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Managing employee experience

Employee experience is broadly a subset of organization culture but needs consistent attention by the leaders in specific

One of the greatest challenges faced by organizations today is the ability to retain talent and get them to perform to the best of their abilities without continuous supervision and monitoring. It is rightly said that people join companies yet leave managers due to reasons of incompatibility. Thus, the greatest area that organizations need to emphasize is employee engagement and employee experience in the organization. This is broadly a subset of organization culture but needs consistent attention by the leaders in specific. Various aspects of employee experience include norms at work, the culture of teamwork, ethics, camaraderie, growth opportunities at work, and so on. In my opinion, all the above is a continuous process and has to be internalized as a way of work.

It is here that the responsibility of the top management and leadership is paramount. It Is rightly said that culture building starts at the top and slowly seeps down to every level of the hierarchy downwards. Leaders obviously have to create trust and also be the role model that people look up to. Most successful and respected leaders are those who are seen following the rules and policies that have been curated and created by them. In the absence of this approach, leaders become guilty of corporate hypocrisy where they believe that they are beyond the policies they create and thus set a wrong example down the line.

What leaders can do for their employees

Top leadership in an organization would be those five percent who influence the working and performance of the remaining 95 percent. In many organizations, these constitute the highest levels in the corporate hierarchy. Managers tend to get to such

positions based on their seniority, length of service, and proven track record of performance.

A good leader should be able to involve all the members of his team and ensure that everybody's strengths are harnessed. He should also be conscious of the weaknesses of the members of his team and allow them to overcome them through learning and development. Further, they should be seen as a person who is unbiased i.e firm yet fair. Very often leaders are being accused of taking sides based on their own personal preferences or favoritism and this often ruins the morale of the team. The leader should be always focusing on what is right and not who is right. Yet another important thing the leader must inculcate is a culture where the focus is on the WE and not the I. The realization that everybody in the team is important but nobody is indispensable must be internalized by all members of the team. This would lead to a healthy scenario to support each other rather than to pull each other down. Freedom of expression and openness and frank dialogue within the team must be encouraged. The leader must create a culture where one can discuss both strengths and weaknesses, successes and failures the rights and wrongs in an open transparent manner so that all learnings are available to all members of the group and this produces a healthy environment where feedback is given and received in a positive manner.

How they can enhance employee experience

In the current scenario with changing times and changing approaches to managing people, a good leader can produce more lead-

It is rightly said that people join companies yet leave managers due to reasons of incompatibility. Thus, the greatest area that organizations need to emphasize is the employee experience which is broadly a subset of organization culture

ers. However, this is easier said than done because the entire challenge of leadership is how to inspire people to do their best first as a member of the group. A good leader is a role model and can walk the talk. In specific terms, he should know the way, go the way and show the way for others to follow. An effective team would be one where hierarchies are determined by competence, ability to execute and deliver a certain project rather than by the seniority or the number of years of experience the members have. This lays the foundation of situational leadership where you get an opportunity to lead the team daily based on your competence and skills and not on any other factor. A great leader is also one who is extremely empathetic to his employees.

How management can empathize and encourage their workforce? A good starting point for any successful leader would be to ask instead of telling. Very often some of the best ideas in the team are lost because the leader tells the team what he would like them to do instead of asking them.

I strongly believe that the hallmark of a great leader is the ability to display compassion. It is very easy to pass judgment on people but always remembers that everyone is fighting their own battles and hence the display of compassion by the leader would bring in the right spirit of camaraderie & mutual understanding. In his effort towards supporting each other, every member of the team should live by the belief that becomes successful by helping others become more successful.

aBoUt the aUthor

PRof. R S S MAni is the Vice President - Institutional Development, ITM Group of Institutions.