{"id":11066,"date":"2018-06-13T07:23:08","date_gmt":"2018-06-13T14:23:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/recruitloop.com\/blog\/?p=11066"},"modified":"2023-05-10T08:44:18","modified_gmt":"2023-05-10T15:44:18","slug":"important-invest-employee-experience","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.zippia.com\/employer\/important-invest-employee-experience\/","title":{"rendered":"Why It’s Important to Invest in the Employee Experience"},"content":{"rendered":"

Employee experience is something many HR leaders are talking about.\u00a0 But what exactly should that experience be?\u00a0\u00a0Aon\u2019s 2018 Trends in Global Employee Engagement Report<\/a>\u00a0provides some clues. In this report we found that engagement levels amongst employees around the world rebounded to match all-time highs by the end of 2017.<\/p>\n

However, with 73 percent of employees still not considered \u201chighly engaged,\u201d it seems that this relative high point means the average employee experience is probably still filled with disappointment and frustration.\u00a0 In the current business context, most leaders need to drive faster innovation and growth but have not invested sufficiently in creating a work experience that makes it easy for employees to deliver on those goals.<\/p>\n

Volatility in the Employee Experience<\/h2>\n

The average employee experience is turbulent.\u00a0 Employee engagement and employee experience are not the same things Rather, employee engagement is an important outcome and lagging indicator of the employee experience. The employee experience is how an employee perceives all aspects of their employment throughout their tenure at a company.<\/p>\n

Over the last year w,e saw average global employee engagement move up 2 percentage points.\u00a0 Although this means aggregate engagement is relatively stable and improving, we know from our studies looking at the same employees over time, that an individual\u2019s engagement can change year to year or even day to day.<\/p>\n

Our research that looked\u00a0beneath the surface<\/a>\u00a0of aggregate engagement scores found that about half of employees experience some change in their level of engagement and 25 percent of employees completely flip from engaged to disengaged or vice versa in one year.\u00a0 So with our latest engagement trends, it is likely that beneath the net two percentage point increase, approximately 14 percent of people became engaged and 12 percent became disengaged.<\/p>\n

We also saw in our 2018 Trends in Global Employee Engagement Report that year over year engagement changes varied from +15 to -7 percentage points across countries.\u00a0 This type of engagement volatility indicates a lot of change in the work experience.\u00a0\u00a0 The top work experience opportunities from our research \u2013 rewards & recognition, leadership, career & development, Employee Value Proposition and enabling infrastructure \u2013 indicate significant room for improvement compared to what top quartile organizations are delivering.<\/p>\n

Again, we see a lot of variability across segments in how these work experience indicators are changing.\u00a0 And, about 4 out of 10 employees at any given point in time are having a less than positive experience with these important aspects of how they are led, inspired, rewarded, recognized, developed and enabled.<\/p>\n

Employees in the Wake of Turbulent Business Pressures<\/h2>\n

So why are employees experiencing so much volatility and why are these work experience indicators so important now? The last year has been marked by intense and competing business pressures in the forms of economic tailwinds, rapid technological advancements, and digital innovation on one side and competitive disruption, social change, and political strife on the other.<\/p>\n

What does this mean for the average employee experience?\u00a0 A lot of change and uncertainty.\u00a0 Whether change comes from business strategy transformation, M&A, restructuring, new technology adoption, a new leader, a new manager, or a new team, this is a lot for most employees to absorb on top of their \u201cday job.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rapid change is likely to continue to accelerate.\u00a0 As we see in the top engagement opportunities in our research, successfully engaging thousands of employees on this journey will require 1)\u00a0Engaging, visionary and people-centric leadership<\/a>, 2) agility enabled by technology, processes, decision-making, customer focus and 3) a maniacal talent focus on what it takes to attract, inspire, develop, manage and reward the right people who are focused on the right things.<\/p>\n

HR Implications and Challenges<\/h2>\n

The journey to engaging employees through leadership, agility and talent focus can appear daunting. Below are some implications and tips on how to strategically invest in the employee experience:<\/p>\n