Savvy employers understand that closing the gap between the consumer experience (what employees see outside work) and the employee experience (what they see inside work) can have huge effects on things like employee productivity, morale, and even the bottom line. According to Gallup, a business with an unenthusiastic workforce not only risks compromising profitability, safety, and quality, but disengaged employees cost the U.S. $450 billion to $550 billion per year.
Many employees know that what they experience at work and what they experience outside of work can be two very different things. Who hasn’t sat through a 45 minute training video, an e-learning module, or the webcast of their CEO’s address to the company and thought, “Why is this so much less engaging than everything else I see?”
Keith Koslov, a video director who regularly works with the el-j team, describes it this way: “It’s about credibility. If you go to work and feel like you’re walking back in time, you’re not going to feel like your company really values your experience as an employee.”
One of those savvy employers closing the customer-to-employee experience gap is Schneider Electric. In 2018, Schneider decided that it needed to change the format of its annual employee meeting, called Global Pulse, to increase employee engagement. Koslov said, “I remember during the first planning meeting the clients asked, ‘How do we make sure everyone watching connects with the presenter, remembers the visuals, and internalizes the message? And if you can’t put everyone into the same room, how do we give them a visual experience that’s going to capture attention and make them feel like they are there?’” Our el-j producer agreed, “There are a lot of distractions, and matching employee and consumer experiences means you’re more likely to capture their attention.”
Keith and the el-j team were asked to bring that consumer experience to the forefront of the Schneider employee experience. Koslov explained how the team achieved success. “My background is in high level entertainment, so I’m able to use all the techniques that a TV show or movie or newscast might use to allow a workforce to connect with a leader and build that trust and that’s priceless. Employees can now see the passion in their leader’s face. We’re able to use technology that didn’t exist a few years ago…things like in-camera augmented reality…to achieve this as a method to display information for the employees watching.”
The result was a memorable live broadcast which reached the majority of Schneider Electric’s 180,000 employees. One employee commented in the post-event survey, “I felt like I was just watching a TV show - it was like something I’d see on a cable news program.”
Koslov summed up why this event was an important move for Schneider Electric to close the consumer-to-employee experience gap and why live experiences like these - and the challenges that we here at el-j take on every day - are so necessary. He said, “It’s a shared experience. Reading an email or message on a message board is not the same as a live event that everyone is watching and participating in. A live event is the only time that happens. It’s unifying.”
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