Five signs your relationship with your employer WILL LAST and five that IT WON’T – by ‘Mr Employee Experience’ Ben Whitter

Georgeta Gheorghe 16/05/2018 | 17:50

Founder of the World Employee Experience Institute (WEEI), Ben Whitter is one of the world’s leading figures within employee experience. A keynote speaker at Wednesday’s HR Masters Summit at Bucharest Technology Week, he tours the world to advise businesses and HR experts on the best ways to enhance employe experience, solving a crisis or two on the way. 

When considering the Romanian HR market, Whitter believes that companies in Romania are starting to move from transactional HR to new practices. However, when assessing progressiveness, he argues that one is better off speaking about progressive companies rather than progressive markets, because you can provide good employee experience in any market. “Indeed, having worked in Asia, I believe they have taken the lead in countries such as China and Singapore, for instance. But I don’t think building a great employee experience is market specific,” Whitter told BR.

In order to enhance employee experience and become more people centric, he argues, it is necessary for companies to connect purpose, people and profit. “If you bring them together, attention for the employee reflects to customer experience and ultimately shareholder satisfaction,” he argues.

But how about when assessing the status of one’s relationship with their employer? How can one tell whether it is moving in the right direction? Here are Ben Whitter’s five signs to look out for:

Five signs the relationship with your employer will be long-lasting 

1. It is mutual, it is co-created and based on the same goals and values that are all nicely aligned.

2. It is based on trust. You trust each other and trust is cultivated consciously and reinforced on a daily basis, through rituals, and not only once a year.

3. It is based on commitment and you are committed to each other. When this happens, it created a strong sense of belonging.

4. You care about each other. Through its strategy and vision, the employer shows they care about employees and offers them the social support to do things and even to fail. This way they know that the employer is there to help them get back up, if this happens.

5. You grow together and take an evolutionary approach. It won’t always be perfect, mistakes are going to be made but you understand that and know how you answer those. And grow through the experience.

To complete the big picture, here are Ben’s signs that the relationship doesn’t have the potential to hold and will soon take a nosedive.

Five signs the relationship with your employer will not last

1. The relationship is taken for granted. That develops into a weak connection between employer and employee.

2. The employer or employee breaks promises and does not act with integrity.

3. Expectations are misplaced. You have unrealistic expectations or unmet expectations on both sides.

4. There is a complete lack of transparency. Employees should be allowed to express themselves and be autonomous to be given the freedom to act. If they do create a great experience, the employee should embrace that because engagement is a two way street.

5. There is a disconnect between the employee and the employer. If an employer is not taking the its values seriously this is not good for anyone. The commitment must be really deep, integrated and connected and no tolerance should be permitted for either side for not respecting the values.

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