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Picture an employee experience leader in your head. What do they look like? Which department do they belong to? What is their title? Where did they go to school?
If a clear image isn’t coming together, you’re probably not alone. Considering how nascent and quickly evolving the EX field is, it’s anyone’s guess which individuals are involved and how.
To answer these questions, Reworked recently released its first annual State of the Employee Experience Leader report, which provides insights from more than 1,400 leaders responsible for EX at their organization on what their EX role entails, how it’s changing and the skills needed to perform in the field.
What the report shows is that while most EX leaders get by with the various tools they use each day, there’s still room for improvement.
A Data Problem, Not a Tech One
The nature of work today is digital, and so the number of different technologies EX leaders must navigate to understand their workplace is constantly growing. Today’s professionals are likely using everything from standard HR information systems (HRIS) and employee engagement platforms to newer tools like employee wellness applications and workspace management tools.
When asked about their experience level with these tools, as part of the Reworked survey, 71% said they consider themselves either experts or competent at using them, which is certainly good news, but this leaves nearly a third (29%) saying they’re either just getting by or doing poorly.
The report does reveal some contradiction in that regard: On one question about technical skills, 39% of respondents said technical expertise was a necessary skill. Yet, in a separate question, 91% said that having technical skills and experience is important to success in the EX leader role, suggesting that it can’t be ignored.
Digging into the data, we find that it might not all be about the tools themselves, but also about the data they contain.
“Yes, you use more tools if you're an EX leader, but chances are, there are teams that kind of help you with the implementation, execution and the day-to-day running of them,” said one EX professional who works for a Fortune 500 firm. “It's more about the data and knowing how to manage the data. I think that's the critical skill that’s missing.”
Joe Makston, a leadership consultant and former director of employee experience at Early Warning, said EX leaders need to be able to not just use the tool but also use its data to storytell and develop narratives around what is going on in their organization.
Thinking back to his own experience when he faced similar issues: ”If you signed into the platform, it was fairly good, but it didn't give you enough data. So I had to get on the phone with the provider to be able to say, ‘all right, help me understand what this is telling me, and how do I know that it's accurate?’”
Related Article: What Does an EX Career Path Look Like?
A Mounting Tech Stack
There’s a confluence of factors that could be making the EX role more difficult, as it relates to technology.
For one, most EX leaders come from a human resources background. According to the Reworked report, 60% of respondents said HR owns employee experience at their organization. Makston said this means that while these individuals might understand widely used tools like an HRIS or learning management system, other tools may present a challenge.
Furthermore, many companies are moving toward less static methods of measuring engagement, which means vendors have pivoted to more dynamic offerings. While this does improve measurement, it can also create more work and make analyzing data more complex, Makston said.
Then, there’s evidence that organizations often lack a centralized and fully implemented technology stack that could allow for better data standardization and sharing. According to Reworked’s report, 42% of respondents said their organization has a centralized tech strategy but is still in the process of implementing it — and 34% said they don’t have a strategy and are still investing ad-hoc.
Related Article: Why and How to Standardize Your Collaboration Tools
An L&D Path Forward
Of course, every organization has a unique approach to employee experience, which makes it all the more challenging to formalize learning around it.
“It’s more about whether you’re savvy and if you're an intellectually curious leader,” the EX leader said, also noting the importance of relying on your team. “You need to make sure you have the right partners and support team to help you get those answers. For instance, I can't look at raw data and know what to do with it. My brain doesn't work that way. But I have team members that help me bring it together. “
Adding to the challenge, according to Makston, is that as budgets get tighter, individuals in one department or job level might be expected to take on additional responsibilities, or even serve in cross-functional roles. This will make knowledge sharing, either formally or informally, even more important.
“For us to be able to be top performers as an individual or be a part of a high performing team, we've got to leverage technology better,” he said. “Creating these learning paths around technology is going to be important.”
Makston also encouraged leaders to take an active role in conversations with vendors about how their technology works and, most importantly, ask questions.
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“You need to ask what the reporting looks like. I need to actually go and pull the data, I need to be able to slice and dice the data. And sometimes it's not that easy,” Makston said. “So, you have to understand how the technology works and kind of break it down a little bit, so you know what works well and what doesn't work well."
