A NEW role is making its way into boardrooms, edging out the traditional HR director – the chief employee experience officer.

According to consultants Odgers Berndtson, organisations are moving away from HR’s primary focus being about people strategy and core processes towards a greater emphasis on “the complete employee experience”.

Airbnb was one early proponent of crafting its employee experience. In 2015 its then HR director, Mark Levy, changed his title to chief employee experience officer and subsequently set about the task of revolutionising the company’s approach to its workforce.

Airbnb is a huge organisation, but companies of all sizes can benefit from a focus on improving the employee experience.

Fiona Irvine of Rainbow HR says the leadership team is critical to the delivery of a great employee experience, but they often forget the impact they have when they talk to their people, and just how much face-to-face engagement matters.

“A great employee experience is based on creating a culture where the people in the business at every level love coming to work, and are motivated to deliver their best every day,” says Irvine.

“For the culture to be more employee focused the leadership team needs to stay on message and truly live the values of the organisation every day – easier said than done. They also need to invest time to be visible across the business, displaying ‘authentic’ leadership skills, which means actually listening and hearing what their people say and acting on ideas or challenges to ensure the workplace remains a great place to work.

“Just have a few initiatives that are delivered really well, great examples include a reward scheme where employees can all share in the success of the organisation, processes that allow employees to participate in the business decisions and share their ideas, lots of methods of two-way communications and making sure your people have the tools and skills to do their best.

“Staff are people, they value being invested in, being treated fairly and having a manager who truly cares about them – get this right and a highly engaged workforce will deliver exceptional business results.”

At family business DM Design, employee engagement is a key aspect of every manager’s working day, according to Ben Taylor, operations and marketing director, who admits the company is “perhaps right on the cusp” of needing a CEEO.

The company, founded in 1980, now has 96 employees with several generations and family members working together. Nurturing and promoting from within, where possible, has been the key to engaging the loyal and long serving workforce.

Statistics show that a strong culture and employee engagement increases staff retention and decreases the amount of sick leave. For DM Design, that comes down to flexible working conditions and a strong life/work balance, says Taylor: “I think it is testament to the family environment that so many people are still with the company after all these years.”