Two-thirds of HR professionals think they are delivering a positive employee experience, yet only 13% of staff share that sentiment, a survey has found.
According to research from Benefex, employee experience ratings have fallen sharply in the last year, with just a fifth of employees rating it as excellent, compared to 38% last year.
At the same time, employees’ expectations of their employers have risen, with 81% saying employee experience is more important than it was a year ago. This is particularly the case for salary, benefits, recognition and wellbeing, the survey found.
With this in mind, 71% of organisations plan to increase their spending on employee benefits, Benefex found. More than eight in 10 are choosing to prioritise wellbeing, seeing this as vital to a good employee experience.
Employee experience
Many employers are also looking to boost recognition at work, with 94% of employees reporting it is important to be acknowledged for their efforts at work, and 89% saying it is important to recognise colleagues. However, fewer than half of those surveyed (42%) thought the technology available to do this was ‘good’ or ‘excellent’, so there is room for improvement here.
This was consistent with employees’ overall feelings around technology at work, with 61% saying the tools they use at work lag behind those they use at home.
Michael Tigwell, Benefex chief operating officer, said: “It’s concerning that employers feel that they are performing better than they actually are when it comes to providing great employee experience.
“It’s certainly not a result of a lack of focus or effort on the part of employers, but there is clearly a disconnect between the initiatives they’re undertaking to enhance employee benefits and reward experience and what their people actually need right now.”
Looking to the future, many reward and benefits professionals believe artificial intelligence could drastically alter their role. Benefex found that 19% think AI will replace most jobs in reward and benefits, and a tenth worry that AI will fully replace their job at some point.
More than a quarter (26%) said they were worried about bias in HR-related AI applications, while 20% are concerned about the risks of using corporate information in AI models.
Tigwell added: “Arguably the biggest learning from this research is that employers can’t stand still when it comes to employee experience.
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“They need to continually listen to employees to understand their changing needs and build agility into their reward and benefits strategies, so they can respond in a fast and effective way. This means embracing new ideas and implementing new technologies, such as AI, which can ease pressure in the HR department.”
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