Elevating the workplace experience

Today’s talent challenge

Organizations have long recognized that focusing on the customer experience is vital to the success of the company. While the emphasis on improving the employee experience has gained traction in recent years, it still lags behind. With the US unemployment rate dropping to 3.6 percent in May 2019, its lowest since December 1969,1 attracting and retaining talent is becoming increasingly difficult—and more important—in a tight labor market. Unsatisfied top performers can cause major disruption and challenges within organizations.

In today’s competitive talent landscape, organizations need to execute a top-grade workplace experience. Deloitte’s approach to workplace experience helps clients recognize that it should be an organization-wide priority that can be cohesively and holistically designed by looking through four experiential lenses: personal, organizational, physical, and digital.

First up, we’ll discuss the digital organization as cornerstone of improving employee experience. 

The personal lens: Delivering a meaningful work experience

Deloitte defines the personal workplace experience as the human connections and mechanisms that create a high level of purpose and meaning between workers and the organization. At the core of any human experience is the desire to belong and feel connected with others and to contribute to something of significance and value.

While this may sound like a tall, existential order, there are tangible ways organizations can design a powerful personal experience. They essentially boil down to two primary components: personal connections, and purpose and meaning.

In the second installment of our series on improving employee experience, we dive more into these two components.

The physical lens: The importance of the workplace itself

A critical, but often-times overlooked aspect of the workplace experience is the physical space in which work is done. Research has shown that a positive workplace environment can reduce chronic stress and ensuing physiological consequences, such as higher levels of cortisol and increased risk of heart disease. The workplace can serve as a medium through which an organization can uniquely foster (and change) its culture.

The importance of the physical workplace in elevating the workplace experience cannot be understated. How, then, can an organization maximize the workplace experience for employees? Find out in the third installment of our series on improving the employee experience.