The Roles of an Employee Experience Manager

Our experiences mold our perception of anything we do. Be it professionally or personally, we learn from those experiences and improve ourselves. The same goes for the employees as well. Their day-to-day life in a workplace will reflect on what they think about their organization.

From the time they join till the day they leave the company, employee experience becomes an ongoing process. And it is crucial that every organization shifts its focus in providing the best possible experience for their employees. An employee experience manager has an important role in this regard.

What is Employee Experience?

Employee experience consists of everything that goes on in an employee's lifecycle, from the day they apply for the job and join until their last working day. It includes all that they learn, feel, and go through at work.

It is often confused with employee engagement, but they are quite distinct in nature. Their relation can be summarized as making employee experience better improves employee engagement.

Thus, while employee engagement is still the main focus, one should not undermine the benefits of a stellar experience. They both complement each other. Without a robust engagement system, the everyday experience of an employee might become monotonous. Thus, leading to a drop in productivity and increased burnout levels.

On the other hand, when employees are subjected to good experience within the organization it boosts their morale and motivates them to become the best in their job.

Employee experience is so vital nowadays that organizations have designated specific roles to oversee it. This is where an employee experience manager comes into the picture. But are the leaders clear about the roles that today’s managers have to undertake to ensure that people remain engaged?

This article aims to discuss the different roles and responsibilities that these managers need to perform to improve the employees’ overall performances.

What Does an Employee Experience Manager Do?

An employee experience manager is the one who manages, tracks, and runs the process required to provide a great employee experience. Their main job includes conducting employee surveys, peer-to-peer conversations, KPI’s, social rewards, and more to keep check of the overall experience.

These managers have to understand the employees’ perspectives, stay connected with them, and make them feel like a part of the company’s success.

The job of employee experience managers revolves around all the aspects of the employee life cycle. Building strategies to improve the employee experience and work culture and understand the needs of your employees is essential here.

The Roles of An Employee Experience Manager

1. Focusing on the Employee Life-Cycle

An employee life-cycle is a process that has different stages which an employee has to go through during their time in an organization. The stages include-

• Attracting a talent

• Recruitment

• Orientation

• Development

• Retention

As an employee experience manager, you must have a proper understanding of the process. It becomes crucial to provide the best work environment for the employees when they go through these stages. During the initial days, the experience they have will prove to be pivotal as it will shape their perception of the company.

Offer as many details as possible about the company and set clear expectations for their roles and responsibilities. Everyone remembers their “first” moments within the company, and improving those “first” moments will reflect an employee’s overall experience. This way, you can restructure the strategies and elevate the employee experience for future employees.

Read more: Employee Life-Cycle and the Stages Involved

2. Fostering a Good Employer-Employee Relationship

Imagine a situation where the employees and the managers lack behind in having a good relationship. How will it hold out? It will result in a toxic relationship and a work environment where neither the manager nor the employee can thrive.

As a leader, you will need a moderator to diffuse such situations. And to do that, employee experience managers will help both parties sort out the issues building between them.

These managers will focus on resolving the conflict and get to the root of the problem. They will have one-on-one conversations with the parties involved and try to bring them into a common understanding.

This is important because when the managers resolve any misunderstandings, it helps them to respect each other and foster healthy relationships within the organization.

Further, an EX manager should also leverage all special occasions like birthdays, work anniversaries, employee appreciation day, etc. to strengthen workplace relationships even more.

3. Empowering Employees

Empowering your employees is giving them the freedom to work and making them accountable for their job. Their decisions and actions will directly reflect the bottom line of the company. It is a given fact that for greater organizational success, your employees need to be successful.

One of the most important things that an employee experience manager needs to focus on is empowering employees. Employees must have the opportunity to develop themselves, learn, and acquire new skills to succeed personally and professionally.

To further facilitate empowerment in the workplace, as a manager, you need to build trust and mutual respect, have a robust communication system, be clear about the organizational goals, and make the resources available. Create a culture where employees are appreciated to have that sense of belonging in the workplace.

4. Heeding on a Feedback System

4 out of 10 employees are actively disengaged when they do not receive any feedback from their managers. And it does not only stop there; 65% of employees want a robust feedback system that can help them improve in the long term. These numbers are crucial and an indicator that an effective feedback culture is pivotal in employee engagement.

When there is a lack of feedback in a workplace, employees tend to lose their motivation. Thus, decreasing the job satisfaction levels and hindering the overall employee experience.

As an employee experience manager, it becomes crucial that you facilitate a feedback culture so that employees can understand their strengths and weaknesses. A robust feedback system will help the employees and the managers get a clear picture of the changing dynamics.

Furthermore, it will provide an excellent opportunity to improve the overall skills and adapt to the ever-growing corporate world. As a manager, you need to guide them and support them throughout their journey while focusing on their growth, development, and overall experience in the organization.

5. Streamlining Job Descriptions

Consider a workplace where the employees’ goals and expectations are not aligned with the organization’s long-term vision. It will create a lot of confusion and lead to a work environment where everything might seem chaotic.

With unclear job descriptions, there are higher chances that the employees might feel out of place in the organization, which can compel them to quit the company. This can lead to an unpleasant experience for the employees and the employers as well.

This is where employee experience managers’ expertise comes into play. They have a crucial role in bridging the gap between the senior management and employees and further enhancing communication.

It does not only end there. They have the responsibility to place an employee in the correct position according to their skills. They need to strategize plans to enhance the employees’ overall performance and experience while continuously improving the organization’s bottom line.

These managers basically have to facilitate a smooth-running process catering to the daily needs of the workplace. It is necessary so that everyone has a clear understanding of the organizational goals and visions in the long term for better efficiency.

End-Note!

Acknowledging the role of an employee experience manager is vital so that they can fulfill their job without any hassle. They must be clear about their duties and create an environment that will contribute to employees’ efficiency.

When employees feel satisfied with their work, they can accomplish the organizational goals and improve the company’s bottom line. Just keep in mind that the process of providing a good experience is a long-term process. Adapt with modernization and be flexible so that you never run out of ideas to elevate the employee experience.

FAQs

What are the four pillars of employee experience?

The four pillars are as follows:

• Conversations
• Rewards
• Community
• Function

What are the primary missions of an employee experience manager?

The primary missions of an employee experience manager include:

• Creating a positive and productive work environment
• Helping employees figure out their purpose at work

What are the qualities to look for while hiring employee experience managers?

The following are the qualities to look out for:

• Strong planning and time management skills
• Excellent communication skills
• Warm and hospitable nature
• Collaborative spirit
• Innovative and detail-oriented
• Tech-savvy

Mrinmoy Rabha is a content writer and digital marketer at Vantage Circle. He is an avid follower of football and passionate about singing. For any related queries, contact editor@vantagecircle.com