A better employee experience boosts employer branding: study

According to this recently released white paper, Enriching the employee experience, Hong Kong’s positive jobs outlook means the challenge to source and keep talent remains ever present.

And providing the best possible employee experience is a good way to win the battle. It can also have the added benefit of improving your employer brand.

“The employee experience is the sum of perceptions employees have based on their interactions with the organisation. A positive employee experience encompasses all of the various touch-points throughout the employee’s life cycle,” said Natellie Sun, managing director of Randstad Hong Kong, which published the white paper.

“A positive employee experience holds unlimited potential to strengthen your employer brand. This, at the same time, improves workforce productivity, employee attraction and retention.

“That’s why the employee experience is crucial to any meaningful conversation about employer branding.”

Perceptions around an organisation’s brand matter. Employees are increasingly willing to speak their mind and websites such as Glassdoor are making it easier for these opinions to be widely known.

According to iCIMS’s “Modern Job Search Report”, almost 33% of potential candidates have refused a job offer due to negative online reviews.

Even companies such as Uber, Amazon, Google and Microsoft have suffered damage to their brands as employees – current or former – have publicly voiced their dissatisfaction, either online or via the media.

HR has now been propelled into the age of digital disruption – with the rise of social media and artificial intelligence and data analytics. It can be a double-edged sword, but clearly it’s better to embrace the change than be daunted by it.

The brave new digital world allows us to achieve much with a simple tap or swipe. As a result, employees expect their job to parallel the seamless brand experience they enjoy outside of working hours.

Companies must embrace this challenge or risk losing their best and brightest to their rivals.

Organisations share similar milestones that can enhance the employee experience such as candidate attraction, recruitment, onboarding, employee development, management, employee departures and alumni.

How well each stage is mapped out and executed says a lot about your company’s brand. And, in turn, what your employees say about your company.

“We know from research that having a positive employee experience will lead to higher advocacy, higher empowerment and stronger buy-in – all proven to lead to better business results,” Sun said.