Background: A compelling business case for companies, especially retail businesses, to focus on employee experience (EX).

To win in the marketplace, you must first win in the workplace—goes a quote by New York Times best-selling author and keynote speaker Douglas R. Conant that makes a business case for focusing on employees. Today, employees communicate, connect, collaborate, and share knowledge in unprecedented ways, creating entirely new ways of working. Apart from communication, technology plays a key role in making sure that employees are empowered, engaged, and managed the way they should.

While customers are at the heart of everything we do, our employees are our heart beats. Employees can and will only deliver experiences to customers that they experience themselves.

A strategy, no matter how in-depth can never be executed without the employees driving it with passion and grit, which makes it imperative to focus on their welfare at work. However, the process of employee experience is an ongoing one. It is constantly evolving each day, depending on factors that are fundamentally out of our control in this VUCA world. That is why a mindset bent on ‘solving’ a problem or constellation of issues might not be the solution to approach employee experience. It is best approached with a growth / winning mindset.

Just as marketers work to understand the Customer Experience (Mind Maps) at various touch - points across the customer journey, companies are now actively creating Employee Journey maps. These outline the steps employees go through in their life - cycles in order to address the goals, pain points and required actions at each step, leading to the "Moments that matter"/ “Moments of Truth.”

In sum, Employee Experience (EX) and Customer Experience (EX) are two sides of the coin. In today’s era of driving ‘Customer Centricity’, the Employee experience is hugely rooted in the customer experience management including a series of activities such as Work environment, Culture, HR services and Employee engagements / events. The approach needs to be ‘Holistic’.

Also read: Employee Experience and Customer Experience: Two sides of the same coin

Sharing some thoughts on delivering employee experience (EX)

• Elevate: Place them in positions where they can utilize their skills & strengths and nurture them to develop their leadership skills

• Engage: Encourage them to share their ideas, suggestions and feedback

• Empower: Give them autonomy to take decisions

• Recognise: Appreciate their efforts and contributions & provide them with right opportunities

• Develop: Set goals that are realistic but would also expand realistic but would also expand their performance threshold

• Equip: Provide them with relevant training & tools

• Energise: Inspire them to develop new capabilities, broadening their horizon

• Support: Mentor and coach them for holistic development

For us at Raymond it's all about the big picture that ties together all our efforts to attract, engage and develop our employees.

While customers are at the heart of everything we do, our employees are our heart beats. I strongly believe that employees can and will only deliver experiences to customers that they experience themselves.

Also read: Money isn’t the only thing that keeps employees happy

Article by Mohit Dhanjal published in STOrai Magazine. Mohit Dhanjal has over two decades of experience in hospitality, telecom, FMCG & apparel industries. He is credited with crafting a new, agile and asset-light business model for entrepreneurial franchisees through Raymond's new retail format called Mini TRS.

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views, official policy or position of GlobalLinker.