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.

Is Employee Experience becoming as important as the customer experience

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