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There’s value in being customer-centric, and it’s a trait that every employee — no matter how indirect their involvement with customers is — must embody. Leaders recognize that everyone within an organization can help keep customers happy, but what about their fellow employees?
Employee experience today is a highly shared function, but how can organizations make sure all these stakeholders are making decisions with their colleagues in mind?
Who Owns Employee Experience?
While some may conflate human resources and employee experience, the two are distinct. Regardless, HR has enjoyed principal ownership over EX for quite some time, as seen year after year in Reworked’s State of the Digital Workplace report.
However, the pandemic placed a renewed spotlight on employee experience and its importance across an organization.
As a result of the pandemic, companies had to gain new competencies, like attracting and retaining talent in a difficult environment, using new digital platforms, implementing flexible work, practicing empathy and building connections.
Reworked also found that between 2020 and 2021, IT and the C-suite took on more responsibility for workplace technology purchases, which often reflects de facto ownership.
EX has always been somewhat multi-disciplinary, according to Katy Tynan, vice president and principal analyst at Forrester, and often requires input and resources from everyone from HR, IT, facilities, marketing, communications to even customer experience.
“Every part of the organization has an influence on EX, so it is not possible to have a true EX practice that is not shared, and it really never was,” Tynan said.
According to Andrea Derler, principal of research and customer value at Visier, the ownership structure might look different at each organization depending on the strategic value they place on EX. Ultimately though, senior leadership has the responsibility for setting and sharing imperatives with other stakeholders.
“I would say ownership should be with the CHRO, who ideally works closely, of course, with business leaders who really depend on a fully functioning talent function,” Derler said.
Related Article: Employee Engagement Hit an All-Time Low: Here's How to Revamp Your Strategy
Make Sharing Employee Experience Data a Habit
The employee experience encompasses everything from the application process to compensation to performance management to succession planning and promotions, Derler explained. But while CHROs and other strategic leaders might understand this view of employee experience, other stakeholders may not be thinking about the business impact of these various touchpoints.
Furthermore, while people analytics or HR may collect important EX data and share it among themselves, these conversations are happening in a silo.
“None of the other HR functionaries can do anything without data, really. So it should be part of that whole collaborative process,” Derler said.
As a result, data needs to be shared regularly with CHROs and other senior leaders who can then use it to create a picture of overall EX at the organization and communicate it to business leaders to set priorities.
Related Article: Employee Experience Is About Work-Life Integration, Not Balance
Creating an EX Culture
So, how can companies start creating a culture where everyone is an active participant in molding the employee experience?
According to Tynan, culture comes from both the top down and bottom up. Organizations that want to show they are prioritizing EX should start by creating a dedicated function that intentionally brings together all cross-functional stakeholders.
“But beyond simply creating a function, the work needs to be funded, and clear KPIs need to be identified such that senior leaders have accountability for EX outcomes,” Tynan said.
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Derler pointed to the importance of setting broader goals across functions that relate to employee experience, such as reducing resignations. “You need to start with giving them a purpose or a reason why [EX] is important,” she said.
Once priorities are set, teams need to understand the current status quo and how to measure against it, set goalposts and regularly review them to track progress.
“Then, you need to figure out more than just individual accountability because that takes us back to the silos,” Derler said. “But what's our shared goal? And how do we measure that?”
