Much has been written about the importance of customer experience. Gartner called it “the new battlefield” back in 2014; Walker claims it will surpass price and product as the key brand differentiator by 2020; and Bain & Co. predicted that organizations that master customer experience grow revenues 4 to 8 percent above their competitors. Here at Tracker, we’ve written about the importance of customer experience as well, including this post from earlier this year, “Why Support Is The Most Important Factor In Choosing A Recruitment Agency Software.”
And you know what? You get it. Businesses have heard the battle cry and are prioritizing customer experience. Seventy-five percent of companies surveyed by Spigit said improving customer experience was their top objective; Forrester reported similar findings, at 72 percent.
Now that the majority of companies compete mostly on the basis of customer experience, guess what? It’s no longer enough to compete mostly on the basis of customer experience.
So what’s next, agency owners? Where do we focus now?
The answer is employee experience.
What is employee experience? 
First, let’s explain what it is not. It is not free food, parties, ping pong, happy hours or ‘bring your dog to work’ days. Those things are great, but they’re mostly focused on improving employee engagement, not experience. Companies usually trot out such perks in an effort to fix low employee morale and, quite honestly, for bragging rights.
Employee engagement is a component of employee experience, but employee experience goes deeper. It’s an integrated focus on everything your employees experiences throughout their connection to your firm. According to Deloitte, employee experience brings together all the “workplace, HR, and management practices that impact people on the job… Just as marketing and product teams have moved beyond customer satisfaction to look at total customer experience, so is HR refocusing its efforts on building programs, strategies, and teams that understand and continuously improve the entire employee experience.”
Why is employee experience important for recruitment agency owners?
A positive employee experience is what will enable you to hire and retain the best recruiting, sales and support staff available. Without high-performing, productive employees who stay, grow and innovate with your firm, your agency can’t grow and innovate either — and these are the things that boost your bottom line.
Unemployment is at a 17-year low, competition for top talent is high, and employee turnover is expensive. If you’re not providing an exceptional employee experience, you’ll struggle to hire and retain exceptional employees. Sites like Glassdoor and LinkedIn make it easy for workers to share with others how it is to work at a company, and 84 percent of job seekers told Glassdoor that a company’s reputation is important when deciding where to work.
The bottom line? According to research published in the Harvard Business Review, companies that prioritize employee experience are four times as profitable than ones that don’t.
How to provide a great employee experience
As the Society for Human Resource Management notes, there are three components to providing an exceptional employee experience:
Culture. Culture is how employees feel about your firm and how you feel about them. SHRM calls it “the ‘vibe’ you get when you walk in the door … the leadership style, the sense of purpose your employees feel, the organizational structure and the people that make up your organization.” If you’re not demonstrating a commitment to the health and success of your team, they will find an agency that does.
The physical workspace. Perks such as the ones mentioned above fall into this category. Are you providing a pleasant place to work? Are there snacks and opportunities for recreation? What’s your office design like? Modern employees expect an environment of flexibility and autonomy with opportunities to have fun and unwind.
Technology. This refers to the tools and technologies you provide your employees with. It’s the hardware, software and apps you offer, plus mobile access to these tools and your BYOD policies — everything tech-related that enables your employees to be productive and succeed in their jobs.
Recruiting firms that demonstrate a commitment to these three things will flourish as we move into this new era of employee experience.
TrackerRMS: The leading cloud-based recruiting software
TrackerRMS is a high-touch, service-oriented relationship management system created specifically for recruitment firms. With a dedicated customer success team, onboarding tools, and comprehensive analytics and sales reports, TrackerRMS is a complete online CRM solution — and the complete suite of TrackerRMS tools is accessible via mobile. Give your team members access to the best tech with TrackerRMS and request a demo today.
