General CX

CX metrics part 6: Employee experience metrics

What do employee experience metrics have to do with the customer experience? Find out in this article, the finale of our six-part CX metrics series.

It’s tempting to think that only customer-facing roles (like customer service or sales) directly impact the customer experience. But studies show that providing a good employee experience (EX) is essential to business success. 

In fact, an HBR study showed that companies who moved from the bottom 25% to the top 25% across all facets of EX could theoretically grow their revenue and profit by about 50 percent. If that’s not enough reason to investigate employee experience metrics, it’s hard to know what is!

But what is employee experience exactly?

Who defines employee experience?

In one view, employee experience can refer to all the actions a company takes to train, support, and motivate its employees. But we prefer a more human-centric view. That’s why we agree with another definition of employee experience: 

EX is about how employees feel about their jobs. 

Widening the lens a bit, EX is also how they feel about their coworkers, managers, and the company that hired them. It considers systems, tools, processes, hardware, software, onboarding, performance evaluations, teams, stress levels, work conditions, etc. 

In other words, employee experience is the total experience a person has while working for a company. Like CX, it’s a blend of facts and feelings. And like CX metrics, employee experience metrics cover both subjective, qualitative data (e.g. engagement and satisfaction) and objective, quantitative data (e.g. retention rates, time on task).

Key employee experience and performance metrics

We don’t differentiate between employee experience and employee performance metrics; in our view, they’re just two ways of telling the same story. The following EX metrics can help you understand more than just the dry facts of employee performance; they’ll also help you spot patterns in employee satisfaction and engagement – or employee stress and disengagement.

1. Employee Net Promoter Score (eNPS) measures how satisfied employees are with the company they work for. This is the employee version of the customer NPS score we covered in CX metrics: Part 1.
2. Employee retention rate (eRetention) tracks how many employees stay with the company over a given period of time. This is the employee version of customer retention rates. The flip side is voluntary turnover rates, which measures how many employees quit their job during the same timeframe.
3. Job satisfaction is a qualitative metric that indicates how employees feel about their role in the company.
4. Stress levels are often self-reported and reflect how difficult employees find it to do their jobs. This is another qualitative metric that relies on self-reporting; it’s also an essential part of the EX picture.
5. Absentee levels record the combined number of times employees were absent from work. Most organizations count only unexcused absences and do not include holidays, pre-planned vacations, or medical leave, but this can vary from business to business. A high number of unexpected absences indicates a problem with employee satisfaction, engagement, stress, or communication.
6. Time in role reflects how long an employee has been in their current position. Interpreting this metric depends on the company, position, or employee; usually, a longer time in the same role is desirable for skill- or knowledge-based positions.
7. Work efficiency compares workers’ quality or output metric against the costs it takes to produce that result. The cost can include work-hours, supplies, training, materials, etc.
8. Time to complete task records how long it takes an employee to complete a given part of their work. This can also be expressed as an average. It’s used to understand if a process can be improved with better software, workflow management, etc.
9. Task completion rates reflect how often employees can complete a given part of their work. Tasks with a low completion rate should be investigated; employees may need better training, software, tools, etc. to succeed in that task.

Employee experience metrics and the customer experience

When employees feel satisfied, engaged, and appreciated, they provide a better customer experience. But what are the drivers of employee satisfaction and engagement?

Many of the details will depend on your organization, its products and services, etc. Broadly speaking, however, there four main focus areas:

• Value: How do employees feel about the products/services they represent? How do they align with organizational values? Is there room for professional development?
• Know-how: Do employees have the training and support they need? Note that this is more than just a one-time knowledge dump; it’s an ongoing, living process.
• Technical: Do employees have tools that make sense for their workflow? Or is there a technical or tool debt that makes tasks unnecessarily difficult or time-consuming?
• Interpersonal: How do employees feel about their place in the company? How do they rate their relationships with colleagues, managers, and others?

Providing an employee experience that covers these four areas is the most important thing you can do to maintain or improve employee satisfaction and engagement. Your employees’ positive feelings will naturally flow outward and influence their interactions with customers, leading to a better customer experience. The metrics we’ve discussed can be helpful signposts to guide you along this journey.

We’ve reached the end of our exploration of the many facets of customer experience metrics! We hope these articles have been helpful. If you’d like a more personalized look at how metrics can improve your CX, contact us for a free 30-minute consultation!