Customer experience, customer experience, customer experience. When building a startup, it can feel like that’s all anyone is paying attention too. After all, customers essential run your business, as you couldn’t survive without their support. However, there is one set of people that is just as important as customers when it comes to the success of your business that are often ignored when it comes to allocating resources: employees.
At Relativity Fest in Chicago, Dan and Chip Heath, brothers and coauthors of the New York Times best-selling book Made to Stick, Switch, and Decisive, engaged a massive audience about the power of moments and the value of experiences. In doing so, they addressed a pressing issue in the business world: a lack of attention to employee experience within a company.
As the Heaths put it, the key to quality employee experience at work is to manifest moments that resonate with them. Whether it’s a compliment about the day’s work or even a pat on the back, you can’t have good employee experience without defining moments.
“When we talk about experience, we’re actually talking about moments. Great experience comes from great moments,” said Dan Heath during the talk.
Fortunately, Dan and Chip gave us a few elements of great moments that can help you improve employee experience. Take a look at what they had to say and check out Relativity Fest, which runs from October 22nd to October 25th, if you’re in Chicago.
Elevation
Life can get a little monotonous, particularly when you’re working in an office. The key to making sure your employees are enjoying their time at work is to create moments in which they’ll feel elevated above the norm.
“There’s something about those moments that lift us above the everyday, like joy, delight, and surprise.”
Insight
Being engaged at the office is one of the most important factors of a successful team. Your employees need to feel like they are not only contributing to the company, but also developing their own skills and learning along the way.
“In an instant, something about the way we see ourselves and our world changes in these moments.”
Pride
A little recognition can go a long way for your employees. Even a pat on the back can show them that you care about more than the company’s bottom line; you care about what your employees are up to and how great they’re doing.
“In these defining moments, we’re recognized by other people for our work and for our talents.”
Connection
Humans are social creatures. It’s hard to facilitate a defining moment when your employee is all alone. Creating connections with other employees, whether it be in big groups or small one-on-ones, the more connected your team, the better.
“These defining moments bring us close to other people. Sometimes it happens in a personal relationship, one-on-one, but sometimes it’s because groups have worked together and together they have accomplished more than any one of them could do alone.”
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