The Employee Experience Advantage

CHAPTER 13The Cost of Employee Experience

One of the things that organizations always get concerned about is cost. Specifically, I hear comments like “We don't have the budget that company X has.” This usually happens because of an overemphasis on things such as free gourmet food, designer office spaces, and crazy perks like free dry cleaning, massages, and on‐site dog walking. It's true; these things do cost money but the majority of things that shape the employee experience are actually free. What's the cost of treating people well, giving them flexibility and autonomy, hiring a diverse group of people, and giving them the opportunity to learn and grow? How we treat our people is free. Let's look at the 17 variables again below and see which ones require the most significant investment.

The majority of the 17 variables that employees care about most at work actually require little financial investment. Still, there are plenty of things that do cost a considerable amount. You can see a cost breakdown in Figure 13.1. A common example is office space and design. It's not exactly free to transition from cubicles and closed spaces to gorgeous floor plans with wooden floors, tons of natural light, cool‐looking conference rooms, and standing desks. General Electric (GE) recently went through this change, and I had the opportunity to visit its new offices in Boston while hosting one of our Future of Work Forums. Walking into the building, you'd think you're visiting a start‐up in San ...