Jacob Morgan’s Employee Experience Advantage Theory and Strategies

The key takeaway from the video is the distinction between employee engagement and employee experience and how managers can apply this understanding to improve both the workplace and business outcomes.

Key Takeaways:

• Employee Engagement: This is often seen as the quick-fix or “cosmetic” changes organizations make to improve how they work. These changes might look good on the surface (e.g., offering perks or organizing events), but they often have little lasting impact on overall performance or employee satisfaction. Engagement is about short-term motivation and efforts to improve morale.
• Employee Experience: This is the long-term, more profound redesign of the organization, focusing on how employees’ expectations, needs, and wants are met through the structure and culture of the company. Unlike engagement, which is reactive, employee experience is proactive and involves employees in shaping the culture and their daily experiences within the organization. It is the intersection of what employees expect, need, and desire, and how the organization’s design aligns with these factors.

How Managers Can Apply These Insights:

• Shift from Engagement to Experience: Managers can recognize that improving employee experience isn’t about just offering temporary perks or quick wins, but instead about designing a workplace that deeply aligns with employees’ values, needs, and long-term aspirations. This means focusing on creating a work environment that supports continuous growth, collaboration, and well-being, not just reacting to problems as they arise.
• Involve Employees in Shaping Their Experience: Managers should invite employees to contribute to the design of their experience within the organization. This can be achieved by seeking regular feedback, listening to their needs, and making them part of the decision-making process when it comes to changes that affect their work environment or culture.
• Align Organizational Design with Employee Needs: Managers can work to better align the company’s mission, culture, and organizational processes with what employees need to thrive. This may involve redesigning roles, improving communication, offering more flexibility, and providing opportunities for growth and advancement that directly meet employees’ desires.

In essence, the focus should shift from treating employee engagement as a set of temporary fixes to considering employee experience as a long-term, strategic approach that shapes the entire culture and organizational design. By doing so, managers can create a more engaged, productive, and satisfied workforce that aligns with the company’s goals and values.