The business world has long understood that external customer experience (CX) is a key differentiator in the market. Or, in other words, that business impact is determined by the experience centricity of products and services.

An experience-centric approach should not be limited to external customers. Positive internal customer experience – for the people who work for and with an organisation – is equally as important. Evidence indicates that, just as external CX correlates with business impact, so too does internal customer experience determine how well an organisation attracts, retains and unlocks the potential of talent. In this way, companies compete on employee experience (EX), just as they do on customer experience.

Measuring employee experience with interaction-level experience data

Employers can assess an individual’s general sentiment or overall relationship with the company with a measure of engagement, which typically rises and falls depending on the quality of the overall experience. However, understanding the finer details of employee experience (EX) is much harder and more important, to keep employees connected and focused on business goals.

EX teams that harness interaction-level experience data have a clearer understanding of the everyday experiences that define an employee’s relationship with the organisation. The impact of specific interactions – What’s working? What’s causing friction? – becomes obvious and enables EX improvements to be effectively prioritised. And by using interaction-level experience data, organisations can then demonstrate business value.

Demonstrating the Business Value of EX

Insight222 Research and TI People conducted research in 2021 to understand how EX and people analytics leaders can demonstrate the business value of EX, by focusing on interaction-level experience data. This approach is essential for Chief Human Resources Officers (CHROs) and business executives looking to understand and improve the business impact of EX in their organisation.

The insights discussed in this whitepaper are drawn from a quantitative analysis undertaken by Insight222 and TI People in May 2021. The research includes data from 139 respondents of which 92 are human resources leaders from a range of geographies and industries in large and medium companies.

Our key findings are:

1.     Organisations have shown more interest in employee experience at the C-Suite level since the start of the global pandemic.

With 70% of survey respondents agreeing that business leaders have shown more interest in employee experience since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, the importance of frictionless and frustration-free employee experience is attracting more attention than ever before. Once equipped with better, more relevant data and the ability to demonstrate business impact, those leaders will better understand and embrace EX, too – the benefits of which will be felt by organisations and employees for many years to come. 

2.     Organisations have difficulty proving the business impact of employee experience.

Organisations have difficulty proving the business impact of employee experience. Only 14% of respondents, on average, were confident they could fully prove the business impact delivered with EX. Many leaders report difficulties in measuring the most significant impacts of EX on the business, for example, ‘increased innovation’ and ‘faster attraction of better people’.

Confidence in proving the business performance impacts of EX is low

3.     Organisations aren’t fully embracing internal “experience centricity”.

Experience centricity, which is fundamental to a differentiated external customer experience (CX), should also be applied to the internal customer (i.e. employee) experience. Data from an associated study shows that currently, only 38% of employees report being highly satisfied with their everyday work experiences. Embracing internal experience centricity requires a better understanding of the difference between employee engagement and employee experience.

The Employee Experience Value Chain

In addition to exploring interaction-level experience data, this report presents a new model – The Employee Experience Value Chain – to support forward-thinking organisations to capitalise on experience centricity.

The Employee Experience Value Chain makes the connection between EX, employee performance, business performance and financial outcomes. The premise of the model is that when employees perform their daily activities at work, they interact with the organisation’s ecosystem across human, digital and physical points of interaction. When employees’ daily interactions with the organisation are free of friction and frustration, they have a better experience.

With better experiences, the first effect is that performance increases, as less friction means employees have more time and energy to dedicate to higher value-adding work. A related and reinforcing effect is that engagement rises.

This simple premise translates into a data-driven foundation that objectively and accurately connects employee experience to business outcomes.

Download the full whitepaper now to learn:

• Our top three recommendations to embrace experience centricity

• What interaction-level experience data is and how to collect it

• How to demonstrate the business value of EX using The Employee Experience Value Chain

• The elements of EX that people analytics and EX leaders find most difficult to measure and which elements are crucial for proving the business impact of EX

• How People Analytics and EX teams can work together to better understand employee experience

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Caroline Styr

Caroline Styr is the Research Director at Insight222. She is a thought-leader, researcher and writer on people analytics and the future of HR. Prior to joining Insight222, she worked at the Center for the Future of Work where she was an advisor and in-demand speaker on topics related to the future of work. She has also held roles in digital services and transformation consulting at Cognizant.

Contact Caroline at caroline.styr@insight222.com

Kerry Ghize

Kerry is the Managing Director at TI People and previously worked in professional services for over 20 years with a background in market leadership, commercial strategy, and customer success. Kerry also serves in a non-exec capacity and previously held executive roles at CEB (now Gartner) in the EMEA business, advising C-suite clients on talent, risk, and innovation management practice.

Contact Kerry at kerry.ghize@ti-people.com

Christophe Martel

Christophe Martel is the CEO and co-founder of TI People Inc. Prior to co-founding TI People, Christophe was the Chief Human Resources Officer for CEB (now Gartner) and has an extensive business leadership experience in the professional services and software industries.

Contact Christophe at christophe.martel@ti-people.com