the state of employee engagement the state of employee ......the ways in which different...

1The State of Employee Engagement

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The State of Employee Engagement:Preparing businesses for transformational changeJune 2018



Author profiles

Introduction

Key findings

The profile of employee engagement is increasing

The challenges facing employee engagement

The evolution of the employee engagement survey

VIEWPOINT: “The new workplace is all about transparency, equality and flexibility.”

Should we be measuring the overall employee experience?

Summary

Additional resources

About HRZone

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Contents



Author profilesLilith Nagorski As Research Manager at smith+henderson, Lilith works to improve employee engagement through both her client relationships and her research and analysis of the current HR environment. Her core focus is to improve working lives by enabling inclusive and collaborative environments built on transparency and shared goals.

Being future focused, Lilith enjoys identifying trends on the horizon and linking them to business metrics like staff turnover and customer satisfaction. She is a keen writer and passionate about driving employee engagement to the forefront of the agenda.

smith+henderson helps organisations become better and more effective places to work. What makes us different from other employee engagement consultants is that we focus on the end goal – driving positive changes and measurable improvements in performance. Whether you’re only just beginning your efforts to improve engagement, or you’d like to talk about your engagement strategy, please get in touch.

www.smithhenderson.com +44 845 862 0454 @smithhenderson1

Becky Norman Becky is Editor of HRZone.com, an online community of people working in the HR industry. Becky works closely with leading HR practitioners and decision makers to ensure HRZone offers a rich source of real-world insight and fresh advice to its audience.

HR professionals today must adapt to a complex mix of challenges caused by ongoing business disruption, technological advancements, a changing political landscape, varied employee needs and more. HRZone aspires to be the destination for HR professionals to seek guidance, analysis and opinion on how to tackle these challenges and continue to deliver value.

Founded in 2000, HRZone explores topics concerned with the modern workplace, including HR technology, leadership, recruitment, talent management, wellbeing, diversity, benefits and training. Alongside its regular stream of editorial articles, HRZone delivers research, premium reports for download and live and digital events. Please do get in touch if you are interested in contributing to HRZone or finding out more about the site.

www.hrzone.com 0117 915 3345 @hrzone



Richard Maloney Richard is Founder of Engage & Grow. He is proudly leading the way as one of the world’s most noted employee engagement and leadership experts as Engage & Grow expands around the world at a phenomenal pace. Engage & Grow now has over 220 coaches, represented in over 80 countries, achieving outstanding success and immediate results every time.

With Richard’s non-traditional and unique ‘Group Activation System’, he initially helped 40 sporting teams to grand finals and 32 going on to win premierships. From many years studying the motivations of the brain, and through trial and error over the course of 9 years, he blended the development systems he had implemented in sport to business. From here Engage & Grow Global was born, achieving instant and overwhelmingly successful results in SME, corporate and government businesses around the world.

Richard is the author of Minds of Winning Teams – Creating Success Through Engagement & Culture and a co-author of the soon to be released Engage & Grow book and video series, with three other global thought leaders.

Richard is passionate about helping people thrive in all aspects of their lives and has been focusing on helping businesses improve mental wellbeing, culture, engagement and leadership. He has recently been recognised as a finalist in the 2016, 2017 Australian Optus Business Awards as Business Leader of the Year and Export Business of the Year.

www.engageandgrow.com.au 01284 701 648 @richard_maloney



We first explored how organisations approach employee engagement in 2014 and found that the main priorities for increasing engagement were to improve communication, develop employees and manage performance. Our follow-up research in 2016 showed that these priorities remained the same, but that more businesses focused on engagement had a defined business case and were running a survey.

This 2018 report examines how priorities have changed in the past two years and explores the ways in which different organisations are approaching employee engagement in the rapidly changing socio-political climate.

The aim of the report is to give HR professionals a clear indication of the ideas, trends and initiatives that are currently shaping engagement and put forward a roadmap for navigating these.

In a climate of change and uncertainty across the world, the third edition of The State of Employee Engagement explores best practices for keeping your high-performing talent engaged and loyal to your organisation.

Introduction

Methodology

During March and April 2018, over 500 professionals from more than 230 organisations of different sizes completed an online survey about how their organisation is approaching employee engagement. If they were not focused on improving this, we also wanted to understand the reasons why.

58% of respondents were based in the UK, 14% in Asia Pacific, and 10% each were based in North America and Europe. The remainder were based in the Middle East, Africa and South America. The majority of respondents classed themselves as HR professionals, with 11% stating that they were team managers, 8% company directors or equivalent and 6% communications professionals.



Key findings1. 8% more organisations are focused on improving employee

engagement than in 2016

78% of organisations are currently focused on improving employee engagement – up by 8% since 2016. The strongest advocates of these employee engagement efforts continue to be the senior leadership team. The primary reasons for focusing on engagement are to improve morale or culture, as well as to attract and retain talented employees. Of the 22% of organisations not focusing on improving employee engagement, ‘budget constraints’ was the most commonly cited reason for this.

2. Of those organisations that run employee engagement surveys, almost half link the results to people data and/or organisational performance metrics

The most popular metrics to link employee survey results to are customer satisfaction, such as Net Promoter Scores (NPS), and employee turnover/retention. With expectations around faster service levels and career progression on an upward trajectory, both driven in part by the current generational landscape, understanding these in tandem with engagement across an organisation is paramount for the future workforce.

3. ‘Meeting employee expectations of instant change/feedback’, followed closely by the ‘evolution of technology/automation’ are the trends most likely to affect organisations

In terms of trends that are most likely to shape the development of an organisation’s culture, the increasing appetite for instant feedback, and the evolution of technology/automation, were the most commonly cited. Such trends are mirrored elsewhere in the results when examining the most significant factors faced around generational differences.

4. The annual survey isn’t dead, but companies running quarterly pulse surveys are most satisfied

Employee surveys remain a key tool for improving engagement – 71% of companies rely on these. Although annual surveys are currently by far the most common type of survey to run, those organisations that have broken away from this more traditional method, in favour of more regular surveys, are the most satisfied. 67% of those who run quarterly surveys stated they were either ‘Very Satisfied’ or ‘Satisfied’, compared with 51% of those that run annual surveys and 44% of those who run their employee engagement survey every 18 months.



More organisations are focusing on improving employee engagement

78% of organisations said they are focused on improving employee engagement – this is up by 8% compared with 2016. This growth was consistent regardless of organisational size, but we found that the larger the organisation, the more likely they were to focus on improving employee engagement.

The profile of employee engagement is increasing

Figure 1. Percentage of organisations focused on improving employee engagement

Figure 2. Percentage of organisations focused on improving employee engagement by organisation size

22%

78%

NoYes

71%

1-99 100-499

75%

500-999

80%

1000-2499

82%

2500+

89%

Number of employees



Why do organisations focus on improving employee engagement?

Improving morale is now the top reason organisations focus on employee engagement, followed by attracting and retaining talented employees, and motivating employees to give their best.

There are four primary reasons why organisations are focused on improving employee engagement: 53% of organisations want to improve morale/culture, 44% seek to attract the best employees/improve employer brand, 41% wish to keep talented employees and another 41% want to motivate employees to give their best. On balance, this was a shift from our 2016 study, which found that keeping talented employees was the most common reason for focusing on employee engagement (71% of 2016 responses). This indicates that engagement has transitioned from being a way to retain employees, to being an integral part of many other HR strategies, including reward, career development, talent attraction, induction and recognition activities that improve morale and company culture.

Figure 3. The main reasons for focusing on employee engagement

Improve morale/culture

Attract the best employees / Improve employer brand

Keep talented employees

Motivate employees to give their best

Reduce employee turnover

Seek feedback to be able to address challenges faced

Encourage employees to contribute to the company

Boost the top/bottom line

Leadership decision

Part of our DNA and normal ‘BAU’ process

Other

53%

44%

41%

41%

20%

18%

16%

16%

10%

9%

A budget was allocated by the organisation 4%

To benchmark against other similar organisations 5%

3%


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Why are organisations not focusing on improving employee engagement?

Of those surveyed, just less than a quarter (22%) work for businesses that are not currently focused on improving employee engagement.

The most common reasons for not focusing on employee engagement are as follows: a lack of budget constraints (44%), it’s a not a priority for the business (42%) and insufficient buy-in from senior managers (41%). The root cause of all three is a lack of stakeholder buy-in – a similar picture to 2016.

Budget constraints

It’s not a priority for my business

Insufficient buy-in from senior managersInfrastructure and processes do not support or

encourage engagementDon’t know where to start

Lack of interest from employees

Our employees are already highly engaged

Previous poor experience

Other

44%

42%

41%

28%

17%

14%

13%

9%

7%

Figure 4. The main reasons for not focusing on employee engagement




The challenges facing employee engagement

HR continues to be the driving force behind engagement in larger organisations

Since 2016, senior leadership (CEOs, managing directors or HR leaders) have continued to champion the engagement efforts of their organisations. Conversely, fewer organisations are seeing employee engagement driven from the bottom-up.

Figure 5. The primary champion of engagement efforts

CEO / ManagingDirector

HR Leadership(e.g. HR Director, Head ofHR, HR Senior Manager)

Line Manager Employee

35% 37%

46%48%

12%10%

7% 6%

20162018



85% of respondents stated that senior leadership (CEOs, managing directors or HR leaders) has the greatest influence on engagement. We analysed the data by organisation size to determine whether HR or business leaders are the true driving force behind employee engagement.

In organisations with more than 100 employees, 54% say HR leaders are the ones championing initiatives around employee engagement, followed by CEOs or managing directors at 34%. However, in organisations with fewer than 100 employees, it is the CEO or managing director that is the championing force behind employee engagement.

Alongside the challenges cited by 22% of businesses as reasons for not focusing on employee engagement – including budget constraints, environments where engagement is not a priority and insufficient buy-in from senior managers – employee engagement faces an additional challenge of needing to be supported and championed by a wider audience.

Figure 6. Engagement champions by organisation size

HR Leadership(e.g. HR Director, Head ofHR, HR Senior Manager)

CEO / ManagingDirector

Employees Line Managers

33%

54%

44%

34%

8%4%

15%

7%

1-99100+



Gaining buy-in from stakeholders

To make engagement a priority, it’s important to engage with key stakeholders to demonstrate the extent to which engagement can have a return on investment for business.

According to Gallup research, a fully engaged workforce has on average:

22% higher profitability

21% higher productivity

10% higher customer engagement

Up to 65% lower staff turnover

37% lower absenteeism1

Organisations can create a compelling business plan to demonstrate how their engagement initiatives will aid the bottom line.

Organisations seeking to demonstrate their business case for engagement should consider these questions:

Can the Service-Profit Chain2 be demonstrated by conducting a small pilot to link employee engagement to customer satisfaction and profitability?

Are there areas of the business with high levels of turnover that could be reduced through engagement initiatives? Does the business know why people really leave?

Which areas of the business are suffering with lower productivity levels? Does the organisation understand the true reasons behind these levels and do employees have any ideas of how to improve them?

All of the core groups identified in Figures 5 and 6 (HR leadership, CEO/managing director, line managers, employees) need to be communicated with before and after an employee engagement initiative is run. The channels and communication methods used should be tailored based on each groups’ preferences.

If employees feel that their opinions have not been listened to, or actioned correctly, they are less likely to participate in future opportunities to share their voice.

Organisations should communicate with each group to explain the engagement initiative it is rolling out, and why it is being rolled out (typically based on employee feedback). The visibility of actions on the back of this should be clear to both budget holders and employees.

If the budget holder or senior management team does not see the value of conducting the initiative, they may not buy into or encourage future initiatives around employee engagement.

Similarly, if employees feel that their opinions have not been listened to, or actioned correctly, they are less likely to participate in future opportunities to share their voice.

1 Mann, A. & Darby, R. ‘Should Managers Focus on Performance or Engagement?’ Gallup (2014). 2 Heskett, J. L., Jones, T. O., Loveman, G. W., Earl Sasser, W. & Schlesinger, L. A. . ‘Putting the Service-Profit Chain to Work.’ Harvard Business Review 72, no. 2 (March–April 1994): 164–174.



Proving return on investment

Of those organisations that run employee engagement surveys, 46% stated that they linked their survey results (up by 10% since 2016) to people data and/or organisational performance metrics.

The two most popular metrics to link to are customer satisfaction, such as Net Promoter Scores (NPS), and employee turnover/retention data, as recorded by those organisations that link their survey results to data.

Customer satisfaction and engagement

42% of those organisations that link engagement scores and performance data focus on linking to their customer satisfaction metrics. This demonstrates how engaged employees deliver outstanding service, but only mature organisations that measure customer satisfaction at a site, office or team level, have the data needed to confirm this.

This anonymised data set displays 100+ locations mapped by their engagement score against their customer satisfaction score. The dotted line is displaying the trend of the data, whereby a higher engagement score achieves a higher customer satisfaction score.

Figure 7. Most popular metrics for linking to employee engagement survey results

Figure 8. The correlation between employee engagement and NPS

Customer satisfaction e.g. NPS

Turnover/retention data

Performance review data

Quality measures

Absence data e.g. Sick days or Bradford Factor

Benefits

Other

Pay

42%

42%

Productivity measures 28%

Fianancial performance e.g. Profit, Revenue, Cost 26%

Talent management 27%

24%

23%

16%

11%

7%

3%

Client A: demonstrating that engagement drives customer satisfaction (100+ locations)

Regression coefficient:0.97 - a 1% improvement in engagement = 1% improvment in location’s net promoter score

Net

pro

mot

or (c

usto

mer

sa

tisfa

ctio

n) sc

ore

Engagement score

100%

75%

25%

25%

50%

50% 75% 100%0%

0%


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Linking staff turnover to employee engagement

Corporate Leadership Council claims that highly engaged organisations are able to reduce staff turnover by 87% and that disengaged colleagues are four times more likely to leave the organisation than the average employee3 so it’s no surprise that 4 in 10 organisations focus on linking their engagement survey results to staff turnover levels.

“At First Utility, we’re focused on the retention of our employees. We’ve been able to retrospectively analyse employee engagement survey data, linking it to our leaver data to learn more about the true reason why people leave our company. This data has also been used to model how many people would leave the business each year (and even at a departmental/team level), so that we could focus on the areas with the highest attrition risk after every survey we’ve run. By really understanding why people consider leaving the business and engaging with them after the survey to discuss changes to improve these drivers, we’ve been able to improve our retention by 20%.”

John Wrighthouse, Chief People Officer, First Utility

3 ‘Driving Performance and Retention Through Employee Engagement’. Corporate Leadership Council (2004).




Figure 9. The trends most likely to affect organisations

43%

42%

35%

33%

30%

Matching employee expectations of instance change/ feedback

Evolution of technology/automation

Improving productivity levels

Accommodating the flexible working appetite

Accommodating the different needs of generationsin the workplace

New business market conditions created by Brexit

Focuses on equality e.g. gender pay gap reporting,equal pay policies

Other

16%Workplace retetion depending on the outcomesof Brexit

17%Increasing representation of diverse groups inour workforce

14%

10%

5%

What will companies be focusing on in the future?

Overall, 43% of respondents cited that the trend most likely to shape the development of their organisation’s culture was an appetite for instant feedback, this was closely followed by the evolution of technology/automation (42%).

Over half of respondents shared that the greatest generational difference likely to affect their organisation was faster career progression expectations

These two trends go hand-in-hand as technology now enables instant conversations with celebrities, politicians and world influencers. Employees now expect their businesses to also offer a high level of communication, using new technologies that enable both the employer and employee to have a voice and a way of sharing with colleagues in their organisation.



Generational differences

Over half of respondents shared that the greatest generational difference likely to affect their organisation was faster career progression expectations. Millennials and younger generations have heightened expectations for their career progression compared with baby boomers and Generation X. This is based around their level of access to technology and expectation of instant interaction.

Employers need to provide these employees with ways of upskilling and earning badges or progressing through the ranks to demonstrate capability. Rewarding employees through small pay or reward package enhancements is another option. If, however, perceptions of pay are out of kilt with market rate, employees should be made aware of this and be provided with more information about their reward package.

Figure 10. Generational differences most likely to affect organisations

Taking on feedback faster

With meeting expectations of instant change/feedback featuring as both a trend and a generational difference that is likely to affect business, it is important for organisations to focus their efforts on this and adapt to the changing needs of employees.

Giving feedback can often be ineffective due to there being a significant delay between when the feedback is submitted, when it is reviewed and when changes are made. The growing expectation of more timely feedback has led to a subsequent shift in engagement being used to check the pulse of an organisation more often, turning feedback into a more visible and faster action, while also ensuring that changes are implemented thoroughly.

51%

44%

43%

37%

34%

32%

17%

Faster career progression expectations

Meeting employee expectations of instantchange/feedback

Perceptions around pay

Accommodating the flexible working appetite

Focus on our organisational purpose & mission

Differences in technological skillset

Perceptions around benefits and key policies e.g.maternity/paternity leave

Focus on the organisation’s contribution to society

Other

13%

2%



The evolution of the employee engagement survey

Is the annual employee engagement survey dead?

Overall, 7 in 10 organisations that focused on improving employee engagement ran an employee engagement survey. These surveys can help give employees the chance to share their views, help management pinpoint opportunities for improvement and track progress over time.

But in recent years there’s been much talk about whether the annual employee engagement survey, the staple for most organisations, is dead. A lot can happen in the space of a few weeks and it’s argued that checking in with employees once a year is not often enough.

Annual remains the most common approach

We found that 62% of organisations still rely on an annual survey and a further 24% conduct a survey even less frequently. However, this is slowly changing as more organisations embrace regular pulse surveys on a weekly, monthly or quarterly feedback cycle.

Figure 11. Frequency of running an employee engagement survey

Other

Every 18months

Less frequentlythan every 18 months

Every 6months

Once a year 62%

Monthly

Quarterly

Weekly

7%

17%

3%

7%

2%

1%

1%



Quarterly pulse surveys work best for most organisations

We found that 68% of organisations running quarterly pulse surveys are satisfied or very satisfied with their survey approach, compared with only 51% of those running annual surveys. This fell to only 36% for those running their survey less than every 18 months.

Figure 12 excludes options that received less than 9 responses due to the small sample sizes. That said, sentiment about weekly surveys was mixed, with some respondents planning to shift from weekly to monthly or quarterly surveys, because of concerns about survey fatigue and falling response rates.

One organisation that recently made the switch from a survey every 18 months to quarterly pulses is Agrovista.

Figure 12. Level of satisfaction with frequency of employee engagement survey

Quarterly Once ayear

Every 6months

Every 18months

Less frequentlythan every18 months

11%

21%

47%

21%

23%

11%

44%

22%

4%

19%

26%

34%

17%

39%

17%

33%

11%

8%

26%

30%

32%

4%

Very satisfied

SatisfiedNeither satisfiednot dissatisfied Dissatisfied

Very dissatisfied

“We used to measure employee engagement through a traditional 40-question engagement survey. We recently switched to quarterly pulse surveys, which enable us to get timely feedback on new initiatives, like The Agrovista Way, which is our values framework. Now we are able to track our culture and identify any emerging issues faster. As a result, our managers are better informed and empowered to be better leaders through regular bite-size feedback from their teams.”

Tracey Winson, Head of HR at Agrovista



How quarterly pulse and traditional annual surveys compare

Traditional annual(Typically 35-45 questions)

Quarterly pulses(Typically 15-20 questions)

Pros

Provides a full assessment of an organisation’s culture

Enables comprehensive internal benchmarking

Enables organisations to track culture and identify any emerging issues

More bite-sized, regular feedback for managers is likely to change behaviours

Greater chance of embedding engagement in organisational culture

More timely and agile feedback

Cons

Too much happens between annual surveys / they do not identify emerging issues

Harder to keep engagement on the agenda

Managers may be overwhelmed with all their feedback at once

Proportionally more time spent on survey planning and administration, rather than acting on feedback

As questions are phased, it can take several cycles to get an overall assessment of organisational culture

Risk of survey fatigue if survey is too frequent, repeats questions too often or asks too many questions each quarter

If there is a lack of structure, this can generate lots of ‘noise’, which is hard to act upon

Less suitable if there is a high proportion of offline employees



Deciding what works best for your organisation

There’s no one-size-fits-all approach to engagement surveys. When deciding what would work best for an organisation, key questions should be considered:

Can all employees complete an online survey?Most pulse survey providers enable employees to complete the survey via email links, kiosk mode (entering a code on a shared computer) and on mobile devices. If it’s still a logistical challenge for an organisation to get their workforce to provide feedback online, regular pulse surveys are less suitable

At what pace can change happen in the organisation?It’s important that HR teams (or the managers receiving feedback) have time to digest and act on the responses, otherwise there’s a risk of lack of buy-in from employees.

How far along the engagement journey is the organisation?If it is brand new to engagement or has only run surveys infrequently before, transitioning to weekly or monthly may be too big a jump right away.

How transient is the workforce?In organisations with high levels of staff turnover, annual surveys are less effective because feedback will be missed from many employees who leave between survey cycles. More frequent pulses can be used to track the reasons why staff may be considering leaving and how these vary by department, enabling the business to take timely action.

How much change is the organisation going through?If it’s going through a transformation programme or merger, getting regular feedback from its people will help the business stay close to the pulse and identify any emerging issues.

“Annual surveys are not nimble enough - we need something that taps into the pulse of the organisation on a more frequent basis”. Scott McKenzie, Managing Director, Lansons in State of Employee Engagement Survey 2018

Instant feedback

A major frustration with traditional engagement surveys is that it can take months before the results are properly shared with employees who have given their feedback.

Today, in a world where instant feedback via social media notifications has become the norm, employees expect something similar at work. It’s therefore important that survey feedback is shared quickly, so that employees feel like they have been listened to, understood and valued.



VIEWPOINT: “The new workplace is all about transparency, equality and flexibility.”

Richard Maloney, Founder of Engage and Grow, shares his thoughts on the key findings of the State of Employee Engagement 2018 research and how they reflect the changes we’re seeing in the modern workplace.

1. 8% more organisations are focused on improving employee engagement than in 2016

It is interesting to see that while employee engagement is not new in itself, it has become somewhat of a trend in the past few years. And like with any trend, there are people who jump on the bandwagon straight away, aware of the results and the facts, and others who like to wait and see if it is worth it.

When a business mentions budget constraints as an explanation for not focusing on employee engagement this tells me that we need to help them get better educated about engagement. First, they need to be aware of the loss they are making by having disengaged employees. Second, they need to understand that if the business has a budget to undertake initiatives to improve productivity, sales, or any other quantifiables, then they have a budget for employee engagement.



2. Of those organisations that run employee engagement surveys, almost half link the results to people data and/or organisational performance metrics

This is exactly how employee engagement should be measured. If you are performing to the best of your capacity as a business then the chances are that you have an engaged workforce. If your employees stay with you for a long time, then they are engaged. From making that link, organisations will be able to understand what needs to change to help their employees become more engaged.

3. ‘Meeting employee expectations of instant change/feedback’, followed closely by the ‘evolution of technology/automation’ are the trends most likely to affect organisations

Employees don’t want to wait a year to find out whether or not they are doing a good job. They desire real-time feedback for each of their projects. They want to improve and grow – and when they do grow, they grow the business as well.

To support employees with such feedback, businesses must embrace technology. But it takes a lot of flexibility to constantly adapt to the fast pace at which technology is evolving, and without an engaged workforce it is harder still.

4. The annual survey isn’t dead, but companies running quarterly pulse surveys are most satisfied

This is reflective of the world we live in. The new workplace is all about transparency, equality and flexibility. We are slowly transitioning from an annual performance review to a quarterly one, and we are seeing more weekly or bi-monthly team meetings that allow team members to receive feedback from their peers in a strategic and sensitive manner.

When companies become aligned with transparency, equality and flexibility, employees usually request that it becomes the norm, as it is the quickest way to allow clear communication, promoting agile organisations in preparation for the fast pace industry we live in.



Should we be measuring the overall employee experience?

When Mark Levy joined Airbnb he questioned why the company had a Customer Experience Group focused on improving the customer experience, but did not have a similar Employee Experience Group focused on improving the employee experience (EX). Mark soon took on the role of Global Head of Employee Experience and restructured the HR departments, creating new specialisms like compensation and benefits, facilities and food to place a greater focus on EX. Since then, other companies have started to follow Airbnb’s lead4.

EX is now gaining momentum in HR circles – this is not surprising given that 44% of our survey respondents said that attracting the best employees or improving employee brand was the primary motivation for focusing on employee engagement.

Whereas measuring employee engagement is driven from the employer’s perspective – examining whether employees are emotionally connected to working for their organisation and willing to go the extra mile – EX reverses the lense and looks at things from the employee’s perspective. It’s about serving employees, who are closer to customers, better.

EX is the total of anything that impacts upon the employee’s experience of the organisation they work for. Whilst engagement touches upon elements of EX, like the working environment, culture and infrastructure, EX requires a broader perspective – it’s about organising the end-to-end employee journey to make it integrated and meaningful.

Employee experience is a people-centric approach that is currently making waves in HR. But why is EX so important? And how does it benefit both the employee and the business?

4'The Employee Experience Advantage', Jacob Morgan (Wiley, March 2017)


Brought to you by:

Organisations focused on employee engagement are often supplementing their engagement programmes with event-driven surveys or activities linked to the employee life cycle. Here are a few examples of how to nurture EX from a talent attraction, onboarding and alumni perspective:

Attraction How do prospective employees perceive the recruitment process? Consider mobile applications, heightened employer brands, online through videos and recruitment sites

Onboarding How effectively is the business integrating new employees and helping them hit the ground running? Consider induction programmes, including welcomes from leadership, buddying and mentoring

Exit and Alumni Would ‘good’ leavers return to your organisation if circumstances changed in the future? Consider ‘keep in touch’ newsletters and encourage line managers to stay in touch with ex-employees

With the working world rapidly changing around us, the best talent in short supply and heightened expectations coming from improved technologies, the need to consider your whole EX is critical. EX does not replace employee engagement – instead it’s about taking a broader perspective that considers every important interaction an employee has with your organisation, from their interview experience and onboarding, through to exiting and being an ambassador for your brand.




Summary: Employee engagement is starting to shift towards offering more instant feedback

We also found that achieving buy-in was not a one-off activity, but must be maintained through regular updates and communication.

Our research this year shows that the focus on engagement continues to grow (up 8%) and more businesses (nearly half of those that run engagement surveys) are linking engagement results to key business metrics.

This activity remains crucial for receiving buy-in for engagement – HR leaders are still the main champions for employee engagement, so demonstrating return on investment will help achieve buy-in from other key stakeholders such as CEO/MDs, line managers and employees.

Our 2018 research also suggests that generational differences and technological advances are having a big impact on businesses. As the number of millennials rise and Generation Z now enter the modern workplace, employers will need to create an environment in which the desire for instant recognition and feedback can be met to a higher degree. A slight shift towards the quarterly/pulse surveys indicates that employers are beginning to address this challenge – but the annual survey is certainly not dead yet. The frequency of surveys and any engagement initiatives should take into account the organisation’s maturity, their employee experience agenda and ability to adapt and change with feedback.

In 2016, we outlined the importance of proving the impact of engagement on key business metrics for all key stakeholders throughout the organisation, to achieve a prolonged period of engagement.



If you’d like to delve deeper into employee engagement, you may find the resources featured in HRZone’s employee engagement content hub useful.

Survey information

25%

11%

21%

12%

9%

23%

*483 responses to this question

Business size*

Less than 50 employees

51-99

100-499

500-999

1000-2499

2500+

*496 responses to this question

Respondents by role*

Communications professional

Company director

Team manager

HR professional

Other

11%

55%

20%6%

9%

Additional resources

https://www.hrzone.com/hub/employee-engagement



About HRZoneHRZone.com is an online destination for HR professionals and business leaders offering advice, guidance, opinions and up-to-date information on how the working life and responsibilities of the modern HR professional are being shaped.

We cover a range of topics including employment law, people management, leadership, employee engagement and more. Our content is written by HR leaders as well as consultants and industry commentators.

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