From incorporating employee feedback to creating a safe remote workplace, here are 10 answers to the question, "How did you solve one employee experience challenge this year?"
Incorporating Employee Feedback
Onboarding a High Volume of New Employees as We Grew
Experiencing High Turnover
Growing a More Inclusive and Diverse Workplace
Recovering Equipment From Remote Teammates
Ensuring Employee Engagement
Using the Correct Technological Tools
Mitigating Burnout Among Remote Employees
Showing an Applicant Why They Didn't Get the Job
Creating a Safe and Secure Remote Working Environment
Incorporating Employee Feedback
We used to struggle with incorporating employee feedback into our review process. Employees would provide feedback on ways to improve the work experience but then would not see those improvements reflected in their reviews. We addressed this problem head-on, and now our employees are more involved in the feedback and review process.
This year, we created a six-week feedback cycle where employees give feedback on their managers and other company leadership. Managers then incorporate that feedback into their management techniques, and employees provide additional feedback on the changes.
This cycle has meant that employees can see the impact of their feedback and that they have a say in the changes to improve their work experience. The cycle has encouraged open communication and made our employees feel more valued and appreciated.
Onboarding a High Volume of New Employees as We Grew
One employee experience challenge that I faced and conquered this year was onboarding a high volume of new employees as we rapidly grew our organization.
We developed an effective onboarding system to ensure all newly hired employees had the same positive experience, regardless of their position in the company. This included developing and implementing a comprehensive orientation program, providing targeted training materials for each job function, and offering resources and support to help employees transition into their roles.
We also made sure all onboarding materials were consistent in format, easy to use, and accessible on a variety of platforms. In addition, we provided our new hires with mentors who could answer questions they had about their roles and provide guidance throughout the onboarding process. By taking these steps, we could make sure our new employees felt welcome and prepared for success at the company.
Amira Irfan, Founder & CEO,A Self Guru
Experiencing High Turnover
One of the biggest challenges I faced this year was addressing our company's turnover rate. We had been seeing a steady increase in the number of employees leaving, and we needed to find out why.
After conducting exit interviews and analyzing the data, we found that most employees who were leaving were doing so because they felt undervalued and unappreciated. We implemented a series of changes, including adding more opportunities for employee recognition and development.
As a result, we've seen a significant decrease in turnover and an increase in employee satisfaction. I'm proud to say that we've conquered this challenge and created a better experience for our employees.
Lorien Strydom, Executive Country Manager,Financer.com
Growing a More Inclusive and Diverse Workplace
This year, we faced the challenge of creating a more inclusive and diverse workplace. We did this by implementing unconscious bias training for all employees, and by creating employee resource groups for underrepresented groups.
We also launched a new mentorship program that pairs employees with mentors who can help them navigate their careers. Because of these efforts, we've seen a significant increase in employee satisfaction and engagement.
Linda Shaffer, Chief People Operations Officer,Checkr
Recovering Equipment From Remote Teammates
Our biggest employee experience challenge has been recovering equipment from remote team members in a timely manner when they offboard. Our HR team has worked in partnership with our IT department to continually refine this process. However, those efforts have been met with varying levels of success until recently.
What helped us move this forward was connecting with former employees and inquiring about the equipment return process. From those conversations, we could identify the reasons employees either don't return equipment or do so late.
Next, we developed solutions for those reasons. For example, some of our employees live in remote areas without easy access to the vendor we use for shipping services.
With this data, we could offer either an extended equipment return date or reimburse a local shipping option more convenient for them. Communicating with your offboarding employees and identifying any barriers to equipment return in advance is working for our team.
Brittney Simpson, HR Operations Manager,Walker Miller Energy Services
Ensuring Employee Engagement
I think the biggest challenge that my team and I faced this year was ensuring that our employees felt like they could contribute and make a difference in the work that they were doing.
We did this by ensuring that we had regular communication with our employees and that we provided them with opportunities to provide feedback on their work. Additionally, we offered opportunities for employees to take part in company-wide initiatives and programs.
Employee engagement is critical to the success of any organization.
It is the level of commitment and involvement an employee has with their work and the company. High levels of employee engagement lead to increased productivity, improved quality of work, and lower levels of absenteeism and turnover. Engaged employees are more likely to be satisfied with their jobs and have a positive attitude toward their work.
Tali Ditye, Co-Founder,Mommyhood10
Using the Correct Technological Tools
One employee experience challenge I faced this year was making sure our team had the correct technological tools to do their job efficiently. Most of our work is related to course designs, and we quickly realized that the system we were using was outdated and was no longer the best option for the company.
This caused a lot of frustration among employees who were trying to do their job and not being able to because of technology issues. After doing some research, we found an improved system that would work better for our consumers and employees.
Using the correct and updated technological tools has made a big difference in our employee experience. Our team is now more productive and efficient, and they are much happier with their jobs. This has been a great victory for our team this year, and I am excited to see what we can accomplish with the new system in place.
Derek Bruce, Senior Director,Skills Training Group
Mitigating Burnout Among Remote Employees
The biggest employee management obstacle we dealt with this year was mitigating burnout rates in our company. This is a primary risk in running a fully remote team. The lack of interpersonal interactions among the team can cause them to disengage from their tasks and get burnt out.
It was a red alert for us when we observed increasing burnout rates this year because this threatened to bleed into increased turnover rates as well, which will badly hurt our capacity.
To address this, we launched a well-being program led by our human resource team. We solely dedicated this program to looking closely into improving the overall employee experience through initiatives such as integrating recovery time, wellness packages, and virtual get-togethers to foster camaraderie in the workplace.
Mark Woodbury, Co-Founder,Minerva Equity
Showing an Applicant Why They Didn't Get the Job
There was one instance this year when an applicant refused to accept that they hadn't gotten the position they'd applied for. Many emails were sent, inquiring and polite at first, and later filled with expletives stated and names being called.
Part of the job application process is to complete a task related to the job role to show the skill sets necessary to complete the job. In the end, it was important for the applicant to see how they didn't quite measure up, so I shared another applicant's task (name redacted) that revealed the skills we were looking for and provided a comparison.
The applicant was extremely thankful and understood what skills they needed to work on to apply for similar positions in the future.
Jarir Mallah, HR Specialist,Ling App
Creating a Safe and Secure Remote Working Environment
To ensure the safety and security of our employees who have moved to remote work because of the pandemic, I implemented various solutions.
We invested in robust cybersecurity measures such as two-factor authentication for access to systems, data encryption, firewalls, and penetration testing. Additionally, our company provided employee training on cybersecurity best practices, and also created a remote work policy that was communicated to all employees on how they should conduct themselves while working remotely and ensured every employee had the right tools and equipment needed to do their job.
Our team also set up an Employee Assistance Program (EAP) to help employees manage stress, mental health concerns, and other issues related to the pandemic. We developed flexible work policies to account for different time zones and allowed employees to adjust their working hours according to their own needs.
Matt Teifke, Founder & CEO,Teifke Real Estate
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