The year of the employee experience
Happy New Year, everybody! Every year we see almost everyone make resolutions and set goals for their next trip around the sun. Sometimes it is to spend more time doing the things they love or setting new personal and professional goals they have not yet gotten around to. These yearly resets give us a chance to ponder our situations and figure out what we should do next.
Last year it seemed like every other article out there was about “the great resignation” where many people left their jobs searching for something new (and hopefully better). Many of these articles discussed how everyone was quitting their job simply because they didn’t like it. While this may be true for some, it was not the case for the majority. The pandemic put people in a situation where they had to re-evaluate what was truly important to them, and for many, this meant finding a new place of work. I think this great resignation is far from over, and I think 2022 will be the year that organizations will have to focus on the employee experience to retain and gain great employees.
A couple of articles ago, I wrote about knowing who your customer is. In your organization, everyone has a different customer. For some, the customer may be the actual end-user of the technology being supported, or in the leader’s case, the customer is the subordinate employee. If you are that leader, evaluate the employee experience just as much (if not more) as you evaluate the customer experience. Does your mission to serve your customers to the highest standards continue over into the way you serve your employees?
If you are an organization that was highly affected by “the great resignation,” the answer to that question is probably no, and it is time to re-evaluate that mission and who it is serving. Even if you weren’t heavily affected by this resignation, re-evaluate anyway; we can always learn to be better. Your employees will provide the best customer experience when they have a fantastic employee experience. In service, people do their best work when they are happy and feel valued. Value comes in various ways, but it does not exclusively come in the form of snacks in the break room and pizza parties on Fridays. Employees like to feel that their leader cares about them and has their best interest in mind when making decisions. As a leader, you have a lot of influence on your employees and can be a driving force in how they perform.
If you are the leader, talk to your employees and ask what they would like their experience to look like. Sounds simple enough, right? The hard part that many fail to do is actually listen. You are not going to be able to solve every problem, and there are some parts of the employee experience that you will not be able to change, but the fact that you actually listen makes employees feel valued. And when you do have the opportunity to change something for the better, do it.
If you are an employee, take a step back and think about what your ideal employee experience looks like. Where is it? What are you doing? Who is it with? How much are you getting paid to do it? What level of responsibility do you have? Once you have defined these for yourself, have a conversation with your leader. Treat it the same way you would treat a customer-facing presentation and come to the table with solid reasons for why something should change and what value you will be adding as a result. At the end of the day, we all want to gain value from something but we also have to be willing to give value to others.
So as we go into this new year, take the time to find what is right for you and have conversations with those around you to help you achieve it. You can not do it all by yourself, so be sure to include those that can help you succeed. If your goal is to create a better customer experience, then figure out how to do it and start working on it!
p.s.
I know many people stumbled their way into AV, and it can be hard to define what you want in a career, especially after doing it for some time. I would highly recommend the book What Color is Your Parachute? This practical guide allows you to look at your career from an outsider’s perspective and define what you truly desire. Changing your mind is one of the biggest strengths, and choosing to pursue a different path will not harm anyone.