by The wants and needs of your workforce are more important to your real estate portfolio than you may think.
The employee experience (EX) is more important to your real estate (RE) portfolio and workplace than you may think. In fact, not only is it critical to these aspects of the business, it’s crucial in order to achieve business goals, at-large.
The view of what a good employee EX looks like can vary depending on your lense, especially if you haven’t made it a top priority. Generally speaking, the employee experience is defined as the employee’s perception of every touchpoint to the business they may have. With this in mind, every employee “touch” that comes in contact with your business, both remotely and in your physical workplace, determines who you are as a company. Your identity and your culture as a company is reflected in your employees, making their experience and satisfaction in their work paramount.
It’s important for companies to ask themselves, in today’s current landscape, “What a good employee EX looks like?” Times and technology have both changed–there is a melting pot of technology, places, and people. And while COVID-19 was, and is still presenting itself to be complicated, there is a silver lining.
We’ve seen a major shift in focusing on the needs of employees in order to provide better experiences–or “touches”–that resonate on a personal level. Thus reflecting a productive, happy, motivated, and innovative culture.
And this hasn’t been a secret or niche trend either. Over the past year we’ve seen the tangible benefits businesses can achieve, by focusing on the employee EX to improve productivity, efficiency, and overall organizational health. With all being said, among common and current trends are pushes towards better work-life balance, flexible work, and enhancements to health and safety in the office–i.e., pushes for improved employee experiences and touches. In today’s world, the workplace experience matters, as does the focus on employee EX.
5 ways investing in a top notch employee EX matters and how it can benefit your business
1. Talent attraction
Top employees are looking for a workplace that aligns with their needs, values, and allows them to feel supported. If you are focused on improving the overall experience within your workplace, you can make sure your company stands out from a talent acquisition standpoint. We all want to differentiate ourselves from our competitors to stand out to customers, why shouldn’t we do the same for talent?
2. Talent retention
For those that are looking to retain employees and reduce turnover, the employee EX at your organization is the best place to start. Positive experiences are more likely to increase retention, while lower experiences are more likely to increase turnover. Turnover is expensive—it roughly costs a company the equivalent of six to nine months of an employee’s salary to replace them. For a departing employee making $80,000/year, that’s a cost of $40,000 to $60,000 just to replace them.
3. Innovation
Engaged employees are twice as likely to dip into discretionary effort and go beyond their normal responsibilities. Discretionary effort is a key aspect of innovation. Successful companies don’t have a stagnant, unmotivated workforce—they have energized employees who love what they do and love who they work for.
4. A better customer experience
Employees that are engaged and have better experiences with work may be more likely to have positive experiences with customers. If the employer takes care of their workers, the workers will take care of the customer and develop meaningful customer relationships. In fact, companies who provide a good employee EX “benefit from double the customer satisfaction” than companies who don’t.
5. High return on investment (ROI)
Businesses that invest in the employee EX are four times more profitable than those who don’t invest in employee experience. Happy employees can literally make their companies more money. 
Ways to measure the employee EX
With all being said, it’s important to consider how you measure the employee EX in order to determine if your employee EX is a good one. While your employees aren’t numbers, the data points that reflect employee touchpoints, in a tangible way, is achievable.
To measure overall employee experiences, you can utilize eNPS (employee net promoter scores) questionnaires to capture feedback from a quantitative perspective. Similarly, survey tools are another great way to capture additional insights from your employees. However, what tends to be missing from these questionnaires and survey tools is the employee perception of not only the workplace but the best way to enhance the workplace, for employees.
The employee EX and your RE portfolio
At Saltmine, we’re dedicated to meeting the needs of our customers, and identifying ways in which you can easily incorporate employee feedback into your workplace strategy and design. As a part of our most recent product update, we’ve released the Employee Heartbeat tool to capture important feedback regarding your workspaces. This feature allows you to analyze real-time feedback via surveys that are sent to employees via email. With Employee Heartbeat, you can:
- Make data-driven decisions to better align your RE portfolio with employee needs,
- Streamline the means of collecting workplace data and employee feedback,
- And more easily gain insight from your key stakeholders–i.e., your employees.
What the employee EX is all about
When it comes to it, trust, positive environments, meaningful work, supportive management, and growth opportunities are all factors that come into play. And the spaces you have in your RE portfolio–and how you continually hone them to reflect employee needs, preferences, and work styles–can have a large impact on the various touchpoints and overall experience your employees have with your company.
At the foundation of your workplace strategy and design, should be your people and their experience.
Interested in leveling up your workplace strategy and improving the overall experience for your employees? Check out our recent blog post about the Employee Heartbeat tool as well as some other notable Saltmine product updates.
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