining employees. Studies have indicated that many decision-makers are experiencing skills gaps within their teams. Skills gaps have become a growing challenge in the last few years. Employers are under growing pressure to fill positions. According to the International Data Corporation (IDC), the financial impact of the skills gap in the IT industry will reach $775 billion by 2022.

New business measures such as digital transformation, remote working and the continued shift towards the cloud are completely disrupting how people work.

People are not in the office as much as before, maybe working in different locations and reliant on additional cloud-based services. A study by SkillSoft noted that 55% of decision-makers believe a major impact on skill gaps is the added stress on employees.

Back in the 2010s, leading businesses prioritised the customer. As time passed, they realised that employees were a crucial and often overlooked area in meeting the customer needs. Employees are more informed and have more options for communication, resulting in higher demands and expectations from than employer than in previous years.

The value of EX.

One recent study by Deloitte discovered that nearly 80% of executives rated the employee experience as important or very important. The customer experience includes the website platform and interactions with sales and products, marketing and more. Similarly, employee experience encompasses all things related to employees, HR, managers and senior leaders. Industry experts emphasise that employees are the most important asset a business has to support its customers and adapt to new technologies and customer demands.

The disruption of the last few years has repositioned employees in a different light with higher expectations about their work and their careers. Industry experts anticipate that more businesses will invest in resources specifically targeting the employee experience as more leaders struggle with retention and candidate attraction.

Preparing for the rising focus on employee experience.

Providing employees with the right technology solutions has a significant impact on attracting and retaining the best talent. SaaS and other communication services enable businesses to utilise the latest technology and products without needing in-house talent to manage these applications.

According to Gartner, 60% of staff find new technology challenging, and over 50% prefer to bring back the conventional systems. New technology is, however, becoming a necessary part of the business. The recent review of the latest trends by Gartner highlighted that the rise of AI and BI to support decision-making should also happen alongside an enhanced employee experience. If new systems are focused predominantly on better metrics, the employee experience will suffer.

HR systems and human management solutions are other options to improve the employee experience. Some systems have shifted towards the cloud, and AI and analytics can further support the EX.

In the last year, there has been a significant shift towards the employee experience as an important measure of business success. While the concept has existed for some time, its use has accelerated by a pandemic and solidified the understanding that for most people, the boundaries between work and home life have changed. Work has invaded our home space, and in a way, employees have brought their home concerns to work. Employees increasingly demand businesses be involved in more sustainable and ethical initiatives that matter personally.

Businesses request more from their employees, so employees demand something more in return. In most cases, people are no longer willing to accept the conventional parts of an organisation. They start a new position believing their experience within this organisation will be empowering and meaningful.