According to Gallup, more than 85% of employees are checked out and disengaged. The same study found that engagement programs most often fail because CEOs don’t own employee engagement, managers aren’t expected to take an active role in employee experience (EX), and employees are unclear about expectations.

If people leaders are going to make the most of the Great Reshuffle, it will be through new efforts to engage their employees at every step of their journey. That’s easier said than done when engagement is flagging—and when few leaders, from the C-Suite to team managers, understand their direct role in EX.

‍“Unless your leadership really walks the talk, you're not going to get buy-in or alignment,” said Jason Lindstrom‍

Co-Founder and CEO of BucketList. In our recent event, Build Employee Experiences That Retain Top Talent, Lindstrom joined Welcome’s Co-Founder and CEO, Roberto Ortiz, to discuss tactical ways leaders can create an incredible employee experience.

Watch the full event here for more ideas about how to engage your employees at every point of their journey with your company.

Getting Intentional About Employee Experience

You already know how much work goes into creating an incredible customer experience at your company. But what if leaders spent just as much time, energy, and intention building an incredible employee experience, too?

From the moment a prospective candidate submits their application to your employee’s very last day, each touchpoint they have should align with your company’s goals and values. For Lindstrom, perfecting employee experience at BucketList has been an iterative process. 

“We've taken the time to map out employee experience in its entirety,” said Lindstrom. “Everything from the first touch point, when somebody sends in their resume, for example, to the first interview [or their first] 90 days. 

‍“We then survey staff through that entire cycle to find out where we're strong and where we're weak. When you uncover those weaknesses in your employee experiences, you're better in power to address those things. And so we've been able to create a really repeatable, scalable employee experience for all our staff,” Lindstrom said.

Two Ideas for Improving EX

Being intentional with the employee experience of a distributed workforce is especially important. Gone are the days of in-office benefits, like fun design elements or free coffee, said Ortiz. This puts added pressure on CEOs to find tangible solutions for remote and hybrid EX. “As leaders, we have to actually provide value beyond the perks,” he added.

At Welcome, that looks like helping employees build connections to bust through isolation or work silos at the Welcome Café. “We encourage people to drop by and have unstructured conversations in the Welcome platform,”explained Ortiz. “We have some tunes that you land into in the auditorium, and then you go into a lounge room and grab a table, sit down, have a conversation.”

Lindstrom is also a fan of creating “micro moments” at BucketList. At their daily huddle, employees are broken up into small groups. “These aren't their normal functional groups,” explained Lindstrom. “It can be a customer success person, an ops person, [and] a software engineer. They talk about one personal goal and one work goal every single day, and it's really cool. You get to hear about what matters in their life.” 

As CEO, Lindstrom also listens for opportunities where he can help an employee get closer to their goals, whether that’s by offering paid time off or supporting additional career training. “I think these micro moments can be important for creating repeatable, scalable systems that you can stamp into your company,” he added.

Holding Leadership Accountable for Employee Experience

No matter what kind of solutions you try to improve employee experience at your company, the best way to track and improve employee sentiment scores is to hold your leadership accountable.

At BucketList, said Lindstrom, that means making EX goals, like onboarding scores, publicly available to the entire company. “When you state a goal publicly, attach somebody's name to it, and then see whether you're on track or off track—that's a beautifully simple way to drive accountability,” Lindstrom explained.

Final Thoughts

With Welcome’s employee event platform, it’s easy to share goals, track employee sentiment scores, and even take real-time polls. Employee feedback is shown instantly during polling, so you always know where your team stands—and where you can continue to improve. 

Plus, it’s easy to implement these strategies at every stage of your employee’s experience, from onboarding to your company all-hands. After all, when you engage your entire company in creating a better employee experience, you’ll do more than retain top talent. You’ll provide moments of connection that make everyone happier, more productive, and more engaged.