Creating Positive Employee Experience Pays Off

Successful organizations know how to execute a memorable customer experience. However, great customer experiences don’t just happen as a result of great products and spot-on pricing; it is your people that deliver your brand. Because your employees are so essential to your success, wise organizations focus on the experiences they create for their people and strive to build employee pride and loyalty.

How does employee pride fit into the big picture? Corvirtus research has found that employees who have a strong sense of pride for their employer are six times more likely to stick around as compared to employees who do not. Managers who indicate such pride are nearly seven times more likely to state that they are going to stay with the company for the long-term. The case study below illustrates how Bonefish Grill used employee experience surveys to ensure they were successfully delivering promises to their employees to build employee pride and loyalty and impact the bottom-line.

The Challenge

Bonefish Grill, an upscale full-service restaurant company with 140 restaurants, operates from the belief that a key to growing sales and profit is delivering promises to their hourly employees (Anglers) in order to earn their loyalty. Loyal Anglers lead to loyal customers. Bonefish Grill understands that building pride and loyalty among Anglers starts with the leaders in the restaurants and the culture they create. If a manager creates a great place to work where Anglers know what is expected of them, are prepared to do their jobs and feel a sense of support and belonging, they will take pride in their work and deliver the best possible experience to their customers. In order to bring this to life, Bonefish needed a way to keep their pulse.

The Solution

Bonefish Grill began conducting an annual experience survey which asks Anglers to share their perspective on their experiences in the restaurant. After each survey administration, managers receive an in-depth feedback report that helps them understand what specific issues are driving pride and retention in the restaurant. The report also helps managers pinpoint key issues that require attention and offers suggestions on how to take immediate action on the feedback.

The Results

Angler experience survey data was analyzed to determine its relationship to pride, intent to quit and sales to answer the question: Does a better work environment really lead to employee loyalty and increased sales?

To conduct the analysis, restaurants were placed into one of three categories based how well Anglers rated their experiences:

• TopBox™ Restaurants: Anglers gave their experiences the highest possible ratings (above 5.5 on a scale of 1 to 6)
• Good Restaurants: Anglers rated their experiences as positive, but not at the highest levels (average engagement scores were rated between a 5 and 5.5)
• Fair or Below Restaurants: Anglers rated their experiences as mediocre or lower (average engagement scores were rated less than 5.0)

The results indicate that restaurants with an engaging employee experience have higher employee pride and a stronger intent to stay with the company. Specifically, the average rating of employee pride was 10% higher at TopBox™ restaurants than those restaurants with Fair or Below engagement ratings. Intent to quit was three times greater at Fair and Below restaurants compared to TopBox™ restaurants.