What does the future hold for employee experience?

It’s often the case, that like the ghost of Xmas past, our old ‘predications’ blogs can come back to haunt us – and if I had had to make predictions about the way 2023 would pan out for employee experience (EX) I would have been way off! Cast you mind back to the end of 2022. EX was flagged as one of the fasting growing roles on Linked In. Pretty much every HR 2023 trend publication highlighted EX as a growth area. In the short the future looked bright. Fast forward 12 months and things feel very different…

It’s been a difficult year for many of us working in EX, engagement, L&D, internal comms – in fact any of those areas which companies decide to cut when the going gets a little bit tough. The Forrester 2024 Predictions report talks about an ‘EX Winter’ with a freeze on investments in this space. They predict that there will be an overall lack of funding and focus on EX, for example:

“Take diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI): The percentage of companies that funded a DEI function with an endorsed strategy and personnel dropped from 33% in 2022 to 27% in 2023. We predict that this number will fall to 20% by the end of 2024 in the wake of cuts that disproportionately affect DEI teams. We also expect the trend of heavy attrition rates among DEI leaders — already seen at Apple, Disney, and Zoom — to continue.”

In addition, while 66% of technology decision-makers say that they will invest in EX software in 2024, the priority will be  on HR efficiency, rather than on improving EX outcomes.

BUT…. this rather bleak backdrop creates opportunities for those companies that are intentional about EX, those companies that observe the herd and do the opposite.

“This will create an opportunity for companies that consciously choose to zig toward EX while so many others are zagging away from it”

We’ve seen this story time and again; companies cut the stuff that actually has the potential to make the biggest difference and create a genuine competitive advantage. The smart companies , the companies that will make it totally get this.

So what do we think is in store for EX in 2024?

• The next year is going to be tough for EX practitioners, with budgets and resources cut. But this also creates opportunity. Tough times often provide fertile ground for creativity, and innovation – and in EX we are well placed to take advantage of this.
• AI will help us to do this, by boosting problem solving and creativity (check out the Forrester report for more on this). 2024 will be the year we really embrace the capabilities of AI within EX to help us do more with less.
• AI will also enable the age of personalisation within organisations. Finally we’ll start to see a smarter, more personalised approach to designing and delivering EX, rather than the ‘one-size-fits-all’ we’ve been making do with for years.
• We’ll work towards a consumer grade digital experience with HR tech, something we explored on our recent webinar with Riffat Ahmed from Bupa. This new frontier in HR tech will solve many of the broken ‘hygiene’ experiences which are critical for a great experience.
• But despite this increased focus on digital tools and how they can help us, we’ll continue to focus on human-centred change. We know that a human centred approach to EX and change is at the heart of any successful approach and subsequent change. In the next edition of our book ‘EX by Design’, which will be out in 2024, we talk about the continued need for to make work human, and focus on human connection. Those companies that do will reap the rewards, be successful and outplay their competition, but people will actually enjoy working there too.

There will be opportunities for the savvy EX practitioners. Now is the time for us to keep the faith, we know that EX has the power to make all the difference to our people and our organisations – we just might need to approach things a bit differently.

And if you want to find out how you can do more with less, you can join The EX Space where you’ll find everything you need to make a positive difference to your EX today. If you’d like a free tour then you can book in here or get in touch with any questions.