Canadian HR Reporter

CANADIAN HR REPORTER MARCH 2019 9 JOINT VENTURE BY: Workers increasingly looking for great employee experience Flextime, work at home are table stakes and employers need other diff erentiators Everyone knows what a good cus- tomer experience feels like — you may not be able to defi ne it, but it's the reason you keep going back to your favourite coff ee shop, gro- cery store or online retailer. For employers, the same con- cepts can be applied to build an incredible employee experience. Far beyond a human resources buzzword, it has the power to transform organizations by at- tracting, retaining and engaging the best workforce. 3 foundational pillars But fi rst up, what does it entail? Employee experience typically has three foundational pillars — a recent Forbes article defined them as culture; the technologi- cal environment; and the physical environment. Culture: is is old hat for most professionals. It includes words such as "feel" and "vibe." It also encompasses leadership styles, values and even traditional com- pensation and benefi ts. But it goes beyond that, to fl exibility, working remotely and even more niche and outside- the-box perks that can be true diff erentiators. Technological environment: ese are the tools that workers need to do their jobs properly. ink laptops, mobile devices and the software available. It's why one of the key questions in any em- ployee engagement survey is "Do you have the tools necessary to do your job?" Physical environment: If your offi ce is drab, it can take a hidden toll. e desks, chairs — even the art on the wall and the meals be- ing served in the cafeteria — can all impact the overall employee experience. As an employee, it's hard to feel upbeat and perform at your peak when you're tripping over fraying carpet or staring at coff ee stains on the rug. Employee experience is, quite simply, a way of looking at what your workers see and feel every single time they walk in the doors. And, conveniently, those are three pillars that employers and HR have a great deal of control over. Attracting top talent Organizations that don't start to think about the experience from a diff erent perspective run a real risk of disappointing and under- servicing current staff and will struggle to attract top talent. Many firms are in the early stages of defi ning and building employee experience programs. Last fall, at the Employee Experi- ence Summit Canada in Toronto, the vice-president of people and culture at Good Life Fitness, put it thusly: "We have to have an amaz- ing employee experience. I don't know what it's going to look like, but it has to be outstanding be- cause we're going to be fi ghting like crazy to keep our people." Tom De Iulis, the senior vice- president of product and strategy at Venngo, said looking at em- ployee experience holistically is a must. "If you are not looking at how an employee interacts with your company and how you provide things to them, you are both miss- ing an opportunity and taking a risk," he said. "Talent starts joining rival companies when they do not feel aligned or when they feel their or- ganization is not providing them what they expect." Workers aren't being shy in making demands of employers, either. Gone are the days when ci- gar-chomping bosses could wave off perk-starved employees with a dismissive "the benefi t is that you a job" comment. Flex time, remote work Employees are much smarter now. In-demand talent is well aware they are seated fi rmly in the driver's seat. Off erings like fl ex time and the ability to work remotely, once considered rare perks, are now a given in many industries. Employers looking to down- size their real estate footprint are also asking employees to work re- motely more often. Stats prove this isn't just a blip. In 2017, a global survey of 20,000 workers conducted by Regus found more than one-half (54 per cent) work remotely at least 2.5 days per week, and 36 per cent work exclusively from home. Among Canadian respondents, 47 per cent work outside the offi ce at least half the time. While it's a diff erent data set, those figures are much higher than Statistics Canada figures from 2008, when 11.2 per cent of employees worked at home. e median hours worked at home was eight — meaning that the one in 10 workers who didn't commute typically only stayed home one day a week. By any measure, there has been a signifi - cant increase. And there are benefi ts to em- ployers when it comes to off ering remote work, such as improved morale (62 per cent), reduced absenteeism (59 per cent), opera- tional cost savings (55 per cent), reduced employee turnover (50 per cent) and lower health insur- ance costs (28 per cent), according to a 2018 survey by Censuswide and Indeed of more than 500 em- ployees and more than 500 em- ployers in Canada. But if perks like that are now ta- ble stakes, how can employers dif- ferentiate themselves? One option is to think outside the 9-to-5 and extend employee experience be- yond the workplace. Traditional benefi t packages that are typically medically and health-related are givens. To catch the attention of dis- cerning workers, employers need to play a part in, and improve, employees' lives outside work through unique benefi t programs, said De Iulis. " ere's always a race for hu- man capital," he said. "Compa- nies that embrace innovative ap- proaches to compensation, offi ce spaces and unique benefit will likely be in a far better position to attract choice candidates. "If you are not looking at how employees interact with your company, and how you provide things to them, you are both missing an opportunity and taking a risk." work-life balance Credit: Zivica Kerkez/Mar1Art1 (Shutterstock) improved morale (62%) reduced absenteeism (59%) operational cost savings (55%) reduced employee turnover (50%) lower health insurance costs (28%) Canadian employers off ering employees the option to work remotely. Employees who would consider taking a paycut to have the option to work remotely. 62 % 36 % Employer benefits of remote work Source: Censuswide/Indeed Longest travel times Source: 2016 Census, Statistics Canada Toronto (34 minutes) Oshawa, Ont. (33.5 minutes) Barrie, Ont. (30.7 minutes) proaches to compensation, offi ce spaces and unique benefit will likely be in a far better position to Longest Average time spent by commuters travelling to work 26.2 minutes

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