It’s time to start talking about the Ex-factor

I’LL apologise upfront if this sounds a little Saturday night TV, however, as business leaders we should be focused on giving all of our colleagues the Ex-factor. The “EX” being how we create, embed, and then constantly offer everyone within our company a brilliant employee experience.

Most of us are familiar with the term CX, and how by defining and managing our customer experience we can create long-term, loyal and valued client relationships. So should we not be applying the same thought, effort, and principles into how we engage, nurture, and retain our people?

EX isn’t about any one aspect of employment, it’s about the journey people take with us from start to finish – and even beyond, as we would all love to think that everyone who moved on would look back positively about the time we worked together.

It is widely known the days when we could satisfy our employees with money alone are long gone. Employees want meaning in their work; a supportive, collaborative environment; and an employer that can adapt to their lifestyle.

Much of that responsibility sits in the manager-employee relationship, which is arguably the most important relationship at every stage of the employee’s lifecycle. It also has the most significant impact on employee experience, both good and bad.

Managers can affect employees’ work experience in how they empower them, help them develop their strengths, and engage with them on both a professional and personal level. As many of us move towards a hybrid working world, that’s about to become all the more challenging.

One of the most important factors here is communication, communication, communication. I say it three times because there are so many ways we need to do it. Continuous employee feedback is key; moving from annual reviews to more regular and often less formal check-ins opens up two-way dialogue that creates an environment where everyone feels they have a voice, and their input matters.

It’s also important we put ourselves in our employee’s shoes, making sure we don’t lose sense of what is really important to our people. We can share business information across multiple channels: group meetings, one-to-one, email, across social and mobile, and give people access to up-to-date, easy-to-find information over the intranet.

Re-image your CX, replacing the C with an E. Include everything from attracting and onboarding, your style and how you interact, how you review and ensure satisfaction, how you add value to remain important and how hard you will work to make sure you retain them and develop onto bigger and better things.

Could EX be the new way of looking at our people strategy? It’s a big fat yes from me.