Data and Science Fall Short When It Comes to Employee Experience

The Limitations of Best Practices

Studies and data are great for informing high-level best practices for employee experience, eg. the importance of goal setting, 1:1’s, employee feedback, etc

But it falls short the next level down and that’s because the culture of every organisation is different. In fact, getting the nuance wrong can do more harm than good when misaligned with your culture or ways of working.

Understanding the Nuances

Look at employee feedback, for example, science tells us the many benefits for improved performance. But it's not that simple, feedback needs to be done in a way that makes sense to your people. Just some of the considerations relating to feedback:

• Anonymous or transparent
• From managers, co-workers, customers, or all the above
• In the moment or formal cadence
• Written or verbal
• Structured or open flow
• Skills-based, values-based or neither
• Praise, constructive or both
• Give or request
• Public or private

The Need for Customisation: No One-Size-Fits-All Approach

There is much to consider and no right or wrong way. No best practice or one size-for-all, no science or data can tell you what is best for YOUR organisation.

These questions can only be answered from within, by asking employees what would feel natural, authentic and unforced for them.

HR Tech vendors often address this by making all the options available, but that leaves it in the hands of employees to work out what each feature is and when to use it.

Other vendors try to make it simple, they design and promote a single way, but that creates friction and a lack of adoption when it doesn’t feel natural for employees.

Step 1 should always be designing EX from within, then searching for a vendor that can support and enable your way.