Employee Journey Mapping: Is it the key to great employee experience?
Ever came across employee journey mapping? Well, it’s pretty much what it says on the tin; a visual timeline of the employee journey. Starting from the application process right up until when the employee is settled in their career. Employee journey mapping covers all aspects of the employee experience.
Similar to a customer journey map, employee journey mapping is essentially plotting out the end to end experience of your employees. In many cases an employee journey map has been successful in improving employee experience, helping identify areas for improvement and setting out clear expectations of your employees.
So, the big question is should we all be employee journey mapping? It’s something that is used frequently by HR professionals and has been proven to increase employee retention and help aid employee development plan. We’re going to explore the positive aspects of this process and identify key areas where it could be useful to your business.
Onboarding
Starting with the onboarding process; it’s very important to have an employee journey map laid out at this stage. You’ll see lots of HR jargon throughout this blog but to put it simply onboarding is the process of introducing new employees to your organisation. The onboarding process has probably seen changes for many organisations this year due to the global pandemic, therefore supplying your new employees with a journey map will lay out expectations from the beginning.
We all know the daunting feeling of starting a new job but imagine how it feels starting a new job remotely where all your onboarding is done online. Scary stuff! This is where your employee journey map can work wonders, giving your employees a purpose from day one.
Although it may seem early, it’s also important to bear in mind your employee development plan when creating an employee journey map during the onboarding process. We all like to have some sort of direction and when starting a new role it’s helpful to have an idea of where your career is going.
Helps with the hiring process
As well as being useful when onboarding the perfect candidate, employee journey mapping is also helpful when it comes to hiring. Being able to see the entire employee journey map, from start to finish will enable you to narrow down what you’re looking for, leading to hiring the perfect candidate.
Employee journey mapping will also help you to find the right candidate who fits in with your company culture. Remember, it’s not all about the skills and experience of the candidate, their personality has to fit too. So, if you hire someone that doesn’t fit with your company culture, they’ll most likely be gone a few months into their new role.
Employee engagement insights
Employee journey mapping enables you to get to know your employees inside out. You know the ins and outs of the employee journey from the off, which is why it plays an important role in measuring employee engagement.
If you’ve been to this blog before, you’ll know how big we are on stressing the importance of employee engagement; and that’s because the success of any business depends on the engagement levels of their employees.
Creating an employee journey map enables you to know what makes your employees tick and what motivates them. This is useful if you notice your engagement levels take a dip and you need to think of a way to boost them back up again.
Better employee experience
Employee experience is not just a fancy HR term, it exists and it is important to retain great and dedicated employees.
In short, employee experience considers all of the touchpoints of the job from the employees perspective. This includes their role and duties, interaction with work colleagues, equipment provided to carry out their role, the atmosphere of the workplace and the company beliefs and core values.
By creating an employee journey map you’ll be able to see aspects of the role where the employee is gaining the most from and you’ll also identify areas for improvement. This also comes in handy for employee development plan, it’ll highlight areas for the employee to focus on and enable them to identify aspects of the role where they get the most enjoyment. If you’re not already aware of the benefits of happy employees then get to know; in fact, happy employees are reportedly 31% more productive and take 10 fewer sick days than their colleagues.
Employee Journey Mapping Tips
So you know the benefits of employee journey mapping, we’ll now give you some quick tips to create a successful journey map and how to ensure your employees have the best experience possible at work.
Have an outcome
When it comes to creating an employee journey map it’s important to consider what outcomes you’re looking for in particular and bear in mind your employee development plan.
You don’t have to have your map set in stone from beginning to end right at the very start but keep in mind certain outcomes so that you can include the steps necessary to help you reach that outcome. For example, your outcome may be to hit a target amount of sales in a tight deadline; make sure you include all the touchpoints of this outcome and clearly state the strategies that are going to be used to reach this outcome.
This gives your employee a clear indication of where this outcome is going and how they are going to reach that goal.
No two are the same
You can’t make a ‘one size fits all’ employee journey map.
Obviously, you’ll have to create journey maps for different employees in your organisations but it’s not just job roles that can have an impact when employee journey mapping. It’s important to keep in mind different personalities, habits, personal life and hobbies.
Before you begin mapping try creating different personas for different employees; this will give you an insight into demographics, age, personality types and habits. Remember, it’s important to do extensive research. There’s no room for error here.
Welcome feedback
It’s important to share the journey map with your employees during creation. If you’re using the employee journey map specifically for your employee development plan, this will give them an idea of expectations, an outline of where their career is going and help them identify strengths and weaknesses.
Feedback is also essential from your employees at this stage in the process; they can tell you areas they think need to be included in the map and give you feedback on how to improve. Remember employee journey mapping is a two-way street, you can’t improve and develop the map without the help of the ones using it.
Summary
We’re all familiar with a ‘customer journey’ but an employee journey is something that’s not widely recognised as an effective internal communication tool. In summary, they’re useful for identifying pain points of your employees’ journey and ensure your employee has the best experience possible. They definitely get a thumbs up from us!
