Employee experience research — Why organizations move from projects to programs 

Whatever action you take on EX should start with driving business success. This is where stakeholders need to be identified, and their various needs understood. 

As an example, the board will want the ability to monitor how their strategic plans are unfolding. But team leaders need to understand EX at a much more tactical level: What’s stopping their teams from fully thriving, and how can those hurdles be removed? Another example is HR, which needs to ensure it delivers a compelling employee value proposition that attracts the right people and retains key employees. There’s not a single person in leadership who can’t benefit from EX insights. But no one is helped by generic, high-level insights. 

Aside from leadership, many others will need EX insights. Think about IT — is the tech provided helping employees? HSE — is the work environment supporting safety protocols? Or learning and development — are you offering the right enablement programs?

Mapping out what the business needs and how EX research will drive the specific key performance indicators attached to those needs is where any good plan starts. The plan can be small or wide ranging, as long as it’s clear. 

Creating an understanding of the purpose and goals the research serves also helps manage expectations and make success visible.  

After the relevant business needs are mapped out, the next step is to understand what data are needed to provide the required insights. EX data should be considered but also operational data already available in the organization. 

What are the gaps in the current data sets? This analysis will lead to the right type of activity to bridge any gaps identified; for example, using onboarding or exit surveys to understand attrition. Or combining engagement survey data with recorded safety incidents to understand what drives people to ignore protocols in certain situations. 

How an organization expands on an existing EX program is crucial. Organizations should build on current EX feedback programs and add any activity required to help the business. New activities should be well connected to existing ones, especially where necessary to support an identified business need. 

Finally, organizations must pay close attention to who they ask to provide EX feedback. A good set of governance rules will go a long way toward ensuring that no one is bombarded with feedback requests and that surveys are gathering the right information from the right audience. 

This is the million-dollar question: How will the organization use the insights to respond to the business needs identified at the beginning? A successful impact requires setting the right priorities and identifying the right solutions. The former will follow from the data analysis. For the latter, leaders should make use of the available tools and in-house knowledge to identify the best solutions. 

Ultimately, the organization will need to drive that action, but the program goal is to make this as easy as possible. The right impact will outweigh the costs to ensure return on investment (ROI). 

Although change can only be made after the analysis, the correct infrastructure for quick and effective action can be established early on. Because business needs were also identified early on, a business case for any proposed change can be drafted quickly with a clear ROI calculation. 

One example is an investigation into attrition drivers, which is often challenging for organizations. The combination of experience and attrition data will show what drives attrition within the organization and for various personas. This makes it possible to set a target for improving the most critical driver, provide a cost calculation and estimate the expected impact on attrition. Combining those insights with a projected reduction in attrition costs makes presenting a compelling business case easier. 

Setting aside budgets beforehand will help speed up the time required to act on the business case. Establishing responsibilities early as part of the plan ensures a continuous drive, including monitoring change implementation effectiveness.