Employee Experience Solutions: Complete Guide to EX Tools

What Is An Employee Experience Solution?

If you aren’t already familiar, an employee experience solution is software that allows companies to improve their employees’ circumstances at work. This can come in a variety of forms though because EX is a very complex topic. An employee’s journey with your company has many stages and milestones from hiring to the exit interview. So, there is no one-size-fits-all strategy for improving EX.

That’s why an EX solution should enable you to do the following:

• Help companies with employee surveys to learn more about how employees feel and what they need.
• Connect employees with the training, information, and resources they need to do their jobs successfully.
• Simplify their digital employee experience to make it easier and more efficient to access their many workplace tools.
• Recognize employees for hard work and living the company’s values.
• Allow companies to measure engagement, usage, and active users.

Like many workplace tools, each solution is only as good as your strategy. Keep reading to learn more about the different tools available and how to use them to maximum effect.

What Are Employee Experience Tools?

There are many different tools available that can help you with EX. Whether these are part of the EX solution you choose or supplemental depends on your strategy and vendor.

Examples of employee experience tools include:

• Video production and editing software. Why is this a great tool for improving EX? Because video is more effective at educating and communicating information in a succinct amount of time. A good video strategy can be hugely beneficial to an employee’s experience, especially with internal communication.
• Survey tools. Collecting and acting on employee feedback is a must if you are trying to improve employee experience. So, you’ll want to choose a solution with an embedded survey tool or that integrates with common ones.
• Employee communication software. Whether you use email, an intranet, and/or an employee app, these communication channels are vital to the employee experience.

What is an Employee Engagement Solution?

So, what is an employee engagement solution and how are they different from EX solutions? 

Although conversations about employee engagement and employee experience often go hand in hand, there is a big difference between these two focus areas. As such, employee engagement solutions are those that are geared towards evaluating employee sentiment, participation, and whether or not they take a desired action. 

Often, companies’ definitions of engagement stop at sentiment analysis but we think this is a mistake. True engagement measures not only if someone shows up enthusiastically to participate, but what they do as a result of that participation. It’s this employee activation that is most important and is what is closely correlated with better turnover, profit, EX/CX, and so on.

Given that, your employee experience solution likely is going to have a lot of the same qualities as something designed for improving engagement. Both types of platform need to give you the ability to communicate, share resources, and measure your impact.

What Are the Key Areas of Employee Experience?

When it comes to actually selecting the right employee experience solution for your business, you need to first understand what the key components of EX are. We define the various areas of EX thoroughly in our definitive guide to employee experience, but here’s the gist:

• Onboarding and hiring. This is where you make your first impression to employees and inform the tone of their entire tenure with your company.
• Manager-employee relationship. Day-to-day life at your company makes up the largest part of employee experience, with your direct manager having the biggest influence on whether or not you like your job.
• HR, compensation, and benefits. Let’s face it, employees care about their total compensation (and rightly so). How employees feel about their work really can be influenced by promotions, raises, benefits, and their overall experience with HR.
• Internal communication. How well you communicate is one of the most important aspects of EX. Failure to communicate or even miscommunicate can be costly.
• Executive leadership. Your senior leaders strike the tone for your whole company. If they aren’t visible, transparent, and trustworthy, it’s much harder for employees to feel they have peace of mind or to feel inspired by the mission of the company. This can certainly impact how they feel about work and what the work environment is like at every level.

These areas ideally are all covered within a solution for employee experience.

How Do Communication Solutions Help Improve EX?

We already talked about how employee communication is a critical part of EX, but why is it so important?

To answer this question, we have to look at the function that internal comms serves within a company. Communicating with employees isn’t just about raising awareness and letting employees know about key changes and updates. Great communication is about building trust, culture, and knowledge to empower your employees to perform their best. And all of these things go hand-in-hand with an employee’s experience, right?

• If an employee trusts their employer and manager, they are more likely to feel supported and be open about what they need.
• When employees feel their leaders are being transparent and honest, they are less likely to feel insecure about their job security and future at the company.
• Communication that connects employees to knowledge and resources helps that employee feel less overwhelmed at work.

All of these activities add up to a more positive, supportive employee experience, which, in time, leads to stronger cultures, retention, and even profit. Therefore, by choosing internal communication tools that help you maximize the impact of your internal comms strategy, you will improve EX.

What Are the Best Employee Experience Solutions?

We talk about this a lot here at theEMPLOYEEapp, but there is no single best solution for every workplace. It really comes down to your current needs, your existing tech stack, and your employees. For instance, theEMPLOYEEapp was literally designed to make it easier for companies to reach their deskless workers. But other solutions might be better if you strictly employ office-based employees.

At the end of the day, focus on this:

• What could be improved about the current experience at your company?
• Are there pain points that you can solve with certain solutions?
• What have your employees been asking for?
• How does the EX solution tie in to your broader strategy?

What Do EX Solutions Cost?

The cost of employee experience solutions can vary depending on various factors such as the size of the organization, the specific features and functionalities required, and the chosen provider. It’s essential to evaluate different pricing models and packages offered by vendors to find the right fit for your company’s needs and budget.

Typically, employee experience solutions may involve a combination of upfront setup costs, licensing fees, and ongoing subscription fees. Some providers offer tiered pricing plans based on the number of users or the level of features required. There also might be additional costs associated with customization, integration with other systems, or ongoing support and maintenance.

While cost is an important consideration, it’s equally crucial to assess the value and return on investment that an employee experience solution can deliver. The right solution can enhance employee engagement, improve communication and collaboration, streamline processes, and ultimately contribute to a positive employee experience, which has long-term benefits.

To determine the cost of employee experience solutions for your specific needs, reach out to vendors, request demos, and gather pricing information tailored to your requirements. This will enable you to make an informed decision based on the features, capabilities, and affordability that align with your goals and budget.

A product like theEMPLOYEEapp is meant to scale with your growing organization, so it will suit any budget. We are also designed to be a communications tool and resource hub, so we aren’t only for improving EX and engagement.

How Does theEMPLOYEEapp Improve the Employee Experience?

Because we are an employee communications solution, our product is intrinsically tied to improving the experience of working at your company. We provide a platform for top-down communication, leadership communication, and manager communications while also elevating the employee voice and making it easier to gather employee feedback.

If you’d like to learn more about our solution, please request a demo today.

Success Stories: Using Employee Experience Solutions

One of the most effective ways to understand the impact of employee experience solutions is through real-life success stories. These case studies highlight the positive outcomes achieved by our clients using theEMPLOYEEapp.

• Veterans United. The internal communications team at Veterans United recognized the limitations of traditional communication methods, such as email, in reaching their disparate workforce effectively. With our employee experience app, they were able to share both need-to-know and nice-to-know information, reach all their employees and their families regardless of location, and cultivate their desired company culture. Read their case study to learn more!
• Ryman Hospitality Properties. With a significant number of deskless employees, Ryman faced challenges in communicating real-time updates to their frontline workforce. They sought a solution that could provide timely information without flooding employees’ inboxes. Implementing theEMPLOYEEapp allowed Ryman Hospitality to share daily or multiple updates without overwhelming their employees. The app became a central hub where employees could access information in real-time, enabling better alignment and engagement among the workforce. Read their story for more inspiration.

These success stories highlight the transformative power of employee experience solutions like theEMPLOYEEapp. By adopting such tools, companies can overcome communication challenges, improve engagement, and enhance the overall employee experience.