Better Employee Experience = Happier CFOs

How improving employee experience boosts customer experience and business performance. Plus, it makes it more fun to work at your company.

I’ve long been a promoter of focusing on employee experience for any brand that aspires to customer experience leadership. Today, that focus is more important than ever as changes in technology, innovation, customer and employee expectations, and competitive forces are rapidly accelerating. And these changes aren’t a sometime thing, they’re now a constant thing. 
Add in AI and its impact on the future of work, and things get even more interesting.  A study by OpenAI found that approximately 80% of the U.S. workforce could have at least 10% of their work tasks affected by the introduction of AI, with around 19% of workers seeing at least 50% of their tasks impacted. And we’re still early days. 
Navigating changes like these requires an increasingly adaptive, digitally adept workforce in virtually every role and industry.  So, how do you get and keep those employees that are best fit for your organization? There’s a reason many of our clients use negative attrition (losing employees you wish you had kept) as a key employee experience metric. After all, the cost of turnover is estimated at about half of annual salary for entry-level positions, rising to 200 percent for more senior roles. Ouch! 

Employee experience drives top- and bottom-line enterprise value as well

Companies with highly engaged employees outperform their competitors by 147 percent in earnings per share. And companies investing in EX are four times more profitable and have than those that don't.  Maybe that has something to do with the fact that study after study links better employee experience to greater customer satisfaction and loyalty. 
There’s a reason I use the phrase ‘Happy employees lead to happy customers.’ Because when employees feel valued, supported, and engaged, they’re more likely to provide excellent service to customers. This is one of the many reasons many companies realize that their greatest asset isn't just their product or service—it's their people.

Customer and employee experience are two sides of the same business value coin.

Employee experience is all about what an employee goes through at work—the interactions employees have with you, how they feel about your organization, how loyal they are to you, and how much they’re invested in your success.  It includes everything from the physical workspace and company culture to the technology and systems they use, the support they have, and the relationships they build. Just as customer experience focuses on making customers happy and loyal, employee experience aims to create a positive and engaging environment for employees. 

Experience leaders excel at both customer and employee experience. This interconnection—and the value it drives—is a key reason experience-led companies focus on both CX and EX. They have among the best and happiest employees in the world, and recognize that more engaged employees are happier, stay longer, and deliver superior performance. 
Just as loyal customers will stay longer and buy more from you, loyal employees will stay longer and work harder for you. The fact is, employee experience may matter more to customer experience and value than you think.

How do employee experience leaders benefit? Let us count 8 of the many ways…

As organizations work to compete and grow, they are increasingly working to create a workplace where employees feel valued, engaged, and motivated. These leaders play a crucial role in transforming the workplace, making it a dynamic and supportive environment that not only attracts top talent but also retains and nurtures it. 

Here's a look at how focusing on employee experience can you get lots of workforce — in addition to other business and financially related — benefits, including:

1. Higher Employee Engagement and Retention: Engaged employees are more likely to stay with the company, reducing turnover and hiring costs by keeping valuable talent. They’re also more motivated to excel, boosting productivity and innovation.
2. More Adaptive Capabilities and Behaviors: By creating a supportive and engaging work environment, employees feel more valued and supported making them more likely to embrace change, innovate, and respond effectively to evolving market conditions.
3. A More Customer-Centric Culture: When employees are happy and engaged, they’re more motivated, more likely to take ownership of their roles, deliver exceptional customer service, and align their actions with the company's customer-focused goals.
4. Improved Organizational Performance: Companies that prioritize EX often see better overall business performance. Engaged employees are more productive, creative, and aligned with the company’s goals and values.
5. Faster Ramp to Productivity: Onboarding new employees is fraught for many organizations. Better employee experiences boost time-to-value (i.e. productivity), helping set new employees are set up for success to deliver value to the organization.
6. Attraction of Top Talent: When a company is known for valuing its employees, offering development opportunities, and maintaining a positive culture, it becomes a magnet for top talent, and enjoys a more competitive edge in the job market.
7. Enhanced Collaboration and Teamwork: Positive employee experience fosters a culture of trust and collaboration. Employees work more effectively as a team, share knowledge, and support each other to achieve common goals, leading to better outcomes and innovation.
8. Stronger Employer Brand: A company known for excellent employee experience builds a strong employer brand, attracting top talent while also boosting the company’s overall reputation and image among customers and investors.

Companies that prioritize their workforce and the experiences they have understand that long-term success is enabled by a dedicated and loyal workforce. After all, there’s a reason that customer experience leaders are employee experience leaders, and vice versa. These companies embrace the changing role of HR as a growth driver that can contribute to the bottom line as much as marketing, or sales.  

In part, this is because the people leaders and HR teams in these organizations are really good at making the financial case for better employee experience, with ROI models that make the CFO and other executive leaders happy…by clearly showing the inseparable links between employee experiences and your organization's financial and strategic outcomes.