EMPLOYEE EXPERIENCE - THE KEY TO DRIVING BUSINESS SUCCESS

Author: Sophie Schaedel/Sunday, January 24, 2021/Categories: Quinton Anthony

Businesses that view their people as making the difference to whether the long-term strategy is realised are more likely to attract, develop, engage and retain their talent. At Quinton Anthony Consulting, we have a passion for helping businesses tailor their employee experiences and align it to the wider business culture and strategy.

WHY DOES EMPLOYEE EXPERIENCE MATTER?

An employee experience that’s aligned to your business values and strategy will deliver performance, innovation, productivity and better experiences for your clients.

When Neil Harding joined ADCO Constructions as CEO with the belief that people drive business success and culture comes first, our team at QAC were selected to design the first business-wide engagement survey. The aim was to first understand what drives their employees and gain insights into the experiences of the teams at ADCO with the development of a culture led business strategy front of mind.

This provided us with a great opportunity to show the positive impact that employee experiences can have on culture, strategy, brand and ongoing business success; along with any potential barriers to success.

“The aim is to set a high bar for employee engagement in the industry and use the feedback to drive business initiatives. QAC’s industry experience and insights into our culture gave us the confidence that through their data analysis, we would clearly see areas we needed to focus on for the next 12 months.” Neil Harding, CEO, ADCO Constructions

Reflecting on ADCO’s engagement journey over the past 3 years, we see the connection between the increased participation rate, volume of employee feedback, and engagement, with the change program to their innovation agenda and business growth.

THE ADCO JOURNEY

THE ADCO EMPLOYEE EXPERIENCE

The first engagement and pulse surveys set the experience benchmarks and ensured that we were on the right track with the business initiatives. Most recently, we changed it up and refreshed the survey with more personalised questions and the option for employees to provide more detailed feedback. Although we were comfortable with the consistency of responses, ADCO wanted a comprehensive assessment of the employee experience.

QAC’s HR Consultant, Courtney Snowball, has worked closely with the team at ADCO to deliver the engagement program “It has been great to see how employees have directly impacted the business planning process through their feedback and increasing levels of engagement.”

“Having just completed our third annual survey, I am delighted to see that our People are more connected and engaged then ever with their teams and our brand.” Neil Harding, CEO

There is a consistent theme from ADCO employees on why they stay with the business:

Health & Well-being

95% of employees feel that ADCO cares about their wellbeing and personal safety.

“If you ever need any support or time to fix any issue outside of work, they are always supportive and help where they can”

Pride

94% of employees are aligned with the ADCO vision and are proud to tell others that they work for ADCO.

The Vision

With over 90% saying that they have a clear understanding of the business strategy and their role in helping ADCO achieve success.

“Collaborative, positive and motivated to create outcomes that are mutually rewarding for ADCO, our employees, clients and subcontractors.”

Alignment

93% of employees would recommend ADCO has a great place to work.

“Overall, ADCO is a great place to work and I love that we are continuing to strive to make it even better”

CULTURE COMES FIRST

If you agree that company culture is what your employees say about the business when you’re not in the room, then it follows that the shared experiences of employees, their behaviours and understanding of the business vision and purpose can help make or break business strategy.

ADCO wants their employees to feel comfortable enough to share this with the leadership team as they believe this will be the difference in business performance.

Increasing employee experience was important to 88% of those surveyed in the “2019 Deloitte Global Human Capital Trends” report, which globally saw nearly 10,000 respondents. 28% included it as one of the top 3 most pressing issues facing their organisation this year.

Why does employee experience matter? A stronger employee experience will drive the business to achieve increased innovation and productivity levels, a better client experience, the ability to attract and retain key talent, and ultimately they will see the positive impact on the bottom line.

The key is to start with a focus on your business culture and designing a strong experience for your employees.

EMPLOYEE EXPERIENCE BY DESIGN

Before you choose where to invest time and resources, take the time to benchmark where you are at in terms of your employees and then work on developing an experience that is personal to your business and your people.

1. What you can measure, you can act on

Gathering data from multiple sources can provide key insights into your employee experience. Engagement surveys are a start but capturing feedback across multiple areas will help you determine priorities more quickly.

- The onboarding experience and why they chose to join you

- Focus groups to test your assumptions and hear stories about experiences

- Performance and Talent data

- Employee Demographics – tenure, diversity, turnover, reasons for leaving / exit interviews, promotions

- Benchmark your Employee Value Proposition against the market

2. Determine your priorities

Use the data to determine what experiences and expectations are most relevant and important to your employees and start to build your program from there.

3. Take Action

Have a clear plan of action and communicate this across the business.

- Ensure your key influencers in the business are on board

- Empower your teams to give feedback on what is and isn’t working

- Ensure your expectations for the employee experience are supported by your policies and technology

- Check in with employees on what they think

- Modify the plan or initiatives if needed

WHAT’S NEXT FOR ADCO?

Following detailed feedback sessions with the State teams, key focus areas around people have been identified for the next year, and includes:

• Workplace flexibility for all

• Diversity and employee inclusion

• Internal talent management and succession

• Career paths and progression

• Personal development

The team at QAC is certainly looking forward to seeing the results in 2021!

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With nearly 50 years’ experience, ADCO Constructions is one of Australia’s oldest and most established construction companies. Australian owned and hugely proud of their heritage, they are now one of the largest private builders in the country delivering commercial construction projects nationwide.

Quinton Anthony Consulting provides HR Consulting and Talent Management Outsourcing solutions to the Construction, Engineering and Property sectors. We are passionate about building businesses through developing their greatest assets; their people.