What HR Can Learn from Marketing for Better Employee Experience: 4 Insights

Companies making strides in employee experience (EX) tend to see better results from the interventions they implement. However, these initiatives often do not significantly impact key business outcomes, such as reduced absenteeism and turnover. So, what can HR learn from marketing to increase the impact of EX? Heleen Mes from HXWork and Janine Himpers from Altuïtion share four key pieces of advice.

Companies have been investing in customer experience (CX) for decades as a way to differentiate themselves. The rise of employee experience (EX) followed later, driven by the logical realization that better EX for employees leads to better CX for customers. While this connection is now well-established, the practical application is more challenging. Research by HXWork/Welliba in 2024 shows that only 17% of companies are making significant progress with EX.

1. Focus on What Really Matters

Our 2024 EX research reveals that organizations often approach the employee journey in a chronological order. They start with recruitment and onboarding, move through learning & development, and end with offboarding. Instead of focusing solely on the entire journey in chronological order, it’s crucial to emphasize the moments that truly matter. These are the moments that have the greatest impact on how employees experience their work and perceive their employer.

These “moments that matter” are not solely the responsibility of HR. Employees often experience the most significant “friction points” and highlights in the work itself. Consider aspects such as:

• Interaction with customers
• Feeling supported and autonomous, allowing them to truly make an impact
• Team dynamics and relationships with their manager
• How they are valued and recognized

By focusing more on EX within the core business processes, organizations can implement the most meaningful changes that lead to better business outcomes. This approach enhances the impact and value of EX interventions.

2. From Push to Pull

This also means that the business (managers and business unit leaders) must play a significant role in EX, even though initiatives currently largely come from HR. A similar pattern was observed in the development of the CX field. Initially, CX teams worked with a “push approach.” They developed customer journeys and shared the results with the business.

Real progress was made when business units began to request help from CX teams to improve their customer experience. Research on the organization of CX in the Netherlands (Altuïtion, 2024) found that companies with higher CX maturity often adopted this “pull approach.”

Therefore, it’s important to collaborate closely with the business on EX initiatives. Help business unit managers understand the potential results (both in employee engagement and customer experience) so that they are motivated to request more of it on their own (pull). CX and EX teams are sometimes seen by the rest of the organization as “the fun club,” as if they only deal with perks and giveaways. Show that you are deeply involved in what is meaningful to employees within the core business process, and don’t allow yourself to be relegated to the realm of extras!

3. Build Support at the Executive Level

The most significant factor in shifting from a push to a pull approach in CX was governance. How are responsibilities organized? Once a KPI for customer experience was established, CX departments were inundated with requests, and the results of CX initiatives began to accumulate. Recent research on the organization of EX (Altuïtion, 2024) shows that EX maturity in organizations grows once there is a mandate from the top.

Just as CX is often a strategic priority for the executive team, EX should be as well. HR leaders must emphasize the importance of EX and ensure that the executive team is committed to improving EX and establishing the appropriate governance. This can be achieved by demonstrating the positive impact of a strong EX on business outcomes, such as lower employee turnover, higher productivity, and greater customer satisfaction.

A good strategy is to link EX initiatives to business objectives and regularly report progress to the executive team. This way, EX is not seen as a standalone project but as an essential part of the organization’s success. Increased executive support should lead to more EX capacity, EX knowledge, HR data, and an effective EX organization. Focusing on achieving quick wins helps maintain crucial executive support at the highest level.

4. Leverage Customer Experience Methods and Techniques

Many of the techniques used in CX can also be applied to EX. Consider, for example, personas and journey mapping. In CX, personas are used to understand different customer segments and better meet their needs. This can also be done for employees. By creating personas for different types of employees within the organization, HR can better address the diverse needs and desires of the workforce.

Journey mapping, another popular CX technique, can also be applied to the employee journey. And, as with CX, this technique is a means to an end, not an end in itself. Therefore, focus on the EX journeys where you can achieve the most significant results in terms of expectation alignment.

Which journeys either contribute to forming expectations (such as onboarding) or significantly shape the experience (such as the primary customer process)? Within the “being an employee” journey, it’s advisable to zoom in on the moments that really matter. These can be pain points, but don’t forget to also pay attention to the peaks. We need enough of those to stay engaged.

Will CX and EX Merge?

The future of CX and EX is a fascinating topic. Both disciplines focus on creating valuable experiences for customers and employees, respectively. The trend seems to be towards increasing convergence between the two, as they reinforce each other. A satisfied employee contributes to a better customer experience, and positive customer interactions enhance employees’ job satisfaction.

While a full merger into Human Experience (HX) has not yet materialized, we are seeing a growing integration of CX and EX principles within organizations. Companies that successfully implement this integration are likely to gain a competitive advantage both in the labor market and in the market in which they operate. The cross-pollination between these two disciplines can only yield positive results.