Don’t forget the E in the EX
From outlier to trend
The Employee Experience is as old as work is. The only difference is that over the last decade, organizations understood the value of giving it a formal space in their strategy. In 2017, Jacob Morgan published his book The Employee Experience Advantage, showcasing a number of companies that already had made EX a central part of their strategy.
From there until today, EX has taken more and more space, so naturally, there is an EX variance in results. And as it often happens, many organisations took shortcuts to implement fancy and marketable initiatives or perks while others blindly copied practices from others. The good side is that at least they tried. The challenge is that the likelihood of unsatisfactory results is high.
Starting with the E in the EX
Throughout all my conversations, the most challenging has always been the Employee part. An organization's understanding of what an Employee is, or in other words, our view of Humans, is what drives the experience.
Are employees to be trusted?
How do we deal with mistakes?
What degree of choice do we give employees in shaping their journey?
How easy is it to voice concerns and disagree with leaders?
Do we consider employees valuable or just as another cog in the wheel?
How much decision-making freedom do employees really have?
What place do we offer well-being in our overall (people) strategy? (and what does well-being mean to us?)
Some of those questions might be shocking, but their power resides in their apparent simplicity. Intuitively people know "the right answer." Yes, we should trust, push down decision-making, value our people, and employees should feel at ease to challenge leaders.
Yet I encourage you to do a simple Trust test (read more here). Are our practices, guidelines, and leadership behaviors fostering or hindering trust? Are our policies giving freedom to act, or are there countless control mechanisms on the way to a decision?
When looking at the EX matter, those questions are (naturally) tackled, which is why EX is challenging because it will profoundly impact ways of working.
Old ways vs New ways
How we understand and live the E of EX will be critical in shaping people practices, leadership expectations, and overall culture. Many organizations struggle to create a great employee experience as their understanding of human nature and needs isn't at the right level.
Unless leaders and HR take it seriously, EX initiatives are doomed to be a set of fancy and unstainable initiatives, so-called crowd pleasers. And consequently, leaders and HR will only see the positive outcomes for the efforts and investments made by moving away from the quick fix.
The good news is that despite those challenges, there are plenty of places to start from. The best way to reshape your organisation’s understanding of the E in the EX is to start, because change is rooted in action. And by doing something about it, you get the opportunity to create a conversation around the E. Stop starting. Start finishing.
Create a movement
For EX to be successful, movements are required, driven by employees, leaders, and HR. But each in their capacity. The above ideas are just some of the things you can consider.
What will increase chance of success is when you become a movement creator.
"Changing company culture requires a movement not a mandate"
(Bryan Walker, Sarah A. Soule, HBR, 2017)
And for a movement to be created and grown, organizations must reduce the need for control and abandon the idea of centralized management of EX. Leaders and HR become facilitators and enablers of the Employee Experience. That is the shift to operate.
By allowing multiple movements to emerge, the chances of success rise dramatically. There is a moment when you need to bring things together and align. However, resist the temptation to do that too early.
And all this does one thing: it puts the E of the EX at the centre.
