Treating employees as Customers to Enhance Productivity

This topic is all about the importance of providing better experiences for our employees at the workplace. Gone are those days when employees are considered as another set of machines for the owners or management team to increase their revenue and profitability. Yes, still there are few companies as exceptions. Let’s park them aside for now. In our daily life, we wear multiple hats of being a customer/consumers/vendors for multiple stakeholders around. What do we expect from this relationship? Nothing, but improved customer experience. We all demand high-quality service with minimum turn-around time and optimum cost. Treating employees as Customers is the most followed strategy by human resource managers in every corporate.

Why do we need to have improved customer experience as the key performance measure for the success of any organisation? It is to offer an improved customer experience that will help us retain our customers, reduce churn rates, and attract new customers. Almost 95% of the organisations have defined KPIs for customer retention that attracts new customers. They conduct feedback surveys for a fixed period. They conduct annual campaigns and provide discounted rates to attract new and retain existing customers. There are multiple strategies adopted by organisations to attract customers. However, I strongly feel these figures and strategies are merely numbers and words in the dashboard of the management scorecard if not implemented in the right manner.

Who implements the strategy and who are the drivers of these initiatives? Definitely our people/our employees. Many organizations call themselves an employee-friendly organisation, they renamed their HR team the People and Culture team, just to make their employees feel that the HR department stands for PEOPLE. But is that the reality? I failed to understand organisations that force their employees to attend office during the COVID’19 pandemic, claiming themselves as Employee Friendly organisations. Treating employees as customers is the first step to empathising with your workforce.

Are we doing everything right for the PEOPLE?

Influential Factors of Employee Experience

The 3 components that determine a positive employee experience is Culture, Technological Environment, and Physical Environment.
An amalgamation of these 3 components strikes the best employee experience. Culture represents the organisation’s values, mission & vision that everyone works towards. The technological environment is the communication amongst the teams through various advance online portals, to keep everyone on the same page as you. The physical environment is the space used by the employees to collaborate, it can be a conference room used for brainstorming, meetings, etc.

Why is it Important to have Higher Employee Experience?

It is important to understand who takes care of your customers. Whom do your customers interact with and take support services daily from? Whom would you expect to have a better rapport with your customers? If the answer is your employees, then they have all the right to be treated the same way as you treat your customers. If your employees are not motivated enough to work in your organisation. Then it is time for the management to reconsider the level of customer experience your staff members are giving to your customers. Since, more engaged employees, mean more revenue. An improved employee experience will help you retain your employees and attract more talents from the job market.

The popularity of websites including LinkedIn, Facebook, and Glassdoor makes it much easier for prospective employees to assess the daily Employee Experience at a company they’re considering. By considering the notions mentioned above, one need not rely on the brand campaigns, nor on skillful recruits to attract the best talent in the pool towards the organization. So if you dream to be an industry leader; acquire the best talent and have the ability to retain them. Thus, Employee Experience needs to be a top priority.

Read More on: Tips for Working from Home Effectively: Healthy Organization

How do we give Higher Employee Experience?

The Role of the Management

The management and HR team, play an important role in defining higher employee experience. If you are looking to understand how to improve the employee experience. Let me tell you, the employee experience initiative starts right from the time a prospective candidate walks into your organisation. Does it sound unrealistic or is it too much to ask for? Hold on, many organisations in recent years have adopted initiatives to reduce candidates waiting time before interviews. In fact, many recruiters are clearly instructed not to let any candidate wait for more than 30-45 mins. Why so? It is to ‘Respect Everyone’s Time’.

Important for the Talent team to understand the following pointers.

• Hiring is no more a one-way activity. It is a WIN-WIN situation. Organisations need the right candidates and the right candidates demand positive experiences during the interview and treating employees as customers is key to giving a great first impression.
• Candidates trust your words and join the organization
• Be transparent, and clear while you communicate with respect to the Job role, Compensation, and Benefits, Organisational Culture, etc.
• Recruiters are brand ambassadors of the organization. They are the face of the organisation in front of candidates. Most candidates recollect their recruitment experience more than any instances from their tenure in that organisation.

The Role of The Human Resource Team

Employee Joining Induction helps the new recruit get better clarity about the organisation. A proper induction plan followed by a smooth handover to the reporting manager is very important to give an initial impression for a new employee. Similarly, every stage of an employee’s life cycle journey, demands a positive experience. Right from the recruitment stage to set the right expectations from the start, clarity in career progression, team bonding, employee engagement initiatives, employee exit procedures, and beyond as an Alumni.

Many of us feel, that once an employee leaves the organisation, he is no more important to us. If you feel so, it’s time to correct it. Wonder why? They are again a community who are your brand ambassadors. They are the ones who are going to share experiences about the organisation to the external world. They are more likely to share their experiences without worrying about any future consequences. If you as organisation care too much about your brand, customer, talent etc. Think twice before you eliminate someone for unethical reasons.

The Inspirit Way

Treating employees as Customers can boost your precious assets- ‘Brand.’ It is the organisation’s responsibility to ensure they are happy with the job, engaged through various employee engagement initiatives, and healthy by implementing wellness modules, and other strategies that indirectly leverage customer experience. When you equip your workforce, treat them with care, listen to them, and empathize with their needs, they become loyal warriors who fight for the organisation’s shared goals until the end.

Summing up with the wise words of Sir Richard Branson, “Employees come first. If you care of your employees, they will care of the clients.”