What is an Employee Experience Platform? Top Benefits and features (2024)

What is an Employee Experience Platform?

One way to define“employee experience platform,” is to break it down into “employee experience” and “platform.”

Definition of Employee Experience

The employee experience includes all the events throughout the employee’s relationship with the employer. The entire employee journey, from the onboarding process to the point when the employee leaves the company is included. The employee experience includes day-to-day interactions, such as getting tasks done, and protecting the employee’s physical and mental health. Experience is based on interactions with others on a company-wide basis. All employees play a role in each other’s employee experience.

— Elements of a Platform

A platform combines a group of technological tools in one place. In the context of a digital employee experience platform, the technology is being used to make the employees more collaborative and better at communication. Unlike a human capital system, which is focused on managing employee data around their work, including payroll, timekeeping, and benefits. The employee experience platform is about employee engagement and communication, while the HCM system is an HR function.

— Employee Experience Platform Meaning

When both terms are combined, a digital employee experience platform combines collaboration, productivity, engagement, company culture, and communication tools. It is accessible, easy to use, and designed to meet the needs of all employees.

LumApps, The Employee Experience Platform

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Evolution of the Employee Experience Platform

One factor contributing to the evolution of the employee experience platform is millennials and a new era of employees entering the workforce. Unlike previous generations, this group wants more from their work life than to simply show up and do the work that’s in front of them.

They have done the math and realize that if they work full-time, they will be spending close to one-third of their lives working. As a result, they want their work experience to be about more than just being busy, hitting the KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) their managers have set for them, or making money for the company. Employees want to feel their efforts are appreciated and that the employer is supportive of their overall health (physical and mental).

Before the COVID-19 pandemic started, company culture had already started to shift in a more employee-friendly direction. Employers started to add perks to make the workplace a more fun place for workers.

With the incoming health and safety regulations, employers had to make adjustments to support employees at home. Remote work has become commonplace with less physical interactions between coworkers.

Since employees have switched to a virtual workspace, employers are seeking ways to improve the employee experience in that environment. It has become a priority that influences their technology decisions.

Employee Experience vs. Employee Engagement

The terms “employee experience” and “employee engagement” are used frequently. Sometimes they’re used interchangeably, though they refer to different ideas.

Employee experience is about the entire journey an employee makes with a company. It starts as soon as a person is contacted about a job opening (the pre-hire stage) and ends with an exit interview or when the employee retires. The employee experience includes everything that happens to the employee on the job (each interaction, event, and experience) in between those two events.

Employee engagement is an emotional and social experience, not a business outcome. It includes how an employee feels about their work and the company. Engagement also reflects whether the employee feels valued at work and if they have a purpose.

Experience and Engagement Work Together

Employee engagement can’t be separated from the overall employee experience. When an employer creates an effective engagement strategy, it naturally follows that employees feel they are valued at work. The employer’s engagement and experience strategy could include some (or all) of the following:

• Consistent communication
• Constructive feedback
• Professional development opportunities
• Wellness (physical and mental health) initiatives

As workplace culture evolves, organizations need to carefully consider the factors that make employees want to come to work as opposed to coming in because they need to make money.

A positive employee experience means employees are less likely to leave their job voluntarily. However, it doesn’t necessarily result in employees who will take pride in their work, feel engaged in what they do, or feel connected to their employer.

Employers must focus on employee experience and employee engagement together if they want to retain their top performers long-term and make them want to come to work with a drive to give their best effort.

Why is an Employee Experience Platform Important for Enterprise Companies?

1. Boosts Employee Engagement

Employee engagement increases through increased social interactions and ease of collaboration. The employee experience platform brings people from different teams and departments together through intuitive social and communication features.

2. Creates a More Inclusive Culture

When teams are working virtually and relying on an employee experience platform, the company culture feels less hierarchical and corporate. Communication flows from the top down and from the bottom up with employees feeling confident about sharing their ideas with company executives.

3. Productivity Increases

Employees who spend time switching between apps or searching for documents or information find their productivity is hampered. An employee experience platform helps to solve this problem by offering employees the tools they use most often in one place. It also offers authorized users a place where they can find the documents, forms, contracts, etc. - everything they need in one location.

4. Higher Retention Rates

Employees who have had positive experiences at work are less likely to consider leaving their jobs. For employers, positive experiences are an important consideration since recruiting, onboarding, and training new employees is a very expensive process. It pays to find employees who will stay on long-term.

5. Supports Employee Wellbeing

Employees work hard. Burnout and stress at work is a given, whether they’re at the office or working remotely. If employees aren’t supported, they can become less productive and may end up leaving their jobs.

A digital employee experience platform like LumApps gives employees a place where they can take a break to enjoy a virtual cup of coffee with their colleagues, laugh at workplace-appropriate humor, or share tips with colleagues in a casual, virtual environment.

6. Simplifies and Streamlines the Employee Experience

Rather than having employees trying to figure out multiple software programs at work, have them access everything they need through the employee experience platform. If everyone is using one platform, it is easier to track user adoption levels.

Functionality and security are easier to monitor if all users are on a single platform. The company can ensure that all personal data is safe and any concerns are dealt with quickly and appropriately.

7. Easy to Track Communication Performance

Administrators can use the employee experience platform app to track individual and team performance when it comes to internally published content. The platform makes it easy to tell which content is resonating with certain audiences. Using this data, employees can fine tune their engagement and communication strategy.

8. Keep all Employees Connected, Regardless of Work Location

Geography doesn’t have to be a barrier to employees feeling connected to their co-workers once a digital employee experience platform is deployed. The employee experience platform makes it easy for employees to stay connected to each other, no matter where they are located and what device they’re using.

9. Ensure Cross-Department Knowledge Sharing

Employee experience platforms allow employees to ask for help anytime they need extra support from their manager or another team member to keep projects on schedule. As employees share current progress, challenges and goals in their department area, other teams gain valuable insight. This reduces the negative impact of department silos.

10. Templates for Communication and Management

Employee experience platforms offer the ability to broadcast information to specific audiences, reducing the overall noise that employees receive everyday. They also offer options for supporting employee onboarding and key moments in the employee journey.

Main Features of an Employee Experience Platform

1. Personalized Employee Communications

Communication through the platform includes much more than just sending messages to a co-worker’s e-mail address. It is media-rich, profile-driven content in the employee’s language of choice that includes articles, news, web pages, blog posts, newsletters, links, images, and videos.

Employees can send feedback through likes and shares to internal company content. They can participate in company surveys to provide feedback to executives.

2. Digital Dashboard

A single dashboard where employees can sign in to access all their digital tools makes for a more efficient user experience. As the future of work evolves to remote work or a hybrid work arrangement where employees split their time between working in the office and remotely, having all their online tools in one place is crucial. Employees don’t have to spend time looking for the apps they use every day. They can get their work software up and running quickly.

3. Fosters Networking and Collaboration

The employee experience platform encourages networking by having dedicated online work and project-based teams. The platform is also home to various social groups that share the same interests. Both types of groups share updates and notices with members online.

Collaboration within the company is encouraged through several means: an online employee directory, e-mail, Slack, company-wide notifications, and knowledge communities. Internal company content and community calendar are ways to keep everyone advised of happenings

4. Accessible from Anywhere

Mobile access is an important feature. Modern platforms support iOS and Android mobile devices, employees can access company communications from anywhere on their smartphones and tablets. This feature gives remote workers the flexibility they need and supports deskless workers.

5. Integrate Business Apps

To be effective, modern platforms should integrate the apps employees use regularly, such as Google Workspace or Microsoft 365. Google Workspace includes Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Cloud Search, Google Drive, and more. Microsoft 365 includes Outlook 365 Emails, Outlook 365 OneDrive, SharePoint Online, and more. Look for integrations with these tools when shopping for an employee experience platform.

LumApps is a Google and Microsoft employee experience platform.

6. HR Portal

Employee experience platforms are relevant HR leaders and the HR technology landscape. The company HR department can upload policy, PTO information and FAQ, post internal job postings, announce new arrivals and internal changes. The platform is a good place to display a list of HR contacts, publish HR news, and post employment satisfaction surveys.

7. Onboarding Center

The first few days and weeks after joining a company are crucial for an employee. They set the tone for the relationship between the employee and the employer.

An Onboarding Center sets out a series of steps for new employees to follow. It keeps them engaged and productive from their first day. The steps help the new hire become acclimatized to the company and the way the new employee’s team works. This streamlined approach gets new employees up and running quickly and efficiently

8. Employee Directory

The Employee Directory allows people to connect across teams and departments within the company. It lists employees by name, job title, and relevant experience. When an employee needs to reach someone with a certain area of responsibility or expertise, the Employee Directory allows them to find the right person quickly.

The Employee Directory can also be used to share employees’ hobbies and interests outside of work with the rest of the company. This information can serve as a basis for employees to connect with each other personally.

9. IT Portal

The IT Portal gives employees access to IT matters from one convenient location. It is more than just a list of FAQ and helpful links that workers can click on to solve their own IT issues. It also includes a list of IT Department contacts and a button where employees can request assistance. The IT Department can announce updates and changes to the company from the Portal.

10. Town Hall

Town Hall is a central area specifically set aside for planning and sharing. Virtual Town Hall meetings include employees in all the company’s offices and locations. This is an online location to announce important company news and updates. After the announcement has been made, employees can share their thoughts with management by posting comments in real-time.

How to Set up an Employee Experience Platform for your Company

1. Define your goals

The first step in setting up an employer experience platform for your company is defining your goals.

• Do you want to streamline your business process?
• Is improving service delivery costs a crucial area for improvement?
• Are you looking to modernize your HR technology?
• Is improving the employee experience overall a priority for your business?

The answers to these questions will help you drill down and define your goals in defining an employee experience platform for your company.

2. List the features you need

If you have ever bought a house, you likely know that certain features are in the category of “must have,” while others are relegated to “nice to have.”

Do the same type of lists for your business, separating out the “must have” features for the platform from the ones that would be “nice to have.” Which features would be most helpful to you and your team? Make sure that your “basket” of features includes these ones first; you can always add others later on.

Hint: You’ll likely want to focus on the features that allow your employees to communicate with each other, access the software they use most, and work from any location first.

3. Choose the best employee experience platform

LumApps is one platform that offers multiple benefits to companies, including the following:

• Easy to use with intuitive and UX-focused features
• LumApps is a cloud-based platform that users can access from anywhere from any device
• The LumApps employee experience platform integrates with the best collaborative suites (Google Workspace and Microsoft 365).
• LumApps’ platform integrates easily with today’s most-used digital tools (Slack, Workday, Salesforce, Zapier, Zoom, Jira and many more).

4. Plan your migration to LumApps

LumApps has the experience you can trust to help even a large enterprise migrate from Jive to the LumApps platform. We offer our valued customers a consistent product delivery cycle full of utility-rich features.

LumApps’ dedicated team of Jive experts are available to assist you when making the most of your technical investment. They have a deep understanding of Jive and digital workplaces that will steer you into the next decade.

Our bespoke migration strategy will support your business from the launch going forward. Our migration plans include transparent pricing so you can buy with confidence.

5. Select your design

LumApps allows its customers to customize the design for their internal communication dashboard. With custom branding options and over 30 languages available, employees can login into a digital HQ and see posts and announcements in their language of choice.

Global search, mobile applications, social features, and easy access to Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace are critical features available from the dashboard.

6. Train your employees

The next step in the process is to ensure all your employees are trained on the new system. You can schedule the training on a team or department basis. Since the LumApps platform is user-friendly, this process is less time consuming than more technical software applications.

Keep in mind there will be a learning curve involved as employees switch over to the new system. Their productivity will be slower for a time as they get used to the new platform.

This reflects different learning styles: Some people can read a manual and understand completely how to use software and others need to work with it hands-on before they “get it.” If anyone is really struggling after the first few weeks, offer them some one-on-one help.