Overview
EED can be described as the "intentional design of the active or passive use of HR products or services",[1] and employee experiences in general, that affect employees' emotional reaction and therefore their particular behaviors and loyalty.[2]
The underlying assumption is that best (customer/employee) relationships are emotional in nature and achieved when companies succeed in not only satisfying certain needs (e.g. compensation), but also making interactions pleasurable.[2][3]
The goal is to yield better customer experience through increased employee engagement and employee empowerment.[4] Following Krippendorf, EED focuses on creating meaningful and sense-making opportunities for engagement,[5] and addressing aspirational [4] and fundamental psychological needs of an employee, such as autonomy, competence and relatedness.[6]
Methods
Related to design strategy, EED is a participatory systems approach to workplace improvements that applies methods and principles of experience design, such as design thinking, co-creation and empathic design[1] and new digital tools and technologies. It also uses tools and techniques that are typical to customer experience management and service design, e.g. employee experience journey mapping[7] or touchpoint analysis.
Primary design object is the employee experience, which – when successful – an employee finds unique, memorable and sustainable over time, would want to repeat and build upon, and enthusiastically promotes via word of mouth.[3] It is suspected to encourage loyalty by creating an emotional connection through engaging, compelling, and consistent context.[2] The categories for employee experience design context are products, processes, artefacts, content, space and interactions.[1]
While employee experience design is beneficial to create positive customer experiences, it is also beneficial for non-customer-facing roles.
Many elements can make up a successful employee experience, including office environment, reward and benefits, flexible working and casual dress policies.
Stakeholders
Human resource management, operating across hierarchies and departments, plays a central role in design, distribution and delivery of EED. As co-creation is an important design principle, it is a shared task and joint responsibility of leadership, HR professionals and employees.[1] Following the logic of the service-profit chain, beneficiaries are also customers, as the recipients of improved service quality and the organization itself through increased profits.[8]