Workplace Experience vs. Employee Experience: What Sets Them Apart?

Nine out of ten managers confuse workplace experience for employee experience. However, while both the concepts are co-dependent, they are not the same.

Think of workplace experience as a subset of employee experience. When employees go through a rewarding workplace experience, they enjoy a positive employee experience as well. Nonetheless, the two concepts differ on various grounds.

Keep reading to understand the two concepts, how they differ, and how managers practice them. 

What is Workplace Experience?

Workplace experience is a human-centric approach to creating the best possible work environment for employees to do their job well. It uses holistic thinking and focuses on three elements.

• Physical Workspace

How employees feel when they are working in the physical office defines their workplace experience 

That is why IT managers and leaders collaborate to design workspaces and implement software solutions that boost employee productivity. They provide employees with comfortable workstations to work long hours and offer resources like prepaid cell phone connections, company credit cards, etc.

• Technical Resources

Boosting the technical work environment involves deploying highly responsive and user-friendly digital workplace platforms. This can include open access to communication tools, sophisticated software for desk bookings, or devices like laptops or cell phones.

In today’s fast-moving work environment, offering appropriate tools and technologies are key to improving employee experience.  

• Culture

A critical but often overlooked element of workplace experience, and employee experience, is culture. 

How workers feel about your company values, structure, their colleagues, roles, or hierarchy will define how they feel about coming to office. Typically, a work culture which rewards wins and contributions and provides rooms for mistakes is preferred by many. 

Why is it Critical to Improve Workplace Experience?

Workplace experience (WX) is neither an implement-and-forget concept nor a one-size-fits-all one. It is ever-evolving practice and requires a viable ecosystem with the above three elements. 

This concept also focuses on employee flexibility and visibility, which is especially critical for today’s flexible workplaces. Imagine if every employee steps into the office and feels it was made to accommodate their professional needs? But a well-planned work experience can make this possible. 

Tips to Improve Workplace Experience 

• Float surveys requesting employee feedback frequently. Allow them to submit this survey anonymously to encourage honest responses. 
• Create a special team to develop policies and practices taking inspiration from employee feedback to improve the workplace experience. 
• Invest in software tools that improve the workplace experience, especially if you operate a flexible setup. These can include apps that allow employees to book their preferred workstations or communicate asynchronously. 

What is Employee Experience?

Employee experience includes everything your staff goes through during their tenure at your company. It consists of the level of communication employees have with colleagues, leaders, and clients. It also encompasses the everyday challenges they face, and the solutions provided by leaders. 

All of this forms a personal perception of the company employees work for. Needless to say, the better the employee experience, the higher the productivity. However, improving employee experience can be challenging. 

To offer a fulfilling experience to employees, you will need to work on the following three parameters.

• Employee engagement 

Employees who are not engaged often feel unmotivated to work and have low productivity. One way to overcome this is by identifying their forte and assigning tasks accordingly. Providing meaningful work will boost engagement, leading to an improved employee experience. 

Here are a few other ways to boost employee engagement:

• Providing and soliciting feedback
• Taking an action on reported employee issues 
• Assigning the right quantity of work for each day 

Company culture 

Studies show that creating a strong employee-friendly culture keeps your employees motivated, reduces attrition and boosts engagement. All of these improve the overall employee experience. 

Here are a few actionable tips to improve your company’s culture:

• Get employee feedback about the working environment
• Identify the larger pain points and create a blueprint to tackle them individually.
• Reward and recognize your employees where its due
• Embrace diversity and inclusivity

Work environment 

Changing your company’s work environment is integral to improving employee experience and reducing absenteeism. Managers can help their employees achieve this by:

• Training them to reduce distractions like phone alerts, etc.  
• Ensuring ample natural lighting at work
• Providing ample time for breaks
• Providing a daily to-do list

Why is it Important to Enhance Employee Experience?

As stated earlier, a good employee experience is pivotal to attract and retain talent. When employees enjoy the role they play and the colleagues they work with, they are more enthusiastic, productive, and engaged. This directly affects their contribution to the company.

Moreover, a positive employee experience helps you boost collaboration, employee satisfaction, and brand image. 

Tips to Improve Employee Experience 

• Provide tools and technologies that deliver effective communication
• Float employee satisfaction surveys and provide channels for subjective feedback
• Offer personal and professional growth opportunities like appraisals, promotions, training, and workshops.

How is Workplace Experience Different from Employee Experience?  

Workplace experience focuses on the holistic elements found in a physical workspace. This includes technology, physical office space including furniture and washrooms, and staff management. In contrast, employee experience is all about the human individual and how they feel about the work environment and the policies governing it. 

However, you cannot have one without the other. Only a fine balance between the two can translate to company success.   

In the End

As flexible and hybrid work becomes the norm, employee experience and workplace experience are bound to change. However, the core of the two concepts remains the same: offering employees the best work environment possible. 

This is why technology aids have become a vital investment today. WorkInSync hybrid workplace solution offers the simplest way to understand an employee’s workspace needs post-pandemic.