The employee journey: consciously working on an optimal employee experience

It sounds simple, but there are few organisations that manage to both motivate their staff and get them to do the right things. Marketers have been busy developing customer journeys for several years now, and looked at from that perspective, we’re only at the start of defining the employee journey. We need some good examples. Working from an employee journey perspective requires better collaboration between communication, HR and other departments. It requires professionals who love the field; who listen to what’s going on and want to make organisations more communicative. People who immerse themselves in internal target groups and think about reach. Who opt for quality and reflection, want to make a difference, and whose decisions are driven by the content and the situation.

Taking a structural approach to improving the employee journey creates opportunities. It involves continually looking for ways in which employee and employer can strengthen each other. A modern labour relationship focuses on this kind of reinforcement. It is based on equality, interaction and dialogue throughout the employee journey, in all the phases an employee goes through in an organisation, and all the contact moments they involve, from candidate to staff member to ex-employee. The organisation starts building the relationship even before someone takes a job there, strengthens it while he or she is working there, and keeps the relationship good after they have left.

The employee journey can be applied to organisations in every sector – business to business, consumer to consumer and public – because it’s employees who ultimately make the difference. Given the key position employees already hold, working on an optimal employee experience contributes significantly to building a strong reputation over the long term.