The 5 Most Important Employee Experience Questions You Can Ask Your Team (And How to Respond)
Employee experience is powerful. Your employees’ experiences can make or break retention, boost productivity, and result in a thriving work environment. In this era of the Great Attrition and the Great Reshuffle, employee experience is critical. Multiple factors contribute to a positive experience, from the team members hired to the tools given to complete their work.
The only way that companies and organizations will be able to create better experiences for their employees is if they listen to their concerns and values. Employee expectations have changed significantly in the last two years. It’s become essential and expected that employees are given the flexibility to work from home, on a hybrid schedule, or at least have a few at-home workdays each month. Employees expect to be paid at competitive rates, receive benefits, and be part of a positive work environment. Writers, reporters, and industry leaders refer to these components as “table stakes” in today’s competitive market.
Training, reskilling, and upskilling directly impact the employee experience, and they are both essential components of an employee’s experience and function as benefits. Onboarding or certifications courses help employees function in the workplace, and reskilling or upskilling courses show employees that their companies are invested in the long-term growth of their careers. Initiating a strong learning and development strategy is one way that companies can boost their employees’ experiences.
Many companies already have L&D strategies that are not functioning at their highest potential. These training strategies are often based on longstanding, outdated concepts about work experiences—concepts that became irrelevant in the post-pandemic era. The best way to identify issues and remedy the problem of ineffective training is to ask employees about their experiences. With direct information about the impact of training on the overall team member experience, companies can leverage their training strategies so that retention grows, productivity skyrockets and the company thrives as an innovative leader in the field.
Do you enjoy training and find it valuable to your career?
What place does enjoyment have in work? Isn’t work simply work? These are outdated mindsets and inconsistent with the way modern workers approach their careers. Employees want to enjoy their jobs and feel a sense of accomplishment and pride in their work. McKinsey & Company found that 70% of employees tie their sense of purpose to their work and that it is a critical component of employee retention.
Ask your employees if they enjoy training and find it beneficial to their career development. If these two components are missing, training will lose its value among modern workers. If employees feel that they are required to spend time on purposeless and boring training, they will burn out. It’s important that training is a positive process for each employee, so they are motivated to complete training and development.
Do you feel that our training program has a clear goal and outcome for you individually?
It’s crucial to ensure that companies communicate the goals and intended outcomes driving a training strategy. If your employees feel like there is no clear goal or impact of training, they will be less likely to engage with the training. The last thing you want for your employees is to burden them with hours of unnecessary or insignificant training requirements.
If your employees say that they don’t feel like the training has a clear goal or outcome for their careers, it’s time to reconsider the training that you are offering. Do you require each employee to take the same set of courses? If so, perhaps you need a more personalized training experience. This doesn’t have to mean a more complicated L&D strategy. AI technology helps companies create personalized training recommendations without the added burden of administrative tasks. The technology learns users’ preferences and then assigns courses based on their job description, the courses they’ve completed, and the courses their peers are taking. This can help employees feel more engaged with their unique training experiences and avoid the feeling of spending hours on irrelevant courses.
Does our training technology support the compliance requirements for your unique role?
Compliance is one of the biggest challenges that employees and companies alike face. Companies must equip their employees with the training courses they need so that the overall organization can adhere to industry standards. When companies do not follow compliance regulations, they face penalties and fines. If professionals do not keep up with their compliance and certification training, they risk being unable to work. Compliance requirements must be managed at both the corporate and individual levels.
Companies can support their employees’ experiences by choosing LMS features that track compliance automatically. This significantly reduces the burden of tracking for employees and makes training more impactful overall.
Does our training strategy offer you the opportunities for growth and upskilling that you are looking for?
Upskilling is one of the best bonuses and benefits companies can offer their employees at this time. It shows employees that the company wants to invest in them beyond their tenure in a certain role. Upskilling initiatives can include courses on a variety of topics, from skill-driven courses specific to the industry to leadership, communication, and stress-management courses.
Every modern training strategy should include both technical courses and personal development courses. This allows employees to pursue new aspects of their careers and grow according to their interests. Offering a wide variety of upskilling courses also helps companies maximize the competitive advantage of their team, and it encourages employees to spend spare time on development. It’s a win-win for both employee experience and the company.
Does our training technology support your desire for remote work, and is it functional for your lifestyle?
Corporate leaders are asking a version of this question in almost every context. The biggest debate right now is whether or not remote work and flexibility is a sustainable business model for employees and companies. The short answer is yes, remote work is sustainable. There is one stipulation: you need the right tools. A digital training platform is the essential technological investment companies can make at this time because it is the first and most flexible platform that is part of the employee experience.
Training technology is used in onboarding, throughout a person’s career, and as a tool to help them grow. Look for a training platform that can function for both remote and hybrid employees, ones who need to complete training from their desktop and mobile devices. This will encourage engagement and show the employees that you support their need for flexibility.
Training can be one of the most impactful components of your employee engagement strategy. With a digital LMS platform in hand, you can create a learning and development strategy that serves your employees and creates better experiences for them.
If you’re looking to revamp your training strategy, but are unsure where to start, try our interactive workbook. It’s designed to help corporate leaders determine the best training technology investments and learning strategies for their company.
