Feature
At the start of 2024, Forrester announced an employee experience winter was coming. It didn’t mention it would last all year.
Instead, the Pandora’s box that Mark Zuckerberg opened with his declaration that 2023 would be “the year of efficiency” seems to have carried over into 2024. We’ve seen companies — and vendors — dial down their focus on employee experience as a result.
As far as motivating factors go, efficiency isn’t one of them.
The employee experience articles you loved this year showed organizations grappling with complex challenges ranging from the never-ending return to office debates, how to provide feedback and handle difficult conversations and the status of employee experience in the era of generative AI.
Top 10 Employee Experience Articles of 2024
1. Workers Reject Dell's RTO Push. What Comes Next? by Lance Haun
"Dell’s struggles to mandate RTO should be a wake-up call for everyone. Whether you use a carrot or stick approach, mandates tend to lead to some surprising results."
2. Feedback Matters. Here's How to Do It Right by Virginia Backaitis
"Feedback is about telling people what we think of their performance and how they should do it better — whether they’re giving an effective presentation, leading a team or creating a strategy. And on that, the research is clear: Telling people what we think of their performance doesn’t help them thrive and excel, and telling people how we think they should improve actually hinders learning."
3. Are Your Messages Hitting the Mark? Time for an Internal Comms Audit by Lisa Rabasca Roepe
"The best way to improve employee engagement and remove barriers to effective communications with employees is to conduct an internal comms audit, said Sharon O’Dea, co-founder of DWXS, a digital workplace consultancy. 'Most organizations have the right tools but aren’t using them quite right.'"
4. Where Generative AI Could Enhance Employee Engagement by Laurence Lock Lee
"When we think of how generative AI can improve employee engagement, one of the first things that comes to mind is using generative AI to help craft targeted content that employees are more likely to read and engage with. But employee engagement is far more than having compelling content. AI is not human and lacks the human nuances that build employee engagement."
5. Return-to-Office Mandates: Layoffs in Sheep's Clothing by Erica Sweeney
"'Organizations are placing bets, and they’re willing to live with the consequences of losing some highly desirable people in the process. But, maybe they’ll make up for it by having people who are engaged at work,' said Maurice Cayer, lecturer at University of New Haven.”
6. Where Employee Experience and Customer Experience Align, and Where They Diverge by Tamar Cohen
"Employees are not customers — you probably don’t have millions of employees. Their needs require a more nuanced understanding, which rarely can be captured through quantitative metrics alone. Overemphasis on metrics can reduce employees to numbers, overlooking their individual contributions, needs and potential."
7. The High Cost of Talent Hoarding by Wendy Helfenbaum
"'Ask yourself: ‘Is what I'm gaining from hoarding this talent worth what I'm losing in potential growth areas for other people?’ I’ve always found that when somebody who’s really talented and almost irreplaceable leaves the organization, it's amazing how other people step up around them,' said Duane McFadden, chief people officer at Telecare Corporation.
8. A Manager's Guide to Handling Difficult Conversations With Employees by Saranne Segall
"Difficult conversations are an essential aspect of effectively managing a team. They provide opportunities for growth, development and improvement when handled with care, empathy and professionalism. Managers play a pivotal role in addressing issues promptly to prevent things from escalating and to maintain a healthy, productive work environment."
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9. Navigating the Great Gloom by Sarah Deane
"Despite the ongoing cutbacks in employee initiatives, organizations continue to demand more from their workforce. Whether it's implementing transformations or achieving ambitious goals, it often feels like they are asking employees to go 100 miles on a 25-mile tank, all while expecting them to smile happily while they do so."
10. It's Time to Change the Narrative About Employee Experience by Tamar Cohen
"Our second narrative change is to remember that what happened in 2020-2022 was not a one- time series of events. It was the emotional culmination and reaction to 20 years of feeling unempowered and burned out. The Great Resignation hit so hard because employers (and many employees as well) were unprepared."