By Sadik Hassan
The State of Employee Experience (EX) for Customer Experience (CX) Success survey carried out by the Institute of Customer Experience (ICX), Kenya has revealed that the majority of employees are not happy in their workplaces.
The survey, carried out between March and April 2024 shows that the Employees Net Promoter Score (eNPS) a metric that measures employees loyalty and engagement to an organization is at 23 per cent.
“Twenty three per cent is not good enough we need to move higher than that. The reports show 30 per cent of employees are not too happy while 24 per cent find their work places not the place to be,” said Carolyne Gathuru ICX Board Director in Mombasa during the 5th Annual Africa Customer Experience Conference.
The survey respondents were from various government and private sectors including finance, Telco, transport, manufacturing, healthcare, energy, agriculture, technology and education sectors.
The survey also revealed misalignment between EX and CX, and quiet quitting, with over 50 per cent of employees not actively engaged at work indicating a need for improved engagement strategies.
The launch of the survey aligns with the Government of Kenya’s strategic objectives as outlined in the strategic plans of various Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDA).
“The understanding of the current state of employee experience and its implications for customer satisfaction, decision-makers can prioritize interventions to enhance public service delivery and organizational performance,” said Gathuru.
“What has come out of this report is so fundamental to any organization not only in the country but the entire continent because we know when Kenya does something the rest of the region follows,” she added.
Gathuru encouraged employers to understand their workforce likes, dislikes, what give them joy or pain at work and take necessary corrective measures.
“When we have happy employees business will flourish. If the business sector is working then the entire nation will work. We need a robust business environment that comes from the people that work in the businesses,” stated Gathuru.
The report point out disparity of how work is viewed by generation Z, Millennial, X and baby boomers. Gathuru noted the need to align Human Resource Management and internal customers’ policies to a younger workforce.
The survey shows that data and technology is key and need to be used in a way that speaks to a morphing and a dynamic strategy.
ICX Director of Customer Metrics Akshay Shah said organizations need to focus on making their employees happy as organizations traditionally have been putting a lot of efforts in the customers’ space but there is a misalignment.
He challenged organizations to put more efforts, initiatives and money to improve employees’ experiences.
“Get the culture within the organizations right coupled with aspirational leadership because without the right culture and leadership employees and customer experiences will fail,” said Shah.
He added that the survey shows that some employees do not have emotional attachment to the organizations they are working in.
“They will come to work but mentally they have checked out. They actually are not performing and this has a big impact on the performance of the company because if employees are disgruntled they also affect the motivation of other employees in the organization thus bring productivity down,” explained Shah.
On his part, Uniliver Kenya Managing Director Luck Ochieng stated that employees are the bedrock of company’s success and if they have better experience it will drive performance.
Joseph Choge, Chairman of ICX hailed the conference under the theme: ‘Elevating Employee Experience for Customer Experience Success’ saying it brought together business leaders, Chief Executives and a host of Customer Experience professionals and practitioners at both senior and mid-level management.
Besides, he said the event was insightful and participants exchanged best practices:“We encourage all organizations in the country and beyond to look at the experiences of their employees because without a happy employee then there is no happy customer,” said Choge.
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