In today's market, employee expectations are higher than ever. To keep up with these growing needs, organizations need to understand what they can do to set and continuously improve the employee experience.
Let's explore how data-driven insights can help companies tailor experiences, anticipate needs, and foster a positive culture that drives both engagement and the bottom line.
Understanding the Employee Experience
What do we mean by 'employee experience'?
In the world of reward and benefits, there are three specific areas:
- Using digital products for a joined-up enterprise experience
- Access to robust and effective employee support services for help with queries
- The overall workplace environment and total rewards offering
Data underpins all of these factors. These three pillars should work harmoniously to create a workplace culture that fosters engagement, satisfaction, and productivity. Additionally, studies have found that highly engaged employee experiences can result in a 23% increase in bottom-line profitability.
The employee experience depends on employees having support during the moments that matter—such as onboarding, performance reviews, benefits enrolment, life events, and personal milestones. Making a good first impression is especially vital: according to a study, in the first six months, 86% of hires have already decided how long they'll stay with a company — and in today's war for talent, that number is likely even more unstable.
Using the right technology allows companies to use data to help employees succeed. How exactly? Here are five ways to harness data to improve employee experiences.
- Create Personalized Experiences
In today's workplace, personalization is not just a preference — it's a necessity. A Glassdoor study found that 73% of participants would not apply to a company unless it corresponded with their own personal values. Employees expect their workplace experiences, as well as their benefits offering, to be increasingly tailored to their individual needs. For example, combining employee survey data with the cost of benefits programs and other KPI metrics can create a truly personalized employee journey from onboarding to retirement.
With access to the right data, you can use these integrated survey tools to ask your employees what they prioritize most to fully understand employee sentiment and identify opportunities for continuous improvement. Research from the ADP Research Institute found that employees with a strong sense of connection are 75 times more likely to be fully engaged at work.
Does your current strategy address your employees' needs, values, and preferences? If not, consider how you can integrate more sophisticated data analytics into your employee experience strategy.
- Monitor Your Data
By actively monitoring activity across your digital ecosystem, you can gain deeper insights into employee behavior, click rates, search terms, and costs.
For instance, a holistic benefits platform provides a clearer picture of exactly what benefits your employees want. If many people search for a particular type of benefit that isn't currently offered, this indicates a gap you can address to meet their needs.
By studying your data in real-time, you can discover employees' priorities and preferences, helping you enhance their experiences more effectively.
- Prioritize Integration and Accessibility
According to Gallup's 2023 'State of the Workplace' report, only 23% of employees feel engaged at work. While digital tools enable employees to be connected to their workplaces, even when working remotely, these tools and HR systems must be accessible and integrated properly.
HR tools that can be seamlessly integrated with your tech ecosystem —including the core HRIS — ensure ease of access and improve the consistency of data gathered across different touchpoints. This also includes increased personalization and segmentation to drive personalized messages and content. Benefit engagement tools, like a fully functioning mobile app, can maintain a consistent data collection process and offer employees a unified experience.
- Embrace Continuous Feedback
So, how can you identify if your employees are satisfied with the improvements you've made to the employee experience?
With continuous feedback, you can use data to understand and improve employee experiences in real time. Data can provide actionable insights that can be applied to benefits implementation, work-life balance initiatives, and so much more. This data can be collected through surveys, feedback apps, and other digital tools.
Does your current technology allow for real-time adjustments and ongoing data processing? If the answer is no, consider seeking out more agile tools.
- Choose the Right Technology Partner
Investing in a platform and services provider that uses data to enhance employee experiences can actively help manage costs. Research has shown that teams with high levels of employee engagement experience 22% higher profitability than those with lower employee engagement.
If your current processes don't harness data, consider switching to a platform that aligns with your long-term vision.
So what's next?
Think about the overall experience you want your employees to have throughout their lifecycle with you. Consider using data to continuously assess what is working and what is not, with two-way communication with employees across benefits and culture. This will contribute to data-driven strategic decisions that boost the employee experience.
Gain unparalleled insights from our recent webinar with IKEA, to understand how IKEA is using data to make strategic and informed decisions that contributed to significant improvement in the employee experience across all sites.
