In an increasingly competitive marketplace, modern businesses like Uber, Apple and Amazon have been gathering customer feedback at every touchpoint in an effort to improve the customer experience. With this invaluable information, they are able to continuously improve their products and businesses, giving themselves a competitive edge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
But why don’t companies apply an equally intense focus on their biggest investment \u2013 their employees? Why don\u2019t companies constantly and actively seek feedback with a goal of improving the employee experience<\/a>? When it comes to efforts towards improving life on the job, there\u2019s a huge disparity compared to the attention given to customers. This disparity is a major reason today\u2019s workforce \u2013 Millennials<\/a>, primarily \u2013 are shifting so often from workplace to workplace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The State of Staying<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Younger employees simply are not working with a company as long as previous generations. According to LinkedIn, in the 20-year period from 1990 to 2010, the number of companies people worked for in the five years after graduation has nearly doubled. A recent survey conducted by Harris Poll shows that by the age of 35, 25% of workers have held five jobs or more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n To make matters worse, the costs associated with talent acquisition continue to rise. Once purely an HR function, talent acquisition now involves multiple teams across the organization, costing more in hours and dollars. In addition, new technologies offer an ever-growing array of new HR tools and solutions, including specialized software, social media<\/a> and video.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It follows, then, that employee retention is more important than ever, and providing a better overall experience for our employees is a primary factor. Nearly 80% of executives surveyed in Deloitte\u2019s 2017 Global Human Capital Trends<\/a> report rated employee experience as very important or important, but only 22% said their companies were excellent at building a differentiated experience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And yet, only 22% of today\u2019s companies take the time to survey employees quarterly or more often, 79% survey employees annually or less often, and 14% never survey employees at all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So, how to go about improving the employee experience \u2013 and what does that really mean?<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Employee Experience<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The employee experience is the sum of all the workplace, HR and management practices that impact people on the job. According to the Deloitte report, despite the low numbers above, improving the employee experience has become a major trend, prioritizing organizational culture, engagement and employee brand positioning. The four specific areas examined in their report are:<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n While respondents said some of these areas have gotten better in the last year, others are flat or have gotten worse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n