Survey Says: Companies Shifting Focus to Employee Experience

I came across this fascinating white paper from SilkRoad the other day. The Big Shift Puts Employees First: HR Transforms from Processes and Transactions to Employee Experiences, is the 2017 contribution to their annual State of Talent reports. This shines a light on how the HR tech conversation has switched from tech to employees.

The paper opens with this:

More than ever, today’s CEOs recognize the tremendous competitive advantage in a workforce that’s highly motivated, excited and tightly connected to business goals. Building a powerful workforce strategy remains front and center for HR teams.

White papers are, by their nature, primarily marketing documents. The data are collected and analyzed in a way that puts a positive light on the vendor/purveyor who commissions the study and report. There appear to be robust data behind this analysis with the use of results from 8 surveys (including one from an analyst firm), fielded throughout 2016, from 1,335 respondents in HR leadership positions. It’s a vendor white paper, to be sure, but one of the more interesting I’ve seen.

The topics covered in the report include the following:

State of Talent Strategy
State of Talent Technology
State of the Employee Experience
State of Talent Acquisition and the Candidate Experience
State of Onboarding and the New Hire Experience
State of Talent Development and the Employee Experience
State of Analytics and Technology
State of HR
Top Five Talent Trends

Don’t let this long and timely list deter you from downloading the report: it’s a compact 30 pages full of graphics and survey data. You can read this in under 30 minutes – and you’ll be smarter for it. These are critical topics for HR leaders and professionals in all industries – all over the world.

Introducing the first chapter, The State of Talent Strategy, four disruptors are identified that set the stage for the interesting data and discussions that follow:

Disruptor #1: Dissatisfaction with HR Technology
Disruptor #2: Continuing pressure to improve business outcomes
Disruptor #3: Changing workforce, multiple generations
Disruptor #4: Differentiation to attract talent

And then the following chart really kicks things off:

These data points then lead the fascinating analysis and discussions that follow. Even keeping in mind that this is a marketing document, it’s extremely well done and brings to light some important (and maybe surprising) shifts in focus and strategy that leaders (not just HR leaders) are contemplating.

You may not agree with all of the conclusions. And you may not have budgets to move forward in all – or many – of these areas. But the findings are fascinating and worthy of further exploration. Download the report here and have at it.

This originally appeared on China Gorman’s blog at ChinaGorman.com.