Many companies look to company culture as the key to a happy workforce and great employee experience (EX). But engendering a culture that drives positive change in employee metrics such as satisfaction, productivity, and retention takes more than a flex work, a nice café, and a bit of greenery. It requires a feeling of connectedness with each other, across levels, and with the corporate mission—and the right technology choices can help get companies there.
At companies achieving EX success, employees are more engaged. They feel that their feedback is being heard and acted on, which leads them to give greater satisfaction ratings in company surveys. When employees can more easily find and access company and job information, this streamlines their daily activities, resulting in increased productivity. When employees see themselves as valued contributors, they feel more invested in the company, and therefore are less likely to leave, boosting retention.
In Metrigy’s Employee Experience: 2023-24global research study with 499 companies, we asked participants to share percent changes in these success metrics relative to deployment of four EX-related technologies: EX platforms, intranets, voice-of-the-employee (VoE) software, and enterprise search. After determining the mean change for each, and where each company fell, we identified our success group for this study. Of the 189 companies measuring success, 111 qualified as successful.
Use of all of these technologies netted the success group positive change in each of our success metrics -- but none more so than an EX platform, as shown below.
What comprises an EX platform can vary from company to company, but generally this type of product integrates a variety of tools and applications for helping companies centrally manage employee experience. An EX platform typically supports activities such as career development and learning, collaborative goal setting and management, community building among employees, communicating corporate information, performance management, recognition and rewards, VoC/employee listening, well-being management, and more. Of these, the top three activities correlating to success are community building, collaboration goal setting, and recognition and rewards.
EX success isn’t just about picking the right technology, of course. Here’s a look at eight things that successful companies do compared to those that aren’t successful or don’t measure success.
|
EX Measures |
Successful Companies |
Non-Success Group |
|
Learning and development initiatives |
74.5% |
55.3% |
|
Collaborative workspaces |
65.5% |
42.1% |
|
Corrolation of EX and CX ratings |
41.8% |
24.2% |
|
EX is executive-level position |
56.4% |
43.4% |
|
Use behavior data from collaboration apps to guide employees |
63.6% |
31.6% |
|
Survey employees at key journey moments |
70.6% |
45.8% |
|
Moniter Enterprise Social for Corporate Adherence Policy |
71.4% |
50% |
|
Analyze community content for employee sentiment |
62.9% |
43.3% |
1. 74.5% have learning and development initiatives, vs. 55.3% of the non-success group
2. 65.5% offer collaborative workspaces, vs. 42.1% of the non-success group
3. 41.8% correlate EX and customer experience ratings, vs. 24.2% of the non-success group
4. They’ve elevated EX to executive-level position at a higher percentage than others
5. They’re two times more likely to use behavior data from collaboration apps to guide employees, vs. the non-success group
6. 70.6% survey at key journey moments, vs. 45.8% of non-success group
7. 71.4% monitor enterprise social for adherence with corporate policy, vs. 50% of non-success group
8. 62.9% analyze community content for employee sentiment, vs. 43.3% of non-success group
I could go on with additional correlations, but I think these eight provide some good examples of how companies achieving success with EX are differentiated from those that aren’t. EX takes an investment in employees, and lots of care and feeding.
