It should come as no surprise that 90% of companies compete on the basis of customer satisfaction. Customer loyalty drives profitability and ensures long-term success. Successful companies prioritize customer experience to maintain their share of the market. Unsuccessful companies do this at the expense of employee experience. Customer experience and employee experience are not mutually exclusive. Employee engagement is actually a means to creating an extraordinary customer experience, and employee experience in the workplace is a means to high employee engagement. It’s a virtuous circle. Top companies compete by striking a balance between customer experience and employee experience, and they start with workplace culture.

A company should ensure that their workplace enables employees to effectively serve the end-consumer while developing a workplace culture that enables high levels of employee satisfaction and engagement. It’s a complex proposition. Outstanding employee experience means more than giving your top performers bonuses as a reward for a job well done. Monetary compensation for hard work is a given in any workplace, and is ineffective when it comes to employee retention or satisfaction. What’s more, office space and technology also have limited effects on job satisfaction, and consequently engagement. Companies consistently listed as top places to work prove this.

Top companies enable their workforce’s success by developing a thriving culture. Corporate giants like Google, Facebook, Apple, and LinkedIn are known for their high degree of employee satisfaction and dedication towards their overall missions. While they do offer free breakfast, lunch, and dinner as well as free Uber rides to work, it’s not the flashy perks and open-place offices with ping pong tables that create the optimal employee experience. In fact, on the employee experience index developed by Jacob Morgan, an authority on the future of employee experience, employees rank culture as the top contributor to employee satisfaction. With culture, office space, and technology as the three main categories, culture scored at roughly 60% for Google, Facebook, Apple, and LinkedIn. Meanwhile, office space scored between 20-25% on average, and technology scored 15-20%.

Creating a thriving culture packed with enthusiasm for the company mission relies on employee recognition. Acknowledging each other’s contributions promotes an enthusiasm for the team and the work. It inspires high productivity as well as an allegiance towards the company mission. From a simple “good job” to a non-cash rewards like points, top companies like Google recognize their top performers and motivate their workforce. Acknowledgement of an employee’s value goes a long way in improving employee experience at work and ensures that the end-consumer is satisfied as well.