Leaders increasingly recognise HR and employee experience is a critical strategic business function
HR leaders are listening beyond engagement and focused on demonstrating business impact as they mature employee experience management practices
SYDNEY (May 18, 2023) – New research from Qualtrics XM Institute reveals that while many HR leaders in Australia have increased the frequency at which they capture employee feedback, they are struggling to convert these insights into meaningful action – with many leaders potentially unaware an experience gap has emerged.
The majority of HR leaders (95%) surveyed say their organisation effectively uses insights from employee feedback to improve experiences. However, a separate Qualtrics study of employees found just 43% of workers in the country say they’ve seen positive change as a result of employee surveys1. As organisations across Australia place increasing focus on delivering positive and meaningful employee experiences, the research offers insight into how HR and people leaders are evolving their employee listening programs to deliver increasing strategic value, and what they need to do to positively and meaningfully improve the employee experience in workplaces across the country.
Since the onset of the pandemic, HR leaders and their teams have stepped up to provide ongoing and lasting strategic counsel and business value, with 78% of HR and people leaders in Australia saying their company’s senior executives now have a greater focus on employee experiences. Three-quarters of HR leaders state they are now more involved in strategic initiatives, and the same amount (75%) agree improving employee experiences will significantly improve business results.
“The disruption of the past few years has driven home how critical HR and people leaders are for keeping a business running, and as a result the strategic value and impact these teams provide is becoming more noticeable for senior leadership teams,” said Dr. Cecelia Herbert, Principal Catalyst at Qualtrics XM Institute.
“As part of this shift, employee experience management has become an integral part of the operating rhythm for countless organisations across Australia, with employee insights becoming some of the most valuable business intelligence assets leaders can access – especially as workplaces become more purpose-driven. HR teams that enable people across the organisation to continuously learn, rapidly adapt, and take meaningful action are the driving force behind the transformations required to meet the complex challenges we are facing today.”
EX: An emerging and maturing organisational discipline
Despite the broad recognition and value for employee experience management, the obstacles the discipline faces – as listed by HR leaders – demonstrate how these practices and skills are still maturing. The most common obstacle referenced by HR leaders is lack of clear strategy (44%), closely followed by lack of funding (42%), and lack of critical skills (42%). An unclear return on investment (36%) and misaligned incentives and rewards (36%) are also seen as challenges to overcome.
For HR leaders, demonstrating the business impact of employee experience management by linking HR operations to business outcomes (70%) and attracting talent (70%) are currently their top priorities. Employee training and development (65%), employee onboarding (62%), and progress on diversity, equity and inclusion (59%) are also near the top of HR leaders’ priorities lists. Manager enablement is the lowest rated priority (30%).
HR leaders thinking beyond engagement
As HR leaders begin to think more holistically about employee listening programs, the Qualtrics XM Institute findings show professionals and teams are listening beyond the traditional metric of engagement. Today, HR leaders say they are measuring how employees’ experiences match their expectations (88%), well-being (83%), intent to stay (73%), and inclusion (70%).
Employee feedback is also now being captured across a range of experiences and moments across the employee journey, with the most popular around onboarding (77%), diversity, equity and inclusion (73%), workplace safety (66%), workplace experience (63%), and well-being (60%). HR leaders say the majority of leaders (86%) now review employee feedback at least quarterly, with 15% saying leaders are looking at insights on a weekly basis.
For HR leaders focused on demonstrating the business impact of HR, the Qualtrics XM Institute study highlights three capabilities to prioritise:
- Converting employee insights into action – With an expected increase in employee listening and a gap between the experiences employees say they are getting compared to what their leaders think they’re delivering, finding ways to take quick, meaningful action on feedback is key to employee experience success.
- Being prepared for change – Having been forced to adapt to the pandemic, organisations are now navigating a challenging macroeconomic climate. Having in place agile people systems, processes and technology will enable HR leaders and teams to efficiently adapt to any future changes.
- Providing managers with effective support – Managers are the frontline when it comes to keeping employees engaged and focused, and their importance should not be overlooked in employee experience conversations. Additionally, managers and leaders may be missing important feedback on their leadership skills as 360 developmental feedback (49%) is one of the least common tools for employee feedback.
Methodology
This study was conducted in December 2022 and January 2023 from more than 900 HR leaders across nine countries including Chief HR Officer, Chief People Officer, or senior leaders within the HR function such as directors, from companies with at least 1,000 employees. 100 respondents are from Australia.
Read more from XM Institute: https://www.xminstitute.com/research/global-hr-executives-xm/
About the Qualtrics 2023 Employee Experience Trends Report
Qualtrics surveyed nearly 29,000 working individuals across 27 countries in Q3 2022 to understand how employees feel about the state of the workplace and how their changing relationship with it will define the future of work. 2,400 respondents were from Australia and New Zealand, which includes 1,883 junior- to manager-level employees, and 517 senior and executive leaders.
Click here for a copy of the global Qualtrics 2023 Employee Experience Trends Report.
About XM Institute
Qualtrics XM Institute is the world’s premier resource for experience management professionals. Led by industry visionary Bruce Temkin, XM Institute’s faculty researches trends and emerging practices in how organizations interact with their key stakeholders, including suppliers, employees, customers and partners. XM Institute also leads XM Pros Network, a thriving global community of more than 6,000 XM leaders who participate in an ongoing calendar of monthly events. The Institute maintains the XM Professionals Certification, the gold standard credential in the field. To access the latest XM content or for more information about XM Institute, please visit xminstitute.com.
About Qualtrics
Qualtrics, the leader and creator of the experience management category, is a cloud-native software provider that helps organizations quickly identify and resolve points of friction across all digital and human touchpoints in their business – so they can retain their best customers and employees, protect their revenue, and drive profitability. More than 18,750 organizations around the world use Qualtrics’s advanced AI to listen, understand, and take action. Qualtrics uses its vast universe of experience data to form the largest database of human sentiment in the world. Qualtrics is co-headquartered in Provo, Utah and Seattle, and operates out of 28 offices globally. To learn more, please visit qualtrics.com.