In a ‘digital first’ world of work, why is HR tech playing second fiddle?

A holistic approach to technology in the workplace is needed to improve overall employee satisfaction, according to the latest findings from our Global Employee Expectations report. 

The study surveyed over 4000 employees across UK, US, Singapore and India within a broad range of job roles and levels of seniority to better understand their perceptions of what makes a great workplace. It highlighted the crucial nature of technology and its impact across all areas from wellbeing and communications to rewards and benefits. The research revealed the lack of unified technology processes is hampering the employee experience. 

Technology: the missing part of the puzzle 

The pandemic might have emphasised the need for improved wellbeing offerings and benefits provision but for all the efforts that businesses have made to respond to these demands, employees are having to negotiate a cumbersome digital experience across fragmented and disconnected HR platforms – seriously impacting their experience. 

• Only 32% of employees say their workplace tech enhances their employee experience 
• 86% say they would like to be able to access all the benefits, content and resources in one place 
• Just a quarter of organisations have an employee experience platform in place 

Employees are no longer prepared to accept a clunky user experience and fragmented, siloed platforms. They want an intuitive and interactive experience which lets them access the information they need and make decisions in a fast and easy way. 

Our research suggests that many organisations still have a long way to go to deliver the types of digital experiences that employees expect, particularly now many people are working wholly or at least partly from a remote location and relying even more heavily on technology as a result.  

Disjointed systems mean a disjointed experience 

Most organisations are saddled with disjointed systems, user journeys and analytics across employee benefits, communication, reward, recognition, wellbeing, content and workplace applications. In fact, research carried out last year amongst UK-based HR and reward leaders found that only 19% of organisations were able to integrate all elements of employee experience within a single technology platform. What’s more, nearly a quarter (23%) of organisations had absolutely no integration at all between the different elements of the employee experience. This need for a dedicated digital platform to orchestrate a holistic and consistent approach to employee experience has been one of the key take-aways from the Employee Expectations report. 

Tech: the ultimate enabler  

It’s clear from our findings that employees are demanding more from their organisations and a unified tech offering is the ultimate enabler. Organisations that can meet and get ahead of growing employee expectations, combining an attractive employee value proposition with seamless digital technology, will be able to deliver the type of experience that employees have come to expect. 

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