The barriers to enhanced employee experience

Trying to improve employee experience within your organisation is never a simple task. There are multiple layers to consider, each with their own variables and nuances. But before you can begin the work, you need to understand the problem…

There are a wide range of factors undermining efforts to enhance the employee experience within many organisations. Unsurprisingly, given the current financial pressures that many organisations face, HR and reward leaders point to budget constraints and the need to invest elsewhere as the biggest barrier to improving employee experience. Beyond budgets, there are other operational, cultural, and technological challenges…

• 79% report difficulties measuring outcomes and ROI around employee experience
• 89% of HR and reward leaders admit their organisation could do more to engage line managers in improving the employee experience
• 81% of organisations are unable to integrate all elements of employee experience within a single technology platform

Other factors undermining employee experience initiatives are a lack of strategy and ownership within the organisation: 62% of HR and reward leaders state that poor HR technology and processes are hindering their efforts to deliver exceptional employee experiences.

Unintuitive and disjointed HR technology is one of the biggest barriers – with only 19% of organisations able to integrate all elements of employee experience (wellbeing, recognition, benefits and communications) within a single, centralised technology platform.  This means that, for 81% of employees, their employee experience is currently fragmented to some extent.

To learn more, we spoke to HR and reward professionals around the world in our Employee experience in the new world of work report. The research finds that only a quarter of businesses currently have an employee experience platform in place, but more than half (52%) are already looking to implement one, and a further 15% are planning to do so in the next 12 months. This appetite for a dedicated digital platform to orchestrate a holistic and consistent employee experience is one shared across every industry.

Another long-established challenge for organisations looking to enhance their employee experience is in galvanising and motivating line managers to play an active role. Across all industries, businesses that are able to provide an exceptional employee experience are those that have been able to engage line managers to play a pivotal role across many aspects of employee experience – whether that is wellbeing, recognition or communications. Yet, too often, line managers remain an untapped resource in many businesses. As many as 89% of HR and reward leaders admit that their organisation could do more to engage line managers in improving the employee experience.

Expert insight

HR leaders are clearly recognising that, if they want to instil a modern and progressive culture within their organisation, they need to give people technology that matches that ambition. Unfortunately, many HR leaders are becoming increasingly frustrated with their organisation’s shortcomings when it comes to adequately equipping employees with the digital tools and experiences that they need to perform and flourish. Matt Nathanielsz, recognition expert, said:

“Creating an amazing employee experience is not just about the one-offs, like taking a new starter out for lunch on their first day or sending them a welcome pack; those things are great, but once the dust of the onboarding process settles, what’s the day-to-day experience of working for your company? How easy is the technology to use? How many different passwords do people need to remember? How do employees navigate between the 29 different systems they need to do their jobs? Working towards a unified technology platform for employee experience should be top of the list for today's HR leaders.”

It's clear to see that there is an employee experience gap between employee expectations (and demands) and current employee experiences. Organisations must take this chance to get up to speed, or risk losing out on valuable talent.