Industry Matters
EMPLOYEE EXPERIENCE
ENHANCES EMPLOYER BRANDING
By: Ravi Panthi, Human Resources Head – Africa, Wipro Limited
The relationship between an employer and an employee is the most
important aspect of the employee experience, which in turn is a major
contributor to employer branding.
A
n employee experience is defined as what people
encounter, observe or feel during the course of their
employee journey at an organisation. In short, employee
experience is everything an employee experiences at work
— their interactions with their boss, their team, work-place
infrastructure and a multitude of other things.
The brand value of an organisation, as well as the
environment within the organisation, will determine how
favourable it is for the employer to experiment with new ways
of working and growing its talent.
Today, jobs are not structured as they were before and
retaining talent is not just about providing them with nine-
to-five jobs, but it’s about navigating and exploring new ways
of working and creating a culture of hunger and appetite for
learning among employees.
Remember that while an employee is a specific individual, the
employer is everything that surrounds this individual — from
the physical facilities of the workplace to the emails that
employees receive during the course of their work. Hence,
every aspect of how an employer interacts with its employees is
extremely important.
It’s also important to keep in mind that the employee
experience is the value proposition that an employer presents
to the outside world. Employees communicate the values of an
organisation beyond the workplace. Therefore, not focusing on
the employee experience means that an organisation may be
seen as a good brand, but a bad employer.
UNDERSTANDING THE EMPLOYEE NEEDS
An organisation that experiences a sizeable staff churn needs to
take note of why their employees are not interested in sticking
around, and why the organisation is losing out on its value
proposition. In the age of social media, people communicate
www.hvacronline.co.za
THE LINK BETWEEN EMPLOYER AND
EMPLOYEE
Team managers
need to constantly
measure the
satisfaction levels of
their team members.
very quickly and effectively and when an employer starts losing
its value proposition, it may struggle to sustain its culture. This
affects the organisation’s ability to attract and retain good
talent. Successful organisations suit their employees’ needs and
aspirations. When talent retention becomes a problem, it can
quickly lead to an organisation developing a bad reputation.
Employers must realise that an employee experience
strategy forms a part of their business strategy and be an
integral element of where they are headed as an organisation.
They need to ask themselves what the bigger picture is and
align everything to their overall business strategy.
It comes down to knowing your employees, their needs
and their culture. Then you have to align your organisation’s
culture with your talent base. So, in order to create a successful
employee experience, you need to know what a certain person
would need in order to come and work for you, if you want to
attract a specific talent.
Continued on page 77
RACA Journal I June 2019
75