National Employee Experience Survey NL 2022: HR rates its own organisation only a 6.7!
Employee experience is a major HR priority internationally. But how is employee experience faring in the Netherlands? The results of PW and HXWork’s National Employee Experience Survey 2022 are in: respondents rated the employee experience at their own organisations as a 6.7. Heleen Mes, employee experience expert, responds to the survey’s findings.
To work on employee experience is to strive to be a top employer: to be an organization where employees want to work, and continue working at, because they’re happy there. This is crucial in our era of tight labor markets, imminent ‘great resignations’ and trends like ‘quiet quitting’.
The employee experience consists of the employees’ experiences, thoughts and feelings about the organization, as pertaining to the organizational culture, management style, physical workplace or IT. The employee journey is also part of the employee experience, and it starts the moment one first becomes acquainted with the organisation, from a job advert for example, before ultimately ending with offboarding.
That people rated the employee experience at their own organizations as a 6.7 is quite critical, Heleen Mes says: “This shows that the respondents – who were primarily HR personnel representing some 28 sectors – are deeply concerned about employee experience. HR is the canary in the coal mine; they see and hear about many things that can be improved, and which really must be addressed, especially in this tight labor market. Although they perhaps do not realize it, organizations are competing based on their employee experience. The winners in this labor market are now those organisations with high employee engagement and enthusiasm, plus a good approach to recruitment.”
Out of the starting blocks, but often without an employee experience strategy
Of the survey’s respondents, 70% said they were out of the starting blocks in terms of engaging with employee experience, while 20% considered themselves ‘advanced’. “That’s good news,” Heleen says, “because internationally ‘employee centric thinking’ is an HR theme with the highest priority.”
Reasons to engage with Employee Experience:
- Retain employees
- Better labor market position
- Healthy and sustainable employability of employees
- Aligns with our aims and beliefs
- Higher productivity and creativity of employees
- Faster processing/digitalization
- Improved customer experience and reputation among customers
- Connecting to internal changes
- Improved financial results
- Job satisfaction
Only 38% of respondents have an employee experience strategy or aims in place, as derived from or integrated with the organizational strategy. Heleen: “To contribute to the organizational strategy, values and the right employee experience, you really need that strategic anchoring. This approach must be inspiring, easily understandable and measurable. Moreover, it must suit the organization and be distinct from that of other employers. A good employee experience approach serves as a guideline and test for the actions you will undertake, so it’s a real must!”
Employee retention the key reason for employee experience
Employee retention is the primary reason for getting started on employee experience. “And that’s a good reason,” Heleen adds, “because if you don’t lose someone, you don’t need to replace them either. In previous years, the priority was to speed up processes and lower costs: functional, faster and more digital. But that has waned. Now we attach more value to good employment practices.”
Onboarding gets the most attention
Research shows that onboarding (71%) is given the highest priority in the employee journey: a good start is half the battle. This is followed by ‘learning and development’ (64%) and ‘recruitment’ (61%). Heleen: “According to the research, the best return on investment comes from wellbeing, training and development (PWC 2022). Additionally, it appears that having ‘good 1-to-1 conversations’ about work significantly contribute to wellbeing and the employee experience. International research revealed that experiences pertaining to ‘life events’ – such as childbirth, family illnesses – have a three times the impact on employee experience than the average for employee journeys, which therefore argues in favor of giving this higher priority (Ti People, 2022). Many organisations determine their priorities based on their own HR expertise, rather than the low points experienced by and impacting their employees.”
Priority for employee journeys in 2022
- Onboarding
- Learning and developing
- Recruitment
- Vitality and Absenteeism
- Internal Communication
- Employment conditions
- Performance management
- HR administration
- Hybrid work
- Internal advancement
Design thinking for HR lags behind
When using methods for the employee experience, (pulse) surveys come first. “In recent years organisations have started measuring more frequently and comprehensively,” Heleen notes. “The next step is to devise a ‘continuous listening strategy’, in which not only qualitative but also quantitative research is given priority.”
Using design thinking for HR is making only slow progress. The survey shows that 29% collect feedback from employees about HR products. 20% state that they’ll work in multidisciplinary teams with stakeholders, such as managers and other support departments. And 10% say they use design thinking methods, like employee journey mapping and developing personas. “That’s where the challenge lies in the years ahead,” Heleen says. “Design thinking has proven its worth when it comes to user design and customer design, as it combines the best insights from product development, positive psychology and marketing. HR can really benefit from this. Moreover, ’employee centric thinking’ requires a greater role for the end user, who are usually the employees themselves. It’s no longer about thinking for, but co-creation with. Such a collaborative approach is still lacking however. HR remains stuck in its expert role, but that’s an old way of thinking.”
Methods used for employee experience
- (Pulse) surveys
- Formulate mission and vision
- Promote core values
- Digitization of HR products
- Feedback on HR products
- HR analytics
- Team development
- eNPS measurement
- Cultural change
- Storytelling
Increased happiness at work as result
Have organisations gained anything from engaging with the employee experience? Yes, according to the research.
The top 5 benefits:
- Increased happiness at work
- More efficient processes/time savings
- Lower outflow
- Better labor market position
- Lower absenteeism
“Great results”, Heleen says, “because if employee experience actions fail to yield anything, you’re pushing the wrong buttons. Don’t spend a lot of time and energy on policy notes. Devote time to making good measurements among employees, listen and then get started by taking small steps. The best advice comes from Simon Sinek: “Dream big. Start small. But most of all: Start!”.”
Consequences for the HR department
Engaging with employee experience has certainly impacted HR departments, including the adoption of a different view towards HR, new working methods, like design thinking and agile working, and expanding internal collaboration. The collaboration has intensified, especially between Communications, Recruitment and the business itself. “The best employee experience occurs when support departments collaborate intensively. I had expected that there would’ve been greater collaboration with Facility Management due to hybrid working, but that only applied to 15% of the respondents,” Heleen notes.
HR departments indicate that in future they will likely need more support for employee experience: from the executive board and managers, and from other support departments. However, 42% of the respondents also said that in order to take the next steps, the mindset within HR must change. Heleen “Having more employee experience-related knowledge and skills often helps convince your own colleagues. However, getting rid of the old routines, such as top-down thinking, takes more time.”
