Team Experience™: A Quick Guide to Building Happy, High-Performing Teams

An organization’s success largely depends on the effectiveness of its teams. A team that works well together can accomplish great things, while a team plagued by conflict and dysfunction can struggle to achieve even basic goals. A positive team experience makes people feel good about themselves and one another, leading to better performance, higher retention rates, and greater profitability. Conversely, a poor team experience can lead to burnout, frustration, and disengagement — all things that negatively impact performance and retention rates.

Here’s a quick guide on what Team Experience™ is, why it’s important, the benefits of having a great Team Experience™, and more. Let’s jump right in!

What Is Team Experience™?

Team Experience™ is about creating a collaborative and supportive environment that allows teams to perform their best. A strong team experience emphasizes open communication where ideas and opinions can be shared freely and everyone benefits from their teammates’ insights. To achieve this, each team member needs to have a clearly defined role and make contributions that benefit the rest of the team and the organization as a whole.

A crucial part of team experience is team culture, which refers to a team’s values, attitudes, and behaviors, as well as what’s encouraged and accepted within the team. Team culture answers some of the bigger “what” and “why” questions within an organization, while team experience addresses some of the more specific “who” and “how” questions. Having a great team experience helps you create a strong team culture.

Why Is Team Experience™ Important to Leaders and Their Teams?

Simply put, without a great Team Experience™, employees won’t be engaged and invested in their work, which can negatively impact your entire organization. Employee engagement is a vital part of team experience, and disengaged employees can lead to higher turnover and attrition rates, burnout, absenteeism, and reduced productivity and profitability. All things that you want to avoid!

On the other hand, having highly engaged employees and a great Team Experience™ has numerous benefits, which we’ll explore in greater detail later.

How Is Team Experience™ Different From Employee Experience?

Employee experience is about the individual. It's about an employee's journey through your organization at every stage of employment, from recruitment and onboarding to offboarding. More specifically, employee experience is about the interactions employees have with their managers and colleagues and their engagement with the company’s policies, systems, culture, technology, and more. 

Employee experience is a key part of the Team Experience™. The two work in conjunction and any positive (or negative) changes to one can affect the other. Without a positive employee experience, it’s difficult to have a positive team experience and vice versa. 

Who Has the Biggest Impact on Team Experience™?

It should come as no surprise that managers have the most significant impact on the Team Experience™. A manager that prioritizes listening to their team’s needs and providing them with the resources to succeed and grow in their careers can make all the difference in helping a good team become a great team.

But your individual team members also play a crucial role in creating a team experience. They’re not just passive recipients of the team experience but active contributors and creators as well. When you have highly-motivated and engaged team members, they’re much more likely to go the extra distance to help out their colleagues and create a positive team experience for everybody.

What’s the Benefit When You Build a Great Team Experience™?

Building a great Team Experience™ has a number of benefits, including:

• Improved morale, productivity, and performance. Team members are happier when they feel supported and valued by their managers and colleagues. As a result, your company will have higher levels of employee engagement, which is good for everyone — including your customers.
• Increased profitability. When teams are more connected and engaged in their jobs, it benefits your organization’s bottom line. Highly connected teams are shown to have increased profitability by 21%.
• Higher retention rates. Employees who are happy in their workplace are more likely to stay at their jobs. An added benefit of higher retention rates is that you’ll spend less time and money on recruiting new employees. 
• Reduced absenteeism. When employees are burnt out or not engaged with their work, that leads to absenteeism. But when employees have a great team experience and are engaged with their work, not only will they show up for work each day, but they may even enjoy going to work!
• Better customer experiences. People who enjoy working together and have strong team experiences are much more likely to create positive customer experiences too!

Build Better Team Experiences with PepTalk

The bottom line is that the best leaders understand the importance of team experience and work towards improving it every day. Ultimately, a high-performing team is one where everyone feels valued, empowered, supported, and rewarded for their contributions to the organization’s mission. Building that kind of environment starts with the actions you take as a leader.