5 Exceptional Employee Experience Examples
Employee experience has become a bit of a buzzword. In this post, we’ll bash away the buzziness and unpack what this phrase actually means, then look at five employee experience examples to get you inspired.
What is employee experience?
An employee experience is the overall impression an employee gets from all interactions with their employer over the course of their career.
These interactions may be positive, negative or neutral and can happen in a variety of different settings including on-the-job, during off-the-job training, or through social media.
An exceptional employee experience gives employees the autonomy to do their best work.
What makes an exceptional employee experience?
Here’s a non-exhaustive list of what it takes to get your employee experience right:
- Balancing collaboration with individual productivity, whether that’s in the office or remotely
- Clear communication that builds trust, and the tech stack to support it
- Flexibility in the ways work can be done, with the focus being on results
- Support of physical, mental and emotional wellbeing
- Continuous learning and development opportunities
- Social connection with colleagues
- An organizational culture and values that align with your own
- A top-notch work environment in the office
- Engagement in what you do on the job every day, because you know it contributes to something bigger
Listing off every component of an exceptional employee experience and describing how to make it happen would fill an encyclopedia. That’s why this post is covering examples.
It’s particularly important to look at employee experience in the age of hybrid, remote and flexible working. Evidence strongly supports the case for using these work patterns to improve employee experience.
Engagement levels are lowest for fully on-site employees, according to Gallup, and a 2022 study in the International Journal of Work, Health & Organisations found that flexible working resulted in better physical health and reduced absenteeism for employees.
The bad news is that simply slapping a flexible or hybrid work policy in place isn’t enough to get your employee experience right.
How to Create a Hybrid Workplace Strategy
Only half of employees think their company is doing enough to improve hybrid work. The other half probably aren’t too happy with their employee experience. Chances are, there’s a discrepancy between the experience employees have while working remotely and in the office.
But for every company completely missing the mark on their employee experience, there’s another one getting it bang on.
Here are five examples of companies with exceptional employee experiences.
1) DoorDash
San Francisco based food delivery platform doordash is a shining example of what a flexible workplace looks like. Under the company’s Flexible Workplace Model, the number of in-office versus remote days is determined by managers and teams, with requests to work fully remotely being considered.
“Rather than requiring employees to work in an office for a set number of days, we recognize that elements of both in-person and remote work will differ depending on how distributed
each team is, and the nature of each team’s work,” the company wrote in a May 2022 blog post.
Employee feedback is central to how workplace decisions are made, with surveys going out every quarter.
Feedback is also the basis for office layout and design. “We’ve been redesigning our spaces to listen to our employees,” says Katy Shields, VP of People, in an interview with office furniture manufacturer Steelcase. “Seventy-five percent say they want to come in for those big meetings, or social events.”
2) Monday.com
Being a project management tool that helps teams wherever they’re working from, it comes as no surprise that monday.com’s employee experience is the cream of the crop.
97% of employees say it’s a great place to work, and it just made the cut of the UK’s best workplaces in 2023.
So what’s the secret? One of the company’s main priorities is “creating a culture that employees can feel connected to, whether they work in-person or remotely.” Another is creating an attractive working environment in every office that showcases the company values and gives employees a space to make them a reality through their work.
3) Ericsson
Swedish telecoms company Ericsson redefines what it means to use flexible working and create employee-centric workplaces.
As public opinion turned against remote work in the latter part of 2021, Ericsson doubled down on flexibility to maintain the right employee experience and recruit the best talent.
That means a trust-based hybrid work schedule. “It’s up to each manager to coordinate with their employees – how do you become the most productive,” said Peter Laurin, Head of Managed Services, in an interview with Bloomberg. “How do you get the most collaboration and output while having high employee satisfaction.”
Ericsson even used employee personas to redesign 102 offices around 52 countries, so workspaces mirror what employees want from the workplace.
4) Shopify
Canadian ecommerce giant Shopify was doing hybrid work even before the pandemic, and still has half of employees working remotely.
But that doesn’t mean Shopify doesn’t value in-person connections in the office. “Build in periodic IRL time for meaningful and intentional moments of connection, not just people working next to each other at an office two days a week,” says Michael Merola, VP of Employee Experience, in an article for Fast Company. “We’ve invested in spaces around the world to host these moments.”
And in a move that anyone who’s ever experience Zoom-induced exhaustion will appreciate, the company has cut 32,000 hours of meetings out of employee schedules.
5) Lyft
Lift sharing service Lyft became a fully flexible workplace in March 2022, with almost all employees having the choice of where to live and work.
That doesn’t mean a lack of get-togethers though – employee travel to and from office gatherings is expensed by the company.
What’s more, US employees are offered unlimited paid vacation and a Udemy subscription for continuous learning.
Smartway2 makes hybrid and flexible working effortless, helping you create an exceptional employee experience.
