Many of your competitors are attempting to improve the employee experience for all their employees. This puts them on the slow path to excellence.
While inclusion is paramount in organizational success, it is a critical first step to determine which of two types of employees you want to improve the experience for.
If you desire an employee who wants a job, who will say nice things and improve your employee engagement scores, then your standard search on ChatGPT will provide you with the details you need to improve their experience. Here’s a small sample:
- Foster open communication
- Provide development opportunities
- Create work-life balance
- Offer technological resources
Worth noting, however, is that many companies deliver on these and other criteria for their employees – and there is still a group of their workforce that is miserable.
Why? Because the employees in that group don’t just want a job.
The second type of employee wants to succeed. Of course, all workers say they want to be successful. When this smaller group is examined, however, this is notable: While they like to have elements on the list above, what they must experience includes the dynamics on this list:
- They want to be part of an organization they believe can win.
- They insist on quality leadership that is effective at establishing a compelling vision.
- They expect their leaders to work collaboratively together in aligning the full force of the organization to the achievement of clear strategies.
- And these employees want to know their contributions are valuable and appreciated.
In the hundreds of programs I’ve been honored to facilitate, this is striking: Often, while facing a deficiency in work-life balance, inadequate development opportunities or a shortage of resources, professionals have a transformative employee experience when they are a part of the dynamics listed immediately above.
This is not to suggest that those elements on the first list aren’t important. They are. What is being emphasized is this: Too many organizations tolerate the absence of the elements on the second list, while pretending they can improve the experience of the employees they covet by focusing on the first criteria.
It’s a game that bores and discourages the talented, high-character employees you covet.
To increase the speed of organizational achievement, is it time to get real about the experience your best employees desire?
