Employee experience

Why focus on the employee experience?

Employee experience is more than enhancing employee benefits to attract and retain talent. These aspects are just the tip of the iceberg. EX includes every work interaction or touchpoint outside of an employee’s core job, such as organisational culture, management practices, engaging with digital technology, or using office facilities. A good EX will be different for each organisation, but all leaders should be considering what it means for their workforce.

Dedicated EX functions are now springing up to enable a more holistic approach, joining the dots across internal teams, in order to improve experiences at work and realise real commercial returns.

As more organisations adopt and embed hybrid working, leaders need to define new working models and methods. At the same time, they need to provide both physical and virtual space for their people to meet, collaborate and learn. By placing their employees’ experience at the heart of their transformation, organisations can develop the right hybrid working model, reinforce their working culture and effectively serve their customers and clients.

What are the benefits of improving the employee experience?

Businesses that invest in the employee experience are realising strong gains in employee satisfaction, productivity and operational efficiency. If employees work in a frictionless environment – free from distraction – they get more done. 

A great EX also enables better employee retention. Providing the right working environment makes people feel happy, fulfilled, and empowered to undertake their work to the best of their ability. 

But the employee experience is not just a nice-to-have for organisations. It’s ultimately good for business, leading directly to growth and competitive advantage. When done well, you can build a concrete business case for improving EX and achieve a significant return on investment. 

Berkeley’s approach to transforming the employee experience

Berkeley will get under the skin of and really understand your organisational culture, listening to what employees value – and what undermines their experience. Our employee experience consultants can then map out and prioritise the opportunities for sustainable change, focusing on the real drivers of positive EX and the solutions to key problems.

We meet the sceptics head on by placing the business benefits of the employee experience at the centre of the case for change. We can connect EX investment decisions to the tangible benefits, enabling a clear purpose and focused execution. 

Leading EX transformation

To successfully transform clients though employee experience consulting, Berkeley works across organisational silos in ways that drive change and get it done. 

There are lots of circumstances where organisations are structured as multiple separate teams, divisions or functions, which are great at working in and among themselves. But where you need to cut across an organisation and deliver a cross-functional programme – such as the employee experience – an organisation’s separate divisions are often not so good at collaborating across their different areas. 

This is where Berkeley’s employee experience consulting expertise can help. We not only provide the glue across many teams, helping them to work effectively together. We also help build advocates within the organisation. Improving the employee experience shouldn’t be seen as just an HR project. Berkeley can make the case for EX as a strategic priority for the entire organisation, securing buy in from key functions, e.g. facilities, estates, IT, workplace services, etc. and turning them into enablers. 

Transforming EX ambitions into outcomes

There’s no one-size-fits-all EX. The Berkeley Partnership works within each client’s unique circumstances to blend the right mix of people, process, systems and measurement. We focus on imaginative solutions that drive long term value, helping organisations to develop an employee experience that leads to the outcomes they want.