A survey of HR professionals is set to shed new light on employee experience in Australia
A new industry survey will shine the spotlight on the under-researched area of employee experience by collecting the views of Australian HR professionals.
The landmark survey, commissioned by employee benefits specialist Maxxia and conducted by global HR strategy firm Ignite Global, will examine what the term “employee experience” means to Australian organisations and how HR professionals can incorporate it into their workplace practices.
Once collated, the results of the survey will be published in the inaugural 2018 Employee Experience Report: A study into the value of employee experience in Australia.
Maxxia Group Executive Customer Development Andrew Daly said the report would give Australian enterprises an evidence-based tool to help inform business decisions and guide strategy on EX.
Daly described the report as a valuable resource for businesses because while EX was increasingly on the agenda for many Australian companies, there was limited data available on which to base decision making.
"Employee Experience is a hot topic in the HR sector. We want to find out what it really means and how it's being approached in Australia," he said.
"To find out, we’re surveying Australian HR professionals to uncover what companies think, what they are currently doing and what shape EX could take in the future.
“Our goal with the 2018 Employee Experience Report is to deliver an industry-wide perspective that businesses can use to benchmark their approach and guide EX strategy.”
Ignite Global Chief Executive, Kim Seeling Smith agreed, saying that fostering positive employee experience was emerging as a key method to cope with Australia’s changing jobs market.
Smith, who founded Ignite Global in 2009, said the survey was a unique opportunity for industry players, both large and small, to contribute to what she described as a rapidly emerging field in contemporary workplace management.
She said a greater focus on EX was critical in today’s labour market amid rising demand for highly-skilled workers, challenges from automation, and changes caused by globalisation.
“In essence, EX is about viewing staff as internal customers. This will help businesses compete in a tight labour market and, I suspect, it can also simplify many of the complex problems we face around engaging and retaining talent. The more evidence we have on the topic, the better,” said Smith.
She hoped the survey, and ensuing report, would help businesses get clarity around how to attract great staff and hold onto them over the long term.
Employee experience in the Australian context was particularly under-studied, she said, making the new survey “even more essential for the local industry”.
“Creating positive employee experience is not resource intensive, but it involves overhauling how local businesses think about staff by borrowing the principles of customer experience and applying them to employee experience,” Smith added.
