The Experience of Work

The experience of work

The role of technology in Sponsored by productivity and engagement The experience of work 1 The role of technology in productivity and engagement

Contents

2 About the report

3 Executive summary

5 1. Understanding the employee experience

10 2. The digital dimension

15 3. A cross-function endeavour

18 Conclusion

About the report

The experience of work: the role of technology in productivity and engagement is an Economist Intelligence Unit report, sponsored by Citrix, that explores how companies are managing the employee experience, and the role of technology in shaping it.

The analysis in the report is based on a survey of 1,145 business executives conducted in March and April 2019. The respondents hail from eight countries (the US, UK, Germany, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, China and Brazil) and work in six sectors (automotive, energy/oil & gas, financial services, healthcare, manufacturing and retail). They have senior roles in their organisations, just under half (49%) being C-level executives and the remainder being directors, business unit or department heads, and senior managers. The vast majority of them (81%) work in businesses employing more than 500 people, and nearly half (48%) employing more than 5,000.

Additional insights were obtained from in-depth interviews conducted with senior HR and IT leaders in organisations. Our thanks are due to the following individuals:

• Mukta Arya, head of human resources, South-east Asia and head of people and talent development, Asia-Pacific, Société Générale

• David Gill, assistant vice-president, employee experience, Northwell Health

• José Antonio Güereque, innovation director and chief information officer, Arca Continental

• Valerie Hughes-D’Aeth, chief human resources officer, BBC

• Art Mazor, principal partner and HR transformation global practice leader, Deloitte Consulting

• Elina Petrillo, assistant vice-president, HR technology, Northwell Health

• Florian Wies, regional lead, country integration, Merck

• Jerry Zhang, chief information officer, Coca-Cola Greater China & Korea This report was written by Denis McCauley and edited by Pete Swabey. For more insight on technology and the employee experience, visit theexperienceofwork.economist.com.

Executive summary

The more engaged employees are in their The clear conclusion is that business leaders work, previous research suggests, the likelier have several technology levers they can it is that they will contribute to the success of pull to brighten their employees’ journey an organisation. They will be more productive through the organisation, from the time than less engaged colleagues, as well as they are recruited to their departure and more innovative and self-starting—critical even later. The challenges to doing this attributes when business models and the well are numerous, above all getting IT competitive environment are changing and HR to collaborate effectively toward rapidly.1 But what specifically fosters such this end, but companies featured in this attributes? In recent years a consensus has report are finding ways to meet them. formed around the idea that, rather than one or two individual factors, it is the totality Other key findings of the research are: of an employee’s involvement with the organisation—the “employee experience”— Responsibility for improving the that ultimately influences their contribution employee experience is often blurred. to success. Shaping the employee experience tends to be a shared responsibility among multiple Today, the employee experience is firmly senior executives. This can, however, often on the senior management agenda of the signal a lack of leadership clarity and lead vast majority of firms, judging by the results to a vacuum. The risk of this is apparent in of a survey conducted by The Economist the survey, as little more than one third of Intelligence Unit. The research also makes C-suite respondents strongly agree that clear that nothing influences the employee they take full responsibility for it across the experience more than the quality of the organisation. Only a few more say they take organisation’s leadership. But technology is full responsibility for it even within their own also an important contributor, and especially teams. As companies mature digitally, C-level so at firms whose employees are, according executives, including the CIO, take on more of to respondents, more engaged and more a leadership role in this area. productive than their rivals (termed “high performers” in this report). The same is true Access to information breeds engagement at organisations that are further along in their and empowerment. Having ready access digital transformation than others (termed to the data and insights they need to do “digitally more mature” organisations). their jobs, wherever they are located, does Perceived improvement in the employee more to influence employee engagement experience has also been greater at these and productivity, and ultimately their overall groups than in the rest of the sample. experience, than other technology factors.

1 See, for example, Hay Group, Engaging Hearts and Minds: Preparing for a Changing World, 2015, http://info.haygroupupdate.com/rs/494-VUC-482/ images/Hay_Group_Engaging_Hearts_and_Minds_Report.pdf?aliId=105813088; Susan Sorensen (Gallup), “How Employee Engagement Drives Growth”, June 20th 2013, https://www.gallup.com/workplace/236927/employee-engagement-drives-growth.aspx; and V Kumar and P Wilton (Chartered Management Institute), “Briefing note for the MacLeod Review”, 2008, cited in David MacLeod and Nita Clarke, Engaging for success: enhancing performance through employee engagement, 2009, https://dera.ioe.ac.uk/1810/1/file52215.pdf © The Economist Intelligence Unit Limited 2019 The experience of work 4 The role of technology in productivity and engagement

For many companies, that translates into of their function. To overcome the lack of “mobile first” policies and efforts to perfect understanding that hampers collaboration, their use of collaboration tools, the digitisation many firms are taking practical measures of onboarding, training and other employee- such as employing specialists with knowledge development activities, and efforts to recreate of both disciplines and developing common the consumer experience at work to the metrics. extent possible. Companies struggle to measure IT and HR may not be natural partners, improvement in the employee experience. but bridges are being built. In the survey, Although virtually all companies in the the two functions appear to feel they have survey measure employee engagement and a joint stake in improving the employee productivity, and most are striving to devise experience. For example, similar numbers suitable metrics to capture improvements of IT and HR respondents say they feel in the employee experience, not many are personally responsible for this within their as yet registering success. Less than one- team or more widely. At high performers and third, for example, “strongly” confirm that digitally more mature organisations, a large they can quantify such improvements in proportion of both IT and HR executives financial terms. A higher proportion of high say the objective is part of the strategy performers, however, are able to do this.

1. Understanding the employee experience

In 2011 the polling organisation Gallup their day-to-day experience at work, right published research suggesting that a up to their departure from the organisation staggering 89% of employees worldwide and beyond. were not engaged in their work. This meant, the firm said, that most employees are Since then, the employee experience has been “emotionally detached and likely to be squarely on the management radar in large doing little more than is necessary to keep businesses. It remains so today across most their jobs”.2 It was around that time that sectors, according to executives interviewed the concept of employee experience began for this study, being a matter of senior to attract the attention of senior HR and management discussion at the vast majority other business managers. They wanted to (81%) of firms represented in our survey understand what levers they could pull to (although not to the same degree in all parts boost employee motivation and engagement. of the world: for example, the discussion is The concept provided them with something “extensive” at more than half of US firms, but more, however: an understanding that the at far fewer in Germany and Japan). Several contribution of employees to the success organisations interviewed for this research of the organisation is influenced by their have established management roles with subjective experience of interacting with it, explicit responsibilities in this area (and the from the first steps of recruitment, through exact term in the title).3

Figure 1: On the agenda Where the employee experience is a topic of senior management discussion (% of respondents)

All respondents Aus/NZ Brazil China Germany Japan UK US

Somewhat 39 53 23 22 51 46 43 34

Extensively 42 37 59 45 26 31 46 51

Source: The Economist Intelligence Unit.

2 Gallup, State of the Global Workplace 2011, https://www.gallup.com/services/177083/state-global-workplace-2011.aspx 3 See also “HR Jobs of the Future: Chief Employee Experience Officer”, HR Tech News, August 24th 2018, https://www.hrtechnologynews.com/news/ workforce-management/hr-jobs-of-the-future-chief-employee-experience-officer/109668; and “The Workplace As An Experience: Three New HR Roles Emerge”, Forbes, May 13th 2016, https://www.forbes.com/sites/jeannemeister/2016/05/13/the-workplace-as-an-experience-three-new-hr- roles-emerge/#6ff758c728ca © The Economist Intelligence Unit Limited 2019 The experience of work 6 The role of technology in productivity and engagement

Emerging from the crowd

Our analysis revealed two groups of count. High performers are 13% of respondent organisations that appear to the overall survey sample of 1,145 prioritise improvement of the employee respondents, and low performers experience more than, and in some are 14%. respects manage these efforts differently from, other groups in the survey: • Digitally more mature organisations are those that have been implementing • High performers in employee a digital transformation strategy engagement and productivity are for more than two years. They are organisations whose respondents compared with “digitally less mature” deem their employees to be both organisations, where strategy has yet to more engaged and more productive be developed. Both groups are 23% of in their work than at industry peers. the survey sample. High performers agree “strongly” on In the discussion to follow, we will both counts; middle performers agree highlight the areas where these groups “strongly” or “somewhat” on both; low stand out most strikingly from the rest. performers do not agree on either

The business outcomes that companies In our survey, more than one-third of seek from improving their employee respondents’ companies are seeing, or experience typically include greater expect to see, better customer experience employee productivity and engagement. and satisfaction as a result of their efforts Some, however, have bigger goals in mind. to improve the employee experience. According to Art Mazor, principal partner and (Respondents from service industries—retail, HR transformation global practice leader at financial services and healthcare—are more Deloitte, a consultancy, “Many now see the likely than those from others to cite this ultimate objective [of enhancing employee outcome.) Thirty-one percent are seeing experience] to be the creation of new value higher levels of profitability. in the market, by improving the customer experience and creating new opportunities for Organisations struggle to find ways of growth.” Research conducted by the MIT Sloan measuring the employee experience, a Center, published in 2017, supports this view. difficulty confirmed by several of the HR and It found that companies with “great employee IT executives interviewed. Current methods experience” had higher levels of customer are typically based on existing engagement satisfaction than others and were also more surveys and other measures. “But we’re innovative and profitable.4 starting to think about what other factors play

4 MIT Center for Information Systems Research, Building Business Value with Employee Experience, June 6th 2017, https://cisr.mit.edu/blog/ documents/2017/06/15/2017_0601_employeeexperience_derysebastian.pdf/. For the authors, a “great employee experience” consisted of a low complexity of work (employees find it easy to get their work done) and “strong behavioural norms for collaboration, creativity and empowerment”.

Figure 2: The beneﬁts of experience Business outcomes obtained or expected from an improved employee experience (% of respondents) 0 10 20 30 40 50

Improved employee productivity 43

Improved employee engagement 41

Improved customer experience and satisfaction 36

Improved proﬁtability 31

Improved talent retention 30

Improved innovation/creativity 28

Accelerated digital transformation 23

Improved talent recruitment 21

Improved brand perception 16

Source: The Economist Intelligence Unit. into a more holistic view of experience, such in the employee experience in the past two as career mobility,” says David Gill, assistant years; only one in ten of low performers can vice-president of employee experience at say the same. Digitally more mature firms— Northwell Health, a US-based health services those implementing a digital transformation provider. strategy for longer than two years—are also more likely than less mature firms to report Nearly all organisations in the survey measure such improvement. employee engagement and productivity. Less than one-third (29%), however, “strongly” agree that they’re able to quantify employee Who’s in charge? experience improvements in financial By its holistic nature, the employee experience terms. High performers, where engagement cuts across every facet of an organisation’s and productivity levels are deemed to be activity. This may explain why shaping the higher than at rivals, are an exception: 44% employee experience is more often a shared offer strong confirmation that they can do responsibility among multiple senior executives this, more than triple the number of low rather than the ownership of one. When the performers (12%). latter is the case, the chief human resources officer (CHRO) is more likely to take the lead The exact relationships between experience, than other C-level peers. It is worth noting, engagement and productivity are not however, that as companies mature digitally, uniformly clear, but the survey results indicate other C-level executives, including the CIO, that they are linked: more than half of high take on more leadership in this area. The CIO performers (52%) report a clear improvement takes the lead in 20% of digitally more mature

Figure 3: Who's in charge? Senior management roles in shaping the employee experience (% of respondents) Leadership role Shared responsibility Shared responsibility 0 20 40 60 80 100

CHRO 35 46 11

CEO 30 33 23

COO 24 37 23

CFO 19 35 22

CDO 18 27 30

CIO 17 32 25

Source: The Economist Intelligence Unit.

Figure 4: Who feels responsible? Personal responsibility for the employee experience (% of respondents) All respondents C-suite I take full personal responsibility for employee experience across the organisation 27 34

I take full personal responsibility for employee experience within my team 46 39 I take some personal responsibility for the elements of the employee experience that 24 23 are relevant to my role Source: The Economist Intelligence Unit.

firms versus 15% of less mature ones; the more likely than others to say that they take analogous figures for the CEO are 29% versus organisation-wide responsibility.) 25%; for the COO, it’s 29% versus 17%; for the CFO, 23% versus 16%; and for the CDO (chief “All C-suite executives and their teams need digital officer), 22% versus 13%. to come together and rise to the challenge of improving the employee experience,” says Shared responsibility can often result in a Mr Mazor. “The problem is, you can’t have an vacuum, however. The risk of this among initiative led by everyone. Someone has to be, the surveyed companies becomes apparent if not the leader, then the orchestrator when executives are asked about the extent of or curator.” their responsibility. Little more than one-third (34%) of C-suite respondents say they take full Building a better experience responsibility for it across the organisation. Only a handful more (39%) say they take full It is difficult to overstate the role that strong responsibility for it even within their own leadership plays in outcomes associated with teams. (High performers in the survey are an improved employee experience. Among

the contributing factors, leadership and to employee retention: “Once people are management far outstrips others, including hired, if they become uncomfortable with the pay, in importance. tools they use to do the job, they may very well leave.” (In the survey, 30% of respondents The technology available to employees is also cite higher employee retention as an outcome considered by respondents to be an important they’ve seen, or expect, from a better factor, akin in significance to organisational employee experience.) purpose and culture. There are some regional differences on this front: in China, for example, The high performers and digitally more technology is a vitally important factor to mature survey groups assign much more employees, according to Jerry Zhang, chief weight to the contribution of technology information officer at Coca-Cola Greater China to the employee experience than do other & Korea. “Leveraging digital technologies is a respondents. Given the aforementioned key competitive weapon for our company in improvement in employee experience attracting and retaining talent and improving registered by this group in the past two years, our employees’ experience,” he says. the high performers have plainly done much to meet their employees’ expectations for José Antonio Güereque, CIO at Arca technology. In the next part of our discussion, Continental, a Mexico-based beverages we examine how some companies are producer, says that digital technology is vital doing this.

Figure 5: The burden of leadership The factors perceived to contribute most to an improved employee experience (% of respondents who rank each factor 1st, 2nd or 3rd) Engagement and productivity Digital maturity All respondents High performers Low performers More mature Less mature Leadership and 59 59 56 63 58 management

Salaries/contract terms 43 37 44 41 47

Health/wellbeing 36 38 29 36 34 practices and policies

Flexible working policies 36 32 34 33 40

Organisational 34 32 41 33 36 purpose/culture The technology available 33 41 31 40 28 to employees

Social relationships within 31 36 27 30 26 the organisation

Workplace design 22 22 26 21 21

Source: The Economist Intelligence Unit.

2. The digital dimension

“A positive employee experience requires Such information should also be available to removing friction from work,” says Mr Mazor, employees wherever they are. The ability to “and digital technology has a big part to play work from anywhere is nearly as important in that. Can I collaborate with people faster? a driver of engagement to respondents Can I access information more rapidly? Can I as easy access to information, and is the engage in the work that I have to do and get it most important one for high performers. done faster?” “Information should be accessible via your mobile device, your laptop or your PC, and There are two important ways that technology wherever you’re located,” agrees Mr Gill. does this, in the view of survey respondents. One is by facilitating employees’ access to the information needed to do their jobs. Such The BBC, the UK’s national broadcaster, “A positive information may be previously siloed internal follows a “mobile first” principle for employees, employee says Valerie Hughes-D’Aeth, its CHRO. data that APIs (application programming experience interfaces) surface for members of different “Mobile technology is integral to our efforts to encourage more employees to adopt requires teams. It may take the form of insights, about removing existing customers, for example, that come flexible working,” she says. As part of this, BBC friction from from advanced analytics tools. Increasingly employees can enter and track their expenses it may be predictions—for instance, about on a smartphone app, for example, and can work.” use other self-service systems online (with customer behaviour, supplier performance Arthur Mazor, many also accessible via mobile devices) for or maintenance requirements for production partner, HR strategy, viewing and changing HR-related information. equipment—that AI (artificial intelligence) Deloitte algorithms generate. This includes allowing employees to see their

Figure 6: Technology's contribution The top technology enablers of stronger employee engagement (% of respondents) 0 10 20 30 40 50 Ease of access to information 47 required to get work done

Ability to work from anywhere 43

Ease of use 39

Consumer-like user experience 33

Choice of devices 32

Cost-eectiveness 30

Choice of applications 25

Source: The Economist Intelligence Unit.

Creating a warm digital welcome

It takes much more than a welcoming information about their new roles, and efficient onboarding experience to departments, as well as their future ensure that employees are engaged and colleagues and managers. In parallel, the productive throughout their time with IT team gets the individual’s hardware and a company. A bad experience, however, software up and running, a process that can sour a new hire’s outlook, creating at some companies takes a week or more negative first impressions that can be to complete. “Now we start that process difficult to dislodge. “New hires need to well in advance of their start date,” says feel that they made the right decision by Mr Wies, “so they can be ready to begin joining the company,” says Florian Wies, the on-site onboarding process as soon as regional lead for country integration at they arrive.” Merck, a science and technology company. The firm aims to “wow” its new employees None of this can start before an with a highly digitised onboarding process employment contract is signed. In the that smooths their way in and gives them past, says Mr Wies, doing it with a paper a solid head start. To this end, technology document normally took around seven formed a key part of a two-year initiative, days. His team’s solution was to digitise called “From now to WOW”, to streamline the entire contract process, including the the entire onboarding process. (It was signature. “Now it takes no more than half completed in 2018.) a day,” he says.

Part of this involved the creation of a This is all part of a broader effort to virtual welcome centre where, a few digitise the company’s processes and weeks before starting, new hires can simplify employees’ lives, says Mr Wies. access not just HR documents but also “We need them to focus on where they can add the most value to the business.”

salary history and broadly compare their pay or two that integrate video, chat, data sharing to that of peers elsewhere in the same role. and other functionalities, and that can be used inside and outside the enterprise. In China, says Mr Zhang, “everything has to be mobile”. In his view, however, mobility only The key technology roles in improving works in employees’ favour if it enhances engagement vary by country. UK respondents, collaboration and information sharing. for example, cite ease of use more frequently Collaboration tools are therefore a vital set than other enablers; in Japan and Brazil, most of technologies in the context of employee important is the ability to work anywhere. engagement and productivity, and thus Executives in China and Brazil, meanwhile, experience. For this reason, his team at place much greater emphasis on the cost- Coca-Cola has been striving to consolidate effectiveness of technology (37% in both the various collaboration tools it has been countries) than their peers elsewhere (under supporting and to move employees onto one 30% in all other countries).

Consumers at work end-user market and mirror it in our business applications.” Most surveyed executives agree (46% of high performers and 41% of digitally more For Mr Wies this approach is part of a broader mature organisations agree strongly) that the effort at his and other firms to apply the applications and devices their organisation precepts of design thinking—a user-centric provides make a positive contribution to approach to product design—to internal users their employees’ working experience. This of technology as well as to customers. “In the is an especially strongly held view among past, IT developed solutions that accorded respondents in Brazil and China. with its own understanding of needs but with little focus on actual user friendliness The belief at many organisations is that or the user experience. Today the latter are “Reducing enabling employees to choose applications prioritised,” he says, based on more thorough and devices will help to achieve that better research of user needs and closer interaction technology experience. (This sentiment is considerably with HR and other departments. complexity stronger in China than in more developed for employees markets such as the UK and US, perhaps “Reducing technology complexity for is impossible employees is impossible without the help of reflecting the high adoption and use of without the help smartphones in the country5). At some firms, user experience professionals,” according of user experience including at those interviewed for this study, to Mr Güereque. His firm employs such the broader objective is to try and replicate specialists within IT with this goal in mind. professionals.” the consumer experience at work. Coca-Cola is planning to do the same, José Antonio Güereque, according to Mr Zhang, in order to create a innovation director and One such firm is Merck. Florian Wies explains more consumer-like technology experience CIO, Arca Continental the logic of this approach: “Employees are, for employees. after all, consumers. Creating our digital tools in a way that’s intuitive and familiar for Training is an area where companies are using them will improve their experience, and it technology to create new experiences with will also help us save on training and support the goal of enhancing the learning process. needs. We need to see what’s out there in the An example can be found in the US, where

Figure 7: Applications and devices Perspectives on their contribution to the employee experience (% of all respondents) Strongly disagree Somewhat disagree Neither agree nor disagree Somewhat agree Strongly agree Don’t know 0 20 40 60 80 100 The applications and devices that my organisation provides make a positive contribution to our 1 4 12 46 37 1 employees’ working experience Enabling employees to choose applications and devices they use helps to improve 1 4 15 45 33 1 the employee experience Source: The Economist Intelligence Unit.

5 https://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/Deloitte/cn/Documents/technology-media-telecommunications/deloitte-cn-2018-mobile-consumer- survey-en-190121.pdf

Walmart, a retailer, is training new and existing and Germany). This is usually the result of employees at its US stores with the help of workplace deployments that fail to pay virtual reality (VR) headsets. The VR-assisted sufficient attention to change management, training is particularly aimed at improving believes Mr Zhang. employees’ customer interaction skills.6 In some instances, employees perceive top-down technology initiatives as efforts Getting it right to closely monitor or control. Four in ten respondents (41%) strongly agree (another Of course, poorly conceived or managed 44% somewhat agree) that the purpose of technology initiatives can undermine an workplace systems needs to change from organisation’s best efforts to improve the controlling to empowering employees. employee experience, a view supported by most of the survey respondents (and In other instances, employees may sense a particularly strongly by those in Brazil shift from face-to-face interactions towards

Figure 8: Managing the negative impact Perspectives on technology's potential to deteriorate from the employee experience (% of respondents) Strongly disagree Somewhat disagree Neither agree nor disagree Somewhat agree Strongly agree Don’t know 0 20 40 60 80 100 Badly chosen or implemented workplace technology can have a negative impact 1 3 11 40 44 1 on the employee experience The purpose of workplace systems needs to change from controlling employees 12 11 44 41 1 to empowering them Source: The Economist Intelligence Unit.

Figure 9: Employee experience on the IT agenda IT perspectives on the employee experience (% of IT respondents who “strongly agree”) Engagement and productivity Digital maturity All respondents High performers Low performers More mature Less mature Our IT department has the authority to design and select systems to 43 68 27 45 38 optimise the employee experience Improving the employee experience is 41 55 14 48 32 an explicit goal of our IT strategy

Employee experience should be a key 39 56 30 44 31 consideration in all IT projects Source: The Economist Intelligence Unit.

6 “Walmart is putting 17,000 VR headsets in its US stores for training”, The Verge, September 20th 2018, https://www.theverge. com/2018/9/20/17882504/walmart-strivr-vr-oculus-go-headset-training-shipments

fully digitised processes is happening too For all the above reasons, improving the rapidly. “We can automate a lot of things, employee experience should be much more but is it always worth it?” asks Mukta Arya, than an afterthought for the IT function. In Mr head of human resources, South-east Asia Zhang’s view, it should be an explicit part of and head of people and talent development, IT strategy. That view is shared by the survey Asia-Pacific at Société Générale, a financial respondents, and particularly so by the high services company. “Maintaining the human performer and digitally more mature groups, touch when automating is a fine balance we half or more of whom confirm that it is already have to ensure when dealing with employees the case at their firms. throughout their journey in the organisation.”

3. A cross-function endeavour

“IT and HR might be different functions with yet another attribute separating the high different responsibilities, but they have a joint performers and digitally more mature groups stake in delivering a high-quality employee from the rest of the survey sample: whereas experience,” says Valerie Hughes-D’Aeth of the just under one-third of HR respondents overall BBC. The IT and HR executives in the survey affirm that this is the case at their firms, about appear to share that view, as virtually identical 40% in both of the more advanced groups numbers of each (74% and 75% respectively) affirm it. feel personally responsible for improving it, either in their own team or more widely. Beyond a recognition in strategy, however, bringing about closer IT and HR collaboration It’s not just IT strategy that needs to prioritise in this endeavour is no straightforward the employee experience. The technology matter. Formidable barriers stand in the way, dimensions of improving it should also be paramount among which are familiar features recognised in the strategy of the HR function, of large, siloed organisations: a lack of mutual as most such initiatives will involve digital understanding and absence of common technology in one way or another. This is objectives.

Figure 10: The need for common ground The toughest barriers to eective HR-IT collaboration (% of respondents) 0 10 20 30 40

Lack of mutual understanding 34

Lack of common objectives/key performance indicators 32

Lack of budget 28

Other priorities take precedence 28

Lack of time 23

Lack of interest on the other party’s side 19

Geographical distance from one another 16

Source: The Economist Intelligence Unit.

Dismantling barriers data and systems specialists with a strong understanding of the function’s strategic Such barriers cannot easily be overcome, objectives work closely with the design and but many organisations are finding ways to engineering team, which includes the BBC’s IT build bridges. It helps when CIOs and CHROs function. At Northwell Health, IT professionals view digital transformation as a shared are embedded in the HR department where project, as 45% of high performers and 38% they work in tight-knit fashion with the team of the digitally mature group clearly do. (This responsible for the employee experience (see view is more common in China and Brazil “Bridging the gap between IT and HR”.) than in the US or UK, suggesting greater comfort with a collaborative approach where Several of the surveyed organisations are traditional approaches to managing IT are less pursuing similar approaches. For example, entrenched.) But practical measures are also 40% of high performers and 33% of digitally required. more mature businesses strongly agree they are developing specialists with combined HR To foster collaboration at the BBC, says and IT expertise in order to reduce barriers Ms Hughes-D’Aeth, a small team of HR between the two functions.

Bridging the gap between IT and HR

The surveyed organisations that employ A greater ease in using technology experts with HR and IT experience to contributes to a better employee bridge the two functions probably have experience, says Ms Petrillo. Her team uses someone like Elina Petrillo working for YouTube videos to help staff in HR and them. She is assistant vice-president for other functions become familiar with new HR technology at Northwell Health. A large technologies or processes the firm is rolling part of her role is that of liaison between out. “We see that team members want to the HR and IT functions, although she sits learn on their own time,” she says, “and squarely within the former. “Ultimately, want to use the YouTube channel to do my boss is the CHRO,” says Ms Petrillo. that at home.” “He determines the strategy for HR. I have to tell him what’s possible from a The videos also serve another purpose: technology perspective and provide him tracking employees’ comfort with this with solutions.” mode of learning and with the technology or process being demonstrated. “We track Modernising the HR team’s technology how many people are watching the videos platforms is one facet of Ms Petrillo’s and determine if they’re watching them in activity. She also supports the work their entirety or in part, and if they return of David Gill, who is assistant VP for to them. Then we’re able to understand employee experience. Both sets of how people are using technology and can activities overlap to a large degree. This quantify the response to any initiative.” has involved digitising several aspects Such tracking is part of a broader effort to of recruitment and onboarding, such as develop specific metrics for measuring the enabling job-seekers to lodge applications employee experience beyond surveys on using a smartphone and allowing new hires engagement. This is a work in progress, Ms to access information through Petrillo says, but she hopes to unveil the self-service portals. results by the autumn of 2019.

Another practical means of developing a (Here, too, more respondents in China than common understanding is developing key elsewhere confirm this.) performance indicators that both IT and HR can use to measure aspects of the employee Florian Wies of Merck believes these and experience. As mentioned earlier, developing other measures are working, and that employee experience metrics has been understanding between the functions is much difficult for most, but 43% of high performers better than before. “That’s because IT staff (36% of digitally mature organisations) are today more business-focused than before, state categorically that they have managed while those in HR and other departments to develop metrics that are used jointly. are more aware of what’s possible from a technology perspective,” he says.

Figure 11: Crossing the divide Adoption of HR-IT collaboration strategies (% of IT and HR respondents who "strongly agree")

All respondents High performers Low performers Digitally more mature Digitally less mature We employ experts with experience in both HR and IT to bridge the 30 40 14 33 20 two departments We have established key performance indicators to measure the employee 33 46 22 36 27 experience that are used by HR and IT

Source: The Economist Intelligence Unit.

Figure 12: Technology on the HR agenda (% of HR respondents who “strongly agree”)

All respondents High performers Low performers Digitally more mature Digitally less mature Managing the impact of technology on the employee experience is an explicit 31 41 27 40 33 goal of our HR strategy

Our HR department has the ability to advise the IT department on the impact of 28 30 26 35 24 technology on the employee experience

Source: The Economist Intelligence Unit.

Conclusion

When it comes to understanding what truly motivates their employees to be committed and engaged at work, businesses are barely scratching the surface. The concept of the employee experience is a step forward, as it prompts employers to consider the holistic impact of the various ways in which the organisation interacts with workers.

This study has shown that the technology that employers provide for their staff is an important contributor to that experience. But on a broader scale, technology has the potential to turn the employer- worker relationship on its head: how, for example, will employees relate to the changes that AI brings to the nature of work? Will automation enrich workers’ lives by freeing them from drudgery, or alternatively impoverish them by making their roles superfluous? Do greater labour mobility and the growth of the “gig economy” make years-long employee loyalty a relic of the past?

Given the gravity of these questions, it seems certain that organisational roles and responsibilities around the employee experience will evolve. In particular, survey respondents agree, human and technology factors cannot be considered in isolation. The notion, for example, that tomorrow’s CHROs and other HR leaders will need to have knowledge of technology topics such as AI and analytics is widely accepted by our survey respondents. So is the belief that future CIOs and other IT leaders will need to be experts in human factors such as engagement and well-being.

Their mutual understanding and collective efforts will be needed to ensure that the digital technology used by the organisation serves to empower employees rather than constrain them. Advanced technologies, after all, are often double-edged swords: when misused or mismanaged—witness data privacy breaches or rogue chatbots, for example—employees and customers often suffer, as does the reputation of the organisation. By contrast, when such technologies remove friction, liberate and open new vistas, the boost to employee motivation can be considerable, usually to the benefit of customers and employers.

For more insight on technology and the employee experience, visit theexperienceofwork.economist.com.

Appendix

In which country are you personally located? (% respondents)

China 16 US 15 Germany 14 Japan 14 UK 14 Brazil 14 Australia 11 New Zealand 3

Which of the following best describes your title? (% respondents)

CEO/President or equivalent 5 CFO/Treasurer/Comptroller/Head of ﬁnance or equivalent 5 COO/Head of operations or equivalent 5 CIO/CTO/Head of IT/technology or equivalent 15 CHRO (Chief human-resources ocer)/Chief talent ocer/Head of HR/talent or equivalent 15 CMO/Head of marketing or equivalent 3 Other C-level executive (please specify) 0 MD 1 EVP/SVP/VP 5 Director 18 Head of business unit 4 Head of department 15 Senior manager 9 Manager 0 Other 0 Do not wish to respond 0 © The Economist Intelligence Unit Limited 2019 The experience of work 20 The role of technology in productivity and engagement

What is your main functional role? (% respondents)

Human resources/talent 31 IT/technology 31 Finance 11 Operations/production 9 Sales 7 General management 5 Marketing 4 Strategy/business development 3 Other 0 Do not wish to respond 0

What is your organisation’s primary industry? (% respondents)

Financial services 22 Manufacturing 21 Retail 19 Healthcare 17 Energy/Oil and gas 16 Automotive 5 Other 0

How many employees work for your organisation globally? (% respondents)

Fewer than 100 9 100 to 499 10 500 to 999 11 1,000 to 4,999 21 5,000 to 9,999 16 10,000 to 19,999 9 20,000 or more 24 Do not wish to respond 0

How many people, if any, directly report into you? (% respondents)

Fewer than 3 0 3 to 9 48 10 to 19 43 20 to 49 9 50 to 99 0 100 or more 0

To what extent are you familiar with the employee experience initiatives at your organisation? (% respondents)

Not at all familiar 0 Not very familiar 0 Somewhat familiar 41 Very familiar 59

Thinking about the organisation in which you work, how would you classify the majority of employees? (% respondents)

Mostly knowledge workers 53 Even mix of knowledge and non-knowledge workers 38 Mostly non-knowledge workers 8

At what stage of development or implementation is your organisation’s digital transformation strategy? (% respondents)

My organisation does not have a digital transformation strategy 1 Still under development 21 Implemented in the past year 30 In place for between one and two years 25 In place for between two and three years 11 In place for more than three years 12

Compared with peers, to what extent does your company need to improve when it comes to using digital technology to achieve its strategic objectives? (% respondents)

No improvement needed 2 Little improvement needed 15 Some improvement needed 37 Moderate improvement needed 33 Signiﬁcant improvement needed 13

Compared with peers, to what extent do your company’s C-suite need to improve their ability to drive digital transformation? (% respondents)

No improvement needed 4 Little improvement needed 15 Some improvement needed 38 Moderate improvement needed 31 Signiﬁcant improvement needed 13

To what extent to do you agree with the following statements? (% respondents) trongly disagree omehat disagree either agree nor disagree omehat agree trongly agree ont no Employee productivity is measured in my organisation 57 43 Employee engagement is measured in my organisation 2 57 41 Employees at my organisation are more productive in their or than those of its peers in the industry 2 5 18 45 29 1 Employees at my organisation are more engaged in their or than those of its peers in the industry 1 5 18 44 31 1 Improving employee engagement is more important than improving employee productivity for my organisation 1 10 19 38 31 1

Which of the following best describes the relationship between productivity and engagement in your opinion? (% respondents)

Low employee engagement leads to poor productivity 39 Poor productivity leads to low employee engagement 20 Low employee engagement and poor productivity are mutually reinforcing 41 Don’t know 0

To what extent is the working experience that your organisation provides for its employees discussed by senior management? (% respondents)

Not at all 1 To a limited degree 18 Somewhat 39 Extensively 42 Don’t know 0

To what extent do you personally feel responsible for improving the employee experience within your organisation? (% respondents)

I take full personal responsibility for employee experience across the organisation 27 I take full personal responsibility for employee experience within my team 46 I take some personal responsibility for the elements of the employee experience that are relevant to my role 24 Employee experience is the primary responsibility of other leaders 4 Don’t know/not applicable 0

What role do the following C-Suite positions have in shaping the employee experience within your organisation? (% respondents) Not involved at all Limited support role Signiﬁcant support role Shared responsibility Leadership role Don’t know CHRO or equivalent 2 5 11 46 35 1 CIO or equivalent 5 20 25 32 17 1 CEO or equivalent 3 10 23 33 30 COO or equivalent 4 10 23 37 24 2 CFO or equivalent 7 15 22 35 19 2 Chief digital ocer or equivalent 5 18 30 27 18 2

What are the most signiﬁcant business outcomes that your organisation has seen or expects to see from its e orts to improve the employee experience? (% respondents)

Improved employee productivity 43 Improved employee engagement 41 Improved innovation/creativity 28 Improved talent recruitment 21 Improved talent retention 30 Improved customer experience and satisfaction 36 Improved proﬁtability 31 Accelerated digital transformation 23 Improved brand perception 16 Other (please specify) 0 None of the above 1

Which of the following factors do you consider to be the most important in creating an employee experience that delivers these business outcomes? (% respondents) an 1 an 2 an alariescontract terms 14 13 16 orplace design 77 8 rganisational purposeculture 11 11 12 Leadership and management 28 17 14 ocial relationships ithin the organisation 8112 1 ealth and elleing practices and policies 10 14 12 leileoring policies 12 12 13 The technology availale to employees 10 12 11 ther please specify 0

Which of the following characteristics of workplace technology and related policies make the biggest contribution to employee engagement? (% respondents)

Ease of access to information required to get work done 47 Ability to work from anywhere 43 Ease of use 39 Consumer-like user experience 33 Choice of devices 32 Cost-eectiveness 30 Choice of applications 25 None of the above 0

Which of the following characteristics of workplace technology and related policies make the biggest contribution to employee productivity? (% respondents)

Ease of access to information required to get work done 43 Ease of use 41 Cost-e ectiveness 39 Choice of devices 32 Ability to work from anywhere 32 Choice of applications 30 Consumer-like user experience 25 None of the above 0

To what extent to do you agree with the following statements? (% respondents) trongly disagree omehat disagree either agree nor disagree omehat agree trongly agree ont no The applications and devices that my organisation provides mae a positive contriution to our employees oring eperience 1 4 12 12 37 1 y organisation tracs and measures dimensions of the employee eperience y analysing the use of devices and applications 4 8 17 17 29 1 adly chosen or implemented orplace technology can have a negative impact on the employee eperience 1 3 11 11 44 1 Employee eperience should e a ey consideration in all IT proects 1 2 13 13 39 1 Enaling employees to choose applications and devices they use helps to improve the employee eperience 1 5 15 15 33 1 © The Economist Intelligence Unit Limited 2019 The experience of work 27 The role of technology in productivity and engagement

Which of the following are the top priorities for collaboration between the IT and HR departments? (% of IT and HR respondents)

IT/digital skills training for employees across the organisation 37 Specialist training for IT sta 34 Improving the employee experience 30 Recruiting IT talent 27 Managing HR-related data and processes 27 Driving digital transformation 27 Selecting, implementing and supporting workplace technology 26 Selecting, implementing and supporting HR applications 25 Protecting employee privacy 20 Preparing for the impact of automation on jobs 18 None of the above—IT and HR do not work together 0

To what extent to do you agree with the following statements? (% of IT and HR respondents) Strongly disagree Somewhat disagree Neither agree nor disagree Somewhat agree Strongly agree Don’t know The CIO and CHRO view digital transformation as a shared project 1 8 15 40 36 1 HR representatives are included in the design or selection of workplace technology 1 11 15 40 33 1 The IT department understands the HR department’s employee engagement objectives 1 10 16 39 34 We are able to quantify improvements to the employee experience in ﬁnancial term 1 9 19 42 29 1 We employ experts with experience in both HR and IT to bridge the two departments 3 10 16 41 30 1 Neither the HR nor the IT function takes responsibility for the employee experience 12 21 16 28 22

To what extent do you agree with the following statements, with respect to your organisation? (% of IT and/or HR respondents) trongly disagree omehat disagree either agree nor disagree omehat agree trongly agree ont no Improving the employee eperience is an eplicit goal of our IT strategy 2 4 10 43 41 1 ur IT department has the authority to design and select systems to optimise the employee eperience 1 3 8 45 43 anaging the impact of technology on the employee eperience is an eplicit goal of our strategy 19 23 27 31 ur department has the aility to advise the IT department on the impact of technology on the employee eperience 19 18 35 28 ur department uys technology independent of the IT department 6 22 22 28 24 e have estalished ey performance indicators to measure the employee eperience that are used y the and IT departments 1 9 16 41 33 IT respondents only respondents only

What are the primary barriers to more eective collaboration between the HR and IT departments in your organisation? (% of IT and/or HR respondents)

Lack of mutual understanding 34 Lack of common objectives/ key performance indicators 32 Lack of budget 28 Other priorities take precedence 28 Lack of time 23 Lack of interest on the other party’s side 19 Geographical distance from one another 16 Other (please specify) 0 Don’t know 0

To what extent do you agree with the following statements, with respect to your organisation? (% of IT and/or HR respondents) Strongly disagree Somewhat disagree Neither agree nor disagree Somewhat agree Strongly agree Don’t know Companies have a responsibility to ensure that workplace technologies and related policies do not negatively impact employee wellbeing 3 9 42 45 1 The IT leader of tomorrow will need to be an expert in human factors such as engagement and wellbeing 3 13 44 38 1 The HR leader of tomorrow will need to be an expert in technology topics such as artiﬁcial intelligence and analytic 1 5 16 44 33 1 The purpose of workplace systems needs to change from controlling employees to empowering them 1 2 11 45 41 1 There is a need for a senior leadership position with responsibility for the human impact of technology 1 4 13 42 40 1 The employee experience at my organisation has improved compared with two years ago 1 5 13 45 34 1 I have ambitions to become CEO of my current organisation or one like it 7 8 17 37 30 2

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