La experiencia de empleado en Españaun estudio exploratorio

Abstract

The main goal of this study is to analyse the Employee Experience (EX) in Spain which is defined as the evaluation of the satisfaction level felt by employees regarding their relationship with the company, which is formed as a result of the different interactions they have throughout their tenure at the company Driven in large part by advances achieved in the field of customer experience management, EX has emerged in recent years as an HR practice in organisations, rather than as a field of academic study, hence the absence of research and scientific papers on the subject. The research developed in this study is a transverse, descriptive and correlational study, based on a sample of 7.765 company employees that carry out their activities in Spain. Since no measurement instruments were identified for the evaluation of EX as it had been conceptualised, it was necessary to design a bespoke questionnaire that evaluated the two main variables of EX: The work life cycle and the adjustment of expectations. The work life cycle shows the temporary representation of the employee's relationship with the company from the moment when the candidate first makes contact for a job, until it ends, with the employee's voluntary or involuntary departure from the organisation. The expectation adjustment refers to the result that the employee obtains during their work life cycle, understood as the difference between what one expects (importance) and what one considers he/ she receives (satisfaction). The main results reveal that the work life cycle in Spain is structured around 24 interactions with the company, organised into four main phases: Start, grow, consolidate and exit. Regarding the adjustment of expectations, the data revealed that there is no balance in this adjustment in any of the phases or company interactions that were analysed, since in every case, the level of importance assigned by the employees was higher than the level of satisfaction they expressed about each one. From the first stage of the work life cycle (start) the imbalance in the adjustment of expectations showed an increasing trend, becoming especially significant in the second of the phases (grow) and in interactions with the company at moments such as promotion, remuneration and opportunities for change. Only the management of the employee's personal situations and teamwork within the organisation stopped this increase, thereby revealing them as two of the most important moments for employees. Other relevant data included in this research about EX in Spain corresponds to the socio-demographic, labour and organisational variables analysed and which shows how women present a greater imbalance in their adjustment of expectations than men in the grow, consolidate and exit phases, and that the age and seniority of employees also follows a trend towards increasing imbalance. This means that the older the employee and the longer their tenure, the greater the difference between what they expect and the satisfaction with what they receive, up until the age of 55 and a tenure of more 21 years, when the imbalance is significantly reduced. It has also been evidenced that the highest hierarchical positions in the sample (executives and middle managers) present less imbalance in the adjustment of expectations than the rest of the categories, especially regarding technicians and operators. In addition, it has been found that employees who work in companies with a turnover of more than 300 million euros have less of an imbalance in this variable, although no differences have been found based on the number of employees in the organisation for which they work.