How to convince internal stakeholders to invest in a better employee experience

In order to successfully persuade upper management, you need to adapt your messaging accordingly. Instead of framing employee experience as being central to employee satisfaction and wellbeing, think about it in terms of purpose, price, and productivity. 

With attrition rates at tech companies on the rise, many leaders are looking for a way to boost retention. HR and People teams should seize this opportunity and put employee experience at the top of their company’s agenda. Here are some tips to help you build your case and position yourself as the change-maker in your organization.

‍Do your research and showcase industry best practices 

Simply stating that the company needs a better employee experience is not enough. In order to avoid ambiguity and buzzword fatigue, it’s necessary to lead the discussion with a clear definition of employee experience, where this paradigm shift came from and why so many thought leaders see this as the key to simultaneously increasing employee and customer satisfaction.

Additionally, research how market leaders in your industry are innovating their employee experiences and how this has affected their brand awareness in the job market and the retention rates within their company. By providing examples of best practices and their impact, you can build a solid foundation to pitch the idea of a better employee experience at your own workplace.

Tailor it to your business’s objectives and goals

 After addressing the significance of employee experience at the macro-level, it’s time to zero in on how it aligns with the top-level goals of your organization. Take a look at your company’s mission, vision, and objectives. How does improving the employee experience fit into this? By answering this question, improved employee experience will no longer be regarded as a pursuit exclusive to the HR department, but rather as a demonstration of core company values and an effort that is essential to the company’s overall success.

‍Find your senior-level champion

Once you have compiled your research and aligned your case to your business’s overall objectives, it’s time to find your champion. Bringing in a senior level partner and getting their buy-in can notably strengthen your business case and help simplify the rest of the process. They can help anticipate questions or concerns, as well as help break through potential barriers and advocate internally with senior stakeholders. 

Lead with data and return on investment

Data has become central to decision-making, and here is no exception. As you argue your case for improving employee experience, don’t spend too much time focusing on abstract benefits like a more attractive company culture. Instead, dive into the numbers. In a Global Data and Analytics survey conducted by PwC, executives who used data and analytics expressed a higher level of confidence in the quality of their decision-making process. With this in mind, make sure to communicate the need for changes, the cost of not taking action, and return on investment in numbers, not just in words.

Provide a concrete plan for implementation

Once you have explained the financial benefits, it’s time to discuss how you will implement a better employee experience. Using visuals, such as diagrams and infographics, can be helpful for identifying the major issues currently affecting your company. 

By organizing problems into specific categories, you can see which other departments need to be involved in creating solutions and which technologies are needed to facilitate the necessary changes. After you have a list in front of you, prioritize employee experience goals based on importance, cost, and feasibility. Focus on those at the top of your list and provide actionable solutions with a timeline for their implementation. 

Explain how success will be measured

Having presented a clear roadmap for the next year(s), you need to have a transparent way to measure the success of your proposed initiatives and technological investments. By creating a set of OKRs around your action plan, you have a reference point to consult when it comes time to assess its effectiveness. Here’s an example of how you can do this:

Objective: Increased engagement in the compliance section of our onboarding process by using an online platform

Key Result: In Q4, 70% of new employees will have completed their compliance training within their first month of being hired.   

To get upper management to invest in a better employee experience, it’s important to be clear and concise. With a proposal that outlines your objectives and their impact in a measurable and relevant way, you will be able to build a convincing argument for improving employee experience at your workplace. HR already knows how critical employees are to a company’s success; now is the moment to make sure that your company’s leaders are aware of this, too.