‘Similar but Different: Harmonising Customer and Employee Programs,’ by Tamar Cohen
In this article, Women in CX member Tamar Cohen dives into the importance of aligning EX and CX programs. Drawing from her own experiences, she shares how the overlap between EX and CX can lead to great business outcomes when done right. However, she also points out some key differences and potential pitfalls to watch out for when trying to merge the two.
Having led both Customer Experience and Employee Experience programs, I understand more than many how important it is to align these initiatives. It is well proven that EX and CX intersect and interact, and when well harmonised, significant business results can be achieved. There are, however, some critical watch-outs when launching a unified program. There are times when CX programs should differentiate from your EX program.
Overemphasis on Metrics and KPIs
In CX programs, metrics and key performance indicators (KPIs) such as Net Promoter Score (NPS), Customer Satisfaction (CSAT), and Customer Effort Score (CES) are critical, especially when looking at thousands, if not millions of customers. While there is importance on segmentation and persona creation, the sheer volume of data requires a more metrics-based design to help organise the information. These core KPIs help businesses quantify customer satisfaction and identify areas for improvement. However, an overreliance on metrics can be counterproductive in EX programs.
“Overemphasis on metrics can reduce employees to numbers, overlooking their individual contributions, needs, and potential.”
Employees are not customers—you likely don’t have millions of them. They require a more nuanced understanding of their needs, which often cannot be captured through quantitative metrics alone. Overemphasis on metrics can reduce employees to numbers, overlooking their individual contributions, needs, and potential. According to a report by the Harvard Business Review, metrics-driven approaches often miss qualitative aspects of employee experience, such as team dynamics, leadership effectiveness, and workplace culture.
One of the most important components of EX is understanding sentiment and behaviours and digging in to help employees feel better and more connected—insights that cannot be derived from data alone. Without your employees' emotional understanding, they could feel undervalued and disconnected from their work, ultimately diminishing engagement and productivity.
An Alternative:
As you build your EX listening and data management program, think of the metrics output as two components. The first is the pure KPI data—eNPS, Intent to Stay, Engagement, Retention, Attrition, etc. Align these to your CX metrics so you can measure where customer challenges occur and where they map back to employee opportunities.
“Look at what is happening, why it is happening, and to whom. This allows you to maintain a more human understanding.”
The second, however, is to build an employee sentiment storyboard. This is the opportunity to align the sentiment, open-ended, feedback, user group, and focus group content together with the scaled data to find the stories, themes, and ‘why’ behind the data. Look at what is happening, why it is happening, and to whom. This allows you to maintain a more human understanding while still demonstrating scientific, data-led results and insights.
Treating Employees as Homogeneous Groups
CX strategies often segment customers into broad categories to tailor marketing, distribution efforts and customer service approaches. However, applying this segmentation strategy to employees can lead to oversimplified and ineffective EX programs.
Unlike customers, employees spend a significant portion of their lives within the organisation, interacting and growing daily with colleagues, managers, and organisational structures. Treating employees as homogeneous groups can overlook the diverse needs, aspirations, and challenges of individual employees or smaller subgroups within the workforce. This can result in generic programs that fail to address specific issues, reducing the overall effectiveness of the EX initiatives.
“Treating employees as homogeneous groups can overlook the diverse needs, aspirations, and challenges of individual employees.”
Gartner highlights that employee experience should be personalised and flexible to accommodate the varying needs and circumstances of different employee demographics. This personalisation is key to creating an inclusive and supportive workplace. Employee segmentation can help with test-and-learn pilots that target teams that might be struggling.
However, organisations should understand their employees' intrinsic and extrinsic motivations overall, and determining solutions based on behaviours can have a bigger impact than segmentation. After all, employees have different needs and priorities across the lifecycle, with highly personalised reactions that depend on variables that are impossible to measure.
An Alternative:
Rather than leaning into a fixed segmentation model, consider something more flexible. Think about the major initiatives you are looking to launch, then look at the data and feedback around each program. It is essential to understand segments depending on the initiative, because how employees react to a new benefits program could be different than a communication strategy or business plan. Rather than creating hard-coded segments, creating segments based on initiative can maintain a sense of humanity and personalisation across the organisation.
Lack of Employee Involvement in Program Design
CX programs often rely on customer feedback to design services and products. Creating user testing and user experience design sessions are required for any product owner. However, when it comes to designing EX programs, merely collecting feedback without meaningful employee involvement can be ineffective. In fact, it is quite common to create programs based on business needs or leader assumptions rather than what could work best for employees.
“When it comes to designing EX programs, merely collecting feedback without meaningful employee involvement can be ineffective.”
Employees have a keen understanding of their work environments and challenges. Excluding them from the design and implementation of EX programs can lead to solutions that are out of touch with their needs and can introduce some blockers that make them less productive, leading to customer impact. Participation in development of programs and tools can increase engagement, according to Gallup. Engaging employees as active participants ensures that programs are relevant and effective.
An Alternative:
If you have a survey or Employee Experience program, you already have insight into programs, policies or systems that might be creating inefficiencies or simply are difficult to use. By understanding where the challenges are, focus groups and internal design testing forums can help the organisation ensure they are treating the foundational concerns and, more importantly, ensure they are not introducing more challenges with the new tools/systems. Employees who use the systems most often should be part of the design team to make sure that the new programs meet their needs.
Emphasising Extrinsic Rewards Over Intrinsic Motivation
CX strategies often use extrinsic rewards, such as discounts and loyalty points, to encourage customer behaviour. Applying this approach to EX programs can undermine intrinsic motivation. Extrinsic rewards can be effective in the short term but may not sustain long-term employee motivation. Intrinsic motivation—driven by factors such as personal growth, meaningful work, and a sense of accomplishment—is crucial for sustained employee engagement and productivity.
“Intrinsic motivation is a stronger predictor of long-term job performance and satisfaction compared to extrinsic rewards.”
Overemphasis on extrinsic rewards can create a transactional relationship between employees and the organisation, reducing the sense of purpose and fulfilment in their work. This is essential because intrinsic motivation is a stronger predictor of long-term job performance and satisfaction compared to extrinsic rewards.
An Alternative:
Extrinsic motivation can work for some and drive short-term results. However, more impactful not only for business but for overall corporate culture, would be the intrinsic desire to deliver results for its own sake. Employees need to first understand what those behaviours are, so they know what will drive the best results. Recognition programs that highlight and celebrate the desired behaviours can provide a sense of accomplishment, pride and connection to the organisation, even without points or dollars. In fact, pay-for-play programs can create long-term challenges.
Conclusion
While there are valuable lessons to be learned from customer experience programs, it is essential to recognise the unique nature of employee experience. To create a truly effective and meaningful employee experience, organisations must prioritise personalised, long-term strategies that focus on the holistic well-being and intrinsic motivation of their employees.
