Learn about the Four Essential Elements of Employee Experience Management Software

Community simply relates to a social unit with a commonality. This sense of community that is so important to human beings can be understood in four elements; Membership, influence, integration & fulfilment of needs, and shared emotional connection.  Referring to those four aspects to how that translates into a workplace community highlights how truly critical it is to any successful business. In our workplace we all want to feel a sense of belonging, feel valued and have a clear purpose. Employees that are rewarded and valued for aspects of their participation and work get more satisfaction out of it. Through spending time with one another, close bonds can be built among colleagues creating friendships that drive investment in each other and the company. This is where face-to-face interaction becomes key, which sadly due to the pandemic has been decreased. Hence, it’s critical to consider other ways of helping bonds to form through virtual interactions. As many companies shift to a hybrid working strategy, it’s important to still provide the sense of belonging and community that’s achieved through in-person interactions.

Employee experience software acts as a digital layer to the workplace and offers a place for connection and communication wherever employees are based. Employees can search and connect with fellow employees and access the latest company news and events. The functionalities available on the platform are a base for any company to take advantage of with their own unique employee experience strategy and it’s easy to add new users and content in-house.

• Events
  Holding regular events can be a great way to build community and a sense of camaraderie among fellow employees. It can also be a way to reward employees, showing them that their hard work hasn’t gone unnoticed. With 69% of employees agreeing that they would work harder if they were appreciated, it’s hard to argue the value that an employee event programme could bring. District’s employee experience platform lets employees browse and join events and you can even monetise premium events and employees can pay in-app.
• Articles
  A key part of building a community in the workplace is communication. If employees are more regularly hearing from you and being given informative relevant information, they are more likely to feel part of your organisation and understand your values. Internal communication such as weekly bulletins is a great way to engage and connect employees. Regular content allows you to reinforce your company values and to keep employees informed about things happening within the company. A report by Sprout Social found that 4 in 5 people felt that an effective communication strategy improves their productivity, and 80% want their employers to keep them updated about company news.
• Community search, directory and profiles
  Making it simple for employees to connect is key to building a sense of community especially in a hybrid working environment where many employees may be working in different locations on a day to day basis. District’s platform lets employees create their own profile in the app and add relevant information and skills about themselves so that other employees can read. This is particularly key in a post-pandemic work environment where many new employees may be starting their position fully remote. This profile is then accessible through the community directory and people can search for fellow employees based on skill, job title, name and so on.

• Employee rewards and recognition
  Rewarding employees for their hard work is key to driving productivity. When employees feel that their hard work is recognised, they’re far more likely to be motivated and engaged. District’s employee experience management platform allows you to offer benefits and discounts to employees, and you could even create exclusive discounts that are only accessible to employees that have earned them. You could also show recognition to employees by doing a shoutout via push notification.

 

The next aspect of an EX platform is tools and services. Employee experience tools include any tools and services that employees use as part of their workday. This includes specific on-site smart building tools such as mobile door access as well as desk or meeting room bookings. It could also include access to any amenities on-site such as restaurants or cafes allowing employees to browse, book, pay and collect their items. Tools and services also extend to remote employees, allowing employees to access resources and guides from anywhere as well as virtual assistance.

• Space bookings
  Giving employees the tools to book a desk or meeting room space at their convenience through their mobile devices reduces the pain points of waiting for a response via email or having to queue at the reception desk to make a booking. District offers seamless space bookings allowing employees to plan their workdays efficiently and as an admin, you can also ensure social distancing measures are in place by only allowing certain desks to be booked. You can also stagger bookings, ensuring that there is time to clean in between bookings. Administrators can easily view all bookings via the employee experience dashboard and employees can see what open bookings they have and what’s available on any given day.
• Amenities
  Providing amenities that are readily available and easy to access, whether employees simply want to browse what’s available or make an order is another key aspect to employee engagement. Whether it be food and drink, the on-site gym or any other particular service you may have on offer, they’re there to facilitate part of employees’ day. By providing them with the tools to access all of them from their mobile phone simplifies and streamlines the whole process, giving them more choice and flexibility on how they access these services.
• Health check-ins
  Providing a seamless and safe way to monitor and check-in employees is extremely important in order to provide a Covid-secure workplace. It also builds confidence in employees to return to the office space knowing that you’ve put measures in place to ensure their safety. District’s employee engagement software prompts employees to fill out a Covid health check screening by answering a series of Covid health-related questions. Based on the employee’s answers they will either pass their health check and have a validated tick on their members profile that they can show to reception staff in order to enter the building or upon failing the health check they will be informed of what the next steps are.
• Concierge services
  Another functionality that District Technologies provides is a virtual concierge service. You can have just one dedicated concierge or even several specific ones such as a ‘work from home support line’ and ‘front of house support’. This service allows employees to get the answers they need instantly from anywhere. They can start an instant chat with a member of the concierge team or if they would prefer they can call or send an email message all through the app. This service enhances employee experience by optimising the communication channels between the company and employees.
• Surveys and feedback
  The District app allows you to send out employee engagement surveys to ask for feedback directly in the app. This is key to optimising and improving your employee experience as you can build upon any improvements that need to be made and do more of the things that people are enjoying. For example, if you had an event you can send a follow up to the employees that joined asking for their rating out of five and what aspect of the event they enjoyed the most.
• Payments
  Another tool that District’s employee experience platform offers is the ability to take payments and issue invoices. This is ideal for monetising additional services available to employees or premium events. This is a great way to add an extra level to your employee experience with paid events and services.

• Plug & Play package
  With District’s Plug & Play package you can get started with all of the core functionalities and benefit from basic personalisations on the app including adding your company logo and header image to the homepage of the app. This lets you unlock the benefits of an employee engagement app without large costs making it an affordable option for small businesses.
• Fully Branded package
  The Fully Branded package by District Technologies allows you to fully take advantage of the customisable features, truly making the app your own. You have your very own app in the App Stores and can customise fonts, colours and imagery in line with your company brand guidelines. This allows you to reinforce your company’s values and core message which is extremely important in hybrid working environments when many new staff members may be onboarded while working remotely. This lets you build a connection with employees even when they’re remote. A strong brand gives the employer credibility and the ability to differentiate themselves from the crowd, so it’s incredibly important to keep consistent branding across all of your internal communications as well as externally.
• Integrations
  With District’s published APIs we make it simple to integrate with your existing systems and with any third party smart technologies for a truly personalised and bespoke experience. Furthermore, it also means that you can offer a simple and connected one platform approach where employees can access everything they need in one place. We can integrate with smart building solutions including mobile door access and HVAC controls to make your office experience truly efficient and easy to access as well as any HR tools that employees may need to access. We’ve integrated with OKTA which has also opened our doors to thousands of apps that could be useful to you.

 

• The Insights Explorer
  District’s analytics platform provides you with insights and features that help you to understand your workplace community and measure the success of the platform. The dashboard enables you to monitor everything from the number of active users and new sign-ups to more granular detail including engagement levels of events and articles.
• Surveys & feedback
  With the District employee app you can publish surveys in the app and ask for feedback and ratings of events and services. This empowers you with the data and understanding to iterate experiences for your employees based on what they did or didn’t like.

 

Employee experience is important because engaged employees are simply more productive and more likely to be retained. This ultimately impacts the company’s bottom line, so focusing on improving employee experience is critical to any successful organisation. But, where does a company start? How do you understand what your employees want? This is where employee engagement software comes in, empowering you with the insights to make data-driven decisions about your workforce to transform experiences and drive engagement.

The purpose of employee engagement software is to help employees interact with their workplace and feel more connected to their company’s goals and values. This in turn drives higher employee engagement, productivity and retention. 

Employee engagement software is a tool that allows you to gather engagement data and metrics as well as employee surveys and feedback empowering you with the insight to build and improve an engagement strategy that employees truly want. This is why employee experience management software is becoming an integral part of any employee engagement strategy in today’s organizations. Furthermore, the switch to hybrid working is another reason why a digital engagement platform will be key to business success, providing the tools to engage employees whether they are based on-site, at a satellite office or working remotely. 

The HR tech industry is worth well over 45 million dollars, and there’s a very good reason for that. Companies are becoming more and more reliant on technology to facilitate their work, meaning not only is there an expectation from employees for a digital workplace experience but also a real need as more and more employees shift to a hybrid working environment.