Why more employers are treating their workers like customers

Dive Brief:

Creating a positive employee experience (EX) is one of the top three priorities for business leaders in 2019, according to a new report by Ceridian, Consumerizing the Employee Experience: The Business Value of EX. The report found that EX has elevated vital HR and business metrics. Citing research in Harvard Business Review, the report noted that companies that invest massively in EX are listed 28 times more often on Fast Company's Most Innovative Companies lists, 11.5 times more often on Glassdoor's Best Places to Work lists and 2.1 times as often on Forbes' lists of the World's Most Innovative Companies.
Some ways HR is leveraging EX to attract candidates include: providing on-demand pay; personalizing benefits; treating employees with the same attentiveness as customers and soliciting continuous feedback from them; and making HR services and technology easily accessible to support a more mobile workforce.
The report recommended that employees be treated like everyday consumers and that organizations reassess HR tools in order to stand out from the competition. The report quoted Josh Bersin, president and founder of Bersin & Associates, an industry research and advisory company, who described EX as a mindset, not just a program.

Dive Insight:

An ExecuSearch Group's report released in January supports the Ceridian study's findings; a positive employee experience will be a top priority for employers in 2019, according to its 2019 Hiring Outlook. The report also contends that EX will drive business success this year.

Technology is central to ensuring a positive employee experience thanks to its capacity to personalize the experience. Using tools like artificial intelligence, machine learning and chatbots, HR technology can enhance employee experience through performance and feedback tools, training and self-service access to payroll, wellness and benefits. Personalization can assist in bringing about meaningful work, which is a key part of engagement; "Professionals consider their careers an integral part of their lives and they expect their job to provide meaning," Edward Fleischman, The ExecuSearch Group's CEO, previously said in a statement regarding the Hiring Outlook report.

But employers still have a lot of work ahead of them in creating more positive employee experience. According to an Alight Solutions study released earlier this year, most employees said they don't feel positive about their experience. One remedy includes taking EX beyond basic engagement, said Katy Bunn, senior director, marketing communications at Paycor, speaking at the company's 2019 Rise Web Summit in February. The true employee experience begins on a new hire's first day, and HR and managers have a responsibility to create a supportive culture backed by frequent check-ins and goal setting, Bunn said. Some experts say that engagement starts even earlier in the recruiting process, and continues throughout an employee's tenure.