Employee Engagement VS Employee Experience?

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Employee Engagement VS Employee Experience?

What is the difference between employee engagement and employee experience?

These 2 terms are often used interchangeably. However, there is a vast difference between employee engagement and employee experience.

Jacob Morgan, author and futurist, defines employee experience as creating an organization where employees WANT to, not NEED to, show up for work. In addition, employee experience has at its core, 3 elements, namely culture, technology, and physical space.

What is the difference between employee engagement and employee experience?

Morgan says it’s the same as the difference between updating a car by painting the outside, and replacing the entire engine. One method makes the car look good, but the other actually improves its performance.

While employee engagement is popular, it is a short-term solution. However, employee experience is a long-term solution that focuses on the core of underlying issues.

Furthermore, many companies invest in employee engagement and measure it with periodic engagement surveys. Even though employee engagement starts with good intentions, it doesn’t necessarily lead to the desired change.

Employee engagement VS employee experience over the employee lifecycle

Employees are likely engaged when they start working at an organization, but over time their engagement naturally starts to dip. When that happens, the company tries to increase its engagement score. This is usually through perks like WFH (Work from Home) days, free food, etc. However, these efforts raise the immediate engagement score, but then over time it drops again, and another perk is introduced.

According to Morgan, the result is a cycle of employee engagement with regular adrenaline shots of new perks. The problem is that these short-term solutions don’t change the core workplace practices.

On the other hand, employee experience looks at the workplace with a long-term view, and it takes the employee lifecycle into account. Employee experience improves core practices around people and involves truly knowing your employees and giving them what they need, want, and care about at each phase of their employee lifecycle. Moreover, it creates an environment where they are empowered and valued.

Employees know the difference between employee engagement and employee experience

Importantly, employees can tell the difference between a temporary perk that’s intended to make them want to work more, and a truly improved employee experience that considers their motivations and desires.

Employee experience (as opposed to employee engagement) considers all aspects of an employee’s time at the organization. It might not be as glitzy as free Pilates classes or bringing your dog to work, but the end results are much more beneficial.

To thrive in the new world of work, business leaders and people teams should not only focus on employee engagement. It’s time to see the difference and concentrate on employee experience.

How do you treat contract resources or temporary staff?

If you are a business leader in an organization that utilizes contract resources or temporary staff, how do you treat these resources? Do you treat them the same as your permanent employees? Besides, how do you ensure that their employee experience of your organization is positive and inspires loyalty and commitment? If this is a challenge for you, connect with CoLAB – we are experts in the temporary employment service industry.

Click HERE to CONNECT with CoLAB

CoLAB Talent contributes to your employee experience

CoLAB Talent is an execution capacity provider. We provide high-performing contract resources that will contribute to your culture, because character and chemistry are 2 of the most important traits we recruit for. In addition, they are highly competent resources that will add value to the technology in your company, as many of our resources specialize in IT projects.

Adding to that, our resources are off-payroll, giving you a flexible, contracted workforce to scale with your needs. Moreover, CoLAB lightens your recruitment burden, as we take the pile of CVs off your desk, onto ours. Furthermore, we pride ourselves in accurate matching, therefore reducing mis-hires, and adding to your ability to pursue temp-to-perm journeys.

At CoLAB, our own employee experience is of utmost importance. We strive to make every stage of the employee lifecycle at CoLAB an unforgettable experience. Along with this, our culture is steered by our core values, being

Satisfied customers – Our customers feel heard, understood and served with excellence
People – Authentic care for all relationships
Ownership – We take accountability for the result, not just the activity
Transparency – Open motives [vulnerability] builds trusted relationships

Are you a business leader

In need of high performing resources, right now, but you can’t add them to your payroll;
Struggling to develop high potential resources in your organisation; or
In need of a flexible workforce, to scale as your demand increases?

Stop looking. Talk to us.

We’ll enable you to scale your execution capacity with high-performing contract resources, so that you can focus on driving strategic results and growing your business, without employing permanent resources.

Undoubtedly, this is the future of work.

Book a free 20-min call with Barend, to explore solutions for your needs, and to kickstart your journey towards the successful future of your business.

Book the call HERE.