The Rise of the Employee Experience Platform: Essential to Business Success

The Rise of the Employee Experience Pla琀昀orm Essen琀椀al to Business Success the company The Rise of the Employee Experience Pla琀昀orm: Essen琀椀al to Business Success | Copyright © 2022 The Josh Bersin Company 1 All rights reserved. Not for distribu琀椀on. Licensed material.

s businesses deal with constant economic, industrial, and industries like healthcare have to support nurses, drivers, and A technological change, employee experience has become administrators. How can a company build an EX strategy that a CEO-level issue. Today, more than 81% of employees feel scales, given these many dimensions of complexity? 1 burned out and despite an economic slowdown, almost a third 3 of workers will change jobs this year. Employee experience As our Employee Experience Maturity Model shows, the problem starts with a focus on transac琀椀onal e昀케ciency and (EX), the focus on making work easier and more produc琀椀ve for service delivery and then grows to cover culture, global needs, people, is now central to business growth and success. and eventually enterprisewide growth. At each stage, new The EX topic, which started as a way to rethink employee technologies are needed, new problems arise, and deeper engagement, has exploded in complexity and growth. Today integra琀椀on must be addressed across HR, IT, facili琀椀es, legal, this domain includes all aspects of an employee’s career, and 昀椀nance. and companies have large cross-func琀椀onal teams focused In 2021 and 2022, we studied this topic in detail, and a昀琀er on it. The technologies for employees have also exploded— interviewing hundreds of companies we discovered four billions of dollars are now spent on employee portals, apps, stages of employee experience pla琀昀orms (see Figure 1). collabora琀椀on tools, and much more. Technology is cri琀椀cal in suppor琀椀ng the right culture, trust, and inclusive environment, The History of the which underpin a superior employee experience.2 EX Marketplace At 昀椀rst glance, the EX problem feels very complex. In a large manufacturing company like Medtronic, employees have a In the mid-2010s, as the job market became compe琀椀琀椀ve, very di昀昀erent set of issues from employees in sales, marke琀椀ng, companies poured money into employee engagement tools. or 昀椀nance. A global distribu琀椀on company like C.H. Robinson They launched surveys, employee listening tools, pulse survey has employees in many countries, each dealing with di昀昀erent tools, and held more and more town halls to understand how legal regula琀椀ons, business issues, and social norms. Other to make employees' lives be琀琀er. Figure 1: Evolu琀椀on of Employee Experience Pla琀昀orms EX Stage 1 EX Stage 2 EX Stage 3 EX Stage 4 Produc琀椀vity, Search, Culture, Growth, Global Programs with Scale, Infrastructure, Informa琀椀on Efficiency Wellbeing, Engagement Local Configura琀椀on Con琀椀nuous Improvement Create an employee portal, Design programs for Design global standards for Decide on EX pla琀昀orms to use case management and onboarding, employee employee programs, including use, replace, or supplement knowledge management, transi琀椀ons, benefits, leave, standard offerings for hybrid backend HR systems with EX deploy chatbots and learning, performance work, vaca琀椀on, and family “orchestra琀椀on pla琀昀orm.” self-service transac琀椀ons management, feedback, and leave, with local Create global alignment including benefits, open growth. Work with C-level implementa琀椀ons that vary. Give between local businesses and enrollment, and other and HR to build culture, managers and local leaders global service centers. lifecycle events. connec琀椀on, and growth. access to EX tools and decisions. HR, IT, facili琀椀es, payroll, benefits, Org design, L&D, DEI, and IT, digital transforma琀椀on, HR communica琀椀ons involved. other leaders involved. Global cross func琀椀onal teams opera琀椀ons, and business involved. partners involved. Make work easier. Make work meaningful. Scale EX globally. Create global EX pla琀昀orms. Source: The Josh Bersin Company, 2022 1 Global Talent Trends, 2022 Study: Rise of the relatable organiza琀椀on, Mercer, 2022. 3 The De昀椀ni琀椀ve Guide: Employee Experience, Josh Bersin and Kathi Enderes, PhD/The Josh 2 “The Important Role of Technology,” The De昀椀ni琀椀ve Guide: Employee Experience, Josh Bersin Bersin Company, 2022. and Kathi Enderes, PhD/The Josh Bersin Company, 2021. The Rise of the Employee Experience Pla琀昀orm: Essen琀椀al to Business Success | Copyright © 2022 The Josh Bersin Company 2 All rights reserved. Not for distribu琀椀on. Licensed material.

Today, most big companies have an EX team or owner, and this person is both a designer and service delivery leader. They no longer want to buy dozens of tools and apps; they want a “system” to work with, a real pla琀昀orm that brings all these solu琀椀ons together. As with every other market in HR, this market has shi昀琀ed from that of “tools” to that of “pla琀昀orms,” and that’s why big vendors like ServiceNow, Microso昀琀, and others have entered the market. What Domains Should EX Cover? 4 We recently completed a major study of employee experience around the world and uncovered that companies take this on in stages (see Figure 3). Organiza琀椀ons start with basic transac琀椀on and produc琀椀vity issues, and then grow to EX solu琀椀ons in career management, wellbeing, and local and global team management. Figure 3: Four Stages in the Employee Experience Evolu琀椀on EX Stage Focus Area and Organiza琀椀onal Strategy Stage 1: Focus on employee • Create an improved employee portal. produc琀椀vity, search, informa琀椀on, and • Implement case management and knowledge management. efficiency. • Deploy chatbots and self-service, including benefits, open enrollment, and other lifecycle events. • HR, IT, payroll, and benefits are involved. Challenge: making an employee interface easy. Stage 2: Focus on culture, growth, • Design programs for onboarding, employee transi琀椀ons, benefits, leave, learning, performance management, feedback, and growth. wellbeing, and engagement. • Organiza琀椀on design, L&D, DEI, and other leaders are now involved. Challenge: building culture, connec琀椀on, and growth. Stage 3: Focus on global integra琀椀on • Design journeys and global standards for complex employee programs. while also mee琀椀ng local needs. • Implement standardized offerings for hybrid work, vaca琀椀on, family leave, and many local implementa琀椀ons that vary by country or team. • Global cross-func琀椀onal teams are involved and own processes. Challenge: giving managers and local leaders access to EX tools and decisions. Stage 4: Focus on infrastructure, scale, • Make strategic decisions about what EX pla琀昀orms to use. and con琀椀nuous improvement. • Possibly replace or supplement many of the backend HR systems with an EX frontend “orchestra琀椀on pla琀昀orm.” • IT, digital transforma琀椀on teams, HR opera琀椀ons, and HR business partners are involved. Challenge: crea琀椀ng global alignment between local businesses and global service centers. Source: The Josh Bersin Company, 2022 4 The De昀椀ni琀椀ve Guide: Employee Experience, Josh Bersin and Kathi Enderes, PhD/The Josh Bersin Company, 2022. The Rise of the Employee Experience Pla琀昀orm: Essen琀椀al to Business Success | Copyright © 2022 The Josh Bersin Company 4 All rights reserved. Not for distribu琀椀on. Licensed material.

The more experience a company has the faster they move Despite the wide variety of EX tools, companies need all these to Stage 4. A global company like Medtronic, for example, systems to work together. Every new employee need has the may design an onboarding program for new manufacturing poten琀椀al to touch many backend systems, so the EXP becomes engineers but must quickly understand its global implica琀椀ons an “orchestra琀椀on system” to bring these pieces together. and the adjacent roles that also need this program. Every Consider, for example, the simple need for employees to take program that Medtronic now designs has a global team and a family leave. They have to register for leave and get approval service delivery element built in. from their manager, then schedule their leave 琀椀me, set up payroll adjustments based on their role, turn in or turn o昀昀 Rapid Maturity of Employee their devices and security, and then set up remote access Experience Technology security for their 琀椀me o昀昀. Just this simple set of transac琀椀ons may access three to 昀椀ve backend systems, each of which is 5 complex and “legacy” in its own design. As we wrote about several years ago, these technology complexi琀椀es demand an integrated pla琀昀orm, and the sooner companies think about this the be琀琀er. Expansion of EX Use Cases At the beginning of the EX journey, most companies want a The number of use cases keeps growing. Current research simple employee portal, a case management system, and a place to look up policies, procedures, and checklists. Quickly, on EX 昀椀nds there are more than 80 employee “journeys” to consider, and dozens of technologies involved. Each can be as the program matures, companies realize the EX pla琀昀orm (EXP) has to do more. Now the system must deeply integrate important and cri琀椀cal at some moment in 琀椀me, and when they ma琀琀er, they can o昀琀en make or break an employee’s job with many legacy applica琀椀ons, enable development of custom sa琀椀sfac琀椀on and produc琀椀vity (see Figure 4). journeys, and provide AI-enabled chatbots, intelligent rou琀椀ng, and user interfaces for di昀昀erent employee roles. Figure 4: EX Use Cases and Issues EX Use Case Issues Employee portal or app • Where will an employee go to locate or source informa琀椀on and tools? • What will the mobile, remote, or disconnected environment look like? • How will an employee transi琀椀on into a job or across roles? Onboarding and transi琀椀ons • What is the process for leave, promo琀椀on, re琀椀rement, or transi琀椀oning to a new role or country? Knowledge management • Where are the policies, rules, forms, and standards employees need to find and use? • How does an employee change a password, find payroll informa琀椀on, submit a grievance, and rec琀椀fy hundreds of other ques琀椀ons? Case management • How will an employee ask for help or open a case? • Where will the ques琀椀on be serviced, and how does an employee reach the appropriate service center or business partner? 5 The Employee Experience Pla琀昀orm Market Has Arrived: Employee Service Delivery as a Founda琀椀on for Great Experiences, Josh Bersin/The Josh Bersin Company, 2019. The Rise of the Employee Experience Pla琀昀orm: Essen琀椀al to Business Success | Copyright © 2022 The Josh Bersin Company 5 All rights reserved. Not for distribu琀椀on. Licensed material.

Figure 4: EX Use Cases and Issues (con琀椀nued) Chatbot or call center • How can an employee ask for help or get answers to a ques琀椀on without necessarily finding an HR business partner? • How should this interac琀椀on fit into Microso昀琀 Teams, Slack, or other messaging systems? • Where do employees go to look at vaca琀椀on balances, hours worked, 401(k) Pay and benefits op琀椀ons, and the myriad benefits and wellbeing programs? • What is the process for resolving a pay issue, ques琀椀on, or change? • How does an employee find new learning and growth? Growth and development • What career op琀椀ons are available? • Where is the employee’s performance plan, goals, or financial budgets to manage? Employee directory • How does an employee find peers, experts, or others? • How can an employee share their interests and skills? • How can employees share personal aspects of their lives with their coworkers? Belonging and special interests • How can an employee experience social “belonging” while at work? • How can an employee find and join interest groups and share family photos or other personal informa琀椀on? • How can an employee join an employee resource group? • Where is DEI educa琀椀on and support? • How are flexible work and wellbeing managed? Wellbeing and flexible work • Is there a process or set of systems for scheduling, determining loca琀椀on, desk reserva琀椀ons, gym membership, and hundreds of other “nonwork” related issues? Feedback • How can an employee give sugges琀椀ons or feedback to the company, HR, or IT? • Where are the employee opinion surveys, group chats, crowdsourcing, or sugges琀椀on tools? Legal or compliance • How can an employee make sure they are up to date on compliance training? • What if they need to open a legal case involving some kind of escala琀椀on? • Where does the company communicate messages from the CEO and leadership, Communica琀椀ons and news new policies, new announcements, or news? • Where does an employee go to find out what’s local and relevant to their loca琀椀on or department? Local policies and procedures • How can an employee stay current on local informa琀椀on about their team, facility, department, or func琀椀on? Manager hub • How can a manager easily view, manage, support, or communicate with their local or geographic team? Source: The Josh Bersin Company, 2022 The Rise of the Employee Experience Pla琀昀orm: Essen琀椀al to Business Success | Copyright © 2022 The Josh Bersin Company 6 All rights reserved. Not for distribu琀椀on. Licensed material.

As you can see, there are myriad employee experience issues manage backend interfaces, and give HR managers and leaders to consider, each of which comes from di昀昀erent systems, a set of design tools to build what individual work groups need. data sources, or applica琀椀ons. While many who u琀椀lize HCM systems believe they can do this alone, no single applica琀椀on The new enterprise EXP should allow for several layers of is designed for this breadth. Therefore, we need the EXP func琀椀onality and provide: to become a “global orchestra琀椀on system,” designed for •  A “produc琀椀zed portal” that makes it easy for HR and IT con昀椀gura琀椀on, scale, and ease of use. managers to add new applica琀椀ons to the user experience. The New Employee •  A personalized and con昀椀gurable pla琀昀orm, so all Experience Platform employees see and experience their own journeys. It must 琀椀ghtly integrate with backend systems (HCM, learning, bene昀椀ts, 琀椀me tracking, 昀椀nancial apps, security, badge In the early stages of the EX market, vendors provided readers, etc.). standalone tools such as case management systems, survey •  A “designer” toolset to ensure nontechnical managers can tools, communica琀椀ons pla琀昀orms, and portals. Now, as the market has grown and expanded, the EXP itself has become build journeys, design and build work昀氀ows, and distribute an enterprise system. administra琀椀on to local groups. Consider layered architecture (see Figure 5). While it may Under the covers, the EXP must make it easy for service be possible for IT to integrate dozens of employee-facing centers, business partners, and managers to communicate with applica琀椀ons, there is no easy way for these to work together. and respond to employee needs. As one major HR leader put it, Companies need a new pla琀昀orm, one that might be called "EX is all about service delivery.” In other words, everything that a “design and orchestra琀椀on system,” to create work昀氀ows, isn’t self-service needs a service delivery person behind it. Figure 5: HR Technology Architecture Produc琀椀vity Apps (Video, Voice, Chat, Email, Messaging, Scheduling) Employee Portal or Mobile App Apps Onboarding, Benefits, Wellbeing, Pay, Rewards, 401k, IT, Legal, Security, Belonging, Stories, Safety, Emergency, Custom Employee Transi琀椀on Mental Health Stock Op琀椀ons Facili琀椀es Personal Groups Escala琀椀ons Journeys Services Search, Discovery, Triggers, Rou琀椀ng, User Assist, Case Knowledge Surveys, Learning Communica琀椀ons Indexing Incidents Chat, Voice Management Management Feedback Career Broadcast Databases HR Finance Learning Feedback Documents Logis琀椀cs Employee ERP Recrui琀椀ng Workflow Knowledge Safety Workforce Job Skills Employee Talent Management Architecture Architecture Sen琀椀ment Intelligence Source: The Josh Bersin Company, 2022 The Rise of the Employee Experience Pla琀昀orm: Essen琀椀al to Business Success | Copyright © 2022 The Josh Bersin Company 7 All rights reserved. Not for distribu琀椀on. Licensed material.

In every one of these projects the issue of a pla琀昀orm which comes from a background in global service delivery, has looms large. Where do companies put these “journeys” built a wide range of EX applica琀椀ons and services to make this and “programs” and work昀氀ow business rules so that the easy—more and more companies are going this way. corporate HR and IT team can deploy them while others Microso昀琀 is moving in this direc琀椀on with the Viva family of products. tweak them locally? How do we connect them to the ERP Viva, unlike ServiceNow, is not yet a work昀氀ow management system, system for security and iden琀椀ty management? How do we but eventually it will likely compete with ServiceNow in its leverage data about the employee in the human resources open architecture and ease of applica琀椀on development. management system (HRMS)? And where does the data about the process go? (Employee experience applica琀椀ons In addi琀椀on to giving the EX team a robust pla琀昀orm to generate large amounts of data that does not necessarily 昀椀t build upon, pla琀昀orms like ServiceNow are designed for into the tradi琀椀onal HRMS.) There are a couple of op琀椀ons that “ci琀椀zen developers.” In other words, if Medtronic or C.H. organiza琀椀ons can consider: Robinson wants to build a series of journeys and let local managers personalize them, ServiceNow has a design tool for Op琀椀on 1: Use the ERP (Workday, SuccessFactors, Oracle, nontechnical users to accomplish this. Oracle is moving in this ADP, Ceridian, UKG, or others). The 昀椀rst op琀椀on, which most direc琀椀on with its Oracle Journeys product, but it is s琀椀ll behind companies quickly outgrow, is the a琀琀empt to put these services ServiceNow in its maturity. into the o昀昀-the-shelf tools from the core HCM provider. Where Do the Business Rules Go? Each of the vendors men琀椀oned have employee portal tools, The employee experience pla琀昀orm, in addi琀椀on to being a customizable (to some degree) journeys, and mini-applica琀椀ons place to “plug in” and design EX applica琀椀ons, is also a business that help employees access some of the EX applica琀椀ons. And it makes sense to use these, when possible, since they are rules engine. When a new employee needs a badge, laptop, or leave adjustment, who should approve this? What is the 琀椀ghtly linked to other internal systems, security, and data. process for audi琀椀ng this process and where should the budget The problem most companies run into is that these reside? These and hundreds of other business rules need to be applica琀椀ons are incomplete. ERP vendors spend most of their coded somewhere, but where? R&D on core payroll and technology infrastructure; they are rarely experts on leave management, onboarding, or even In a highly scalable EX team, these decisions must be made corporate training. And when a company wants a highly open strategically. If the company has ServiceNow, they are likely to use it as the “EX business rules pla琀昀orm” and interchange system (enabling lots of third-party vendors to plug in) the IT these rules with the ERP. But these are decisions that should department is dependent on the ERP vendor to do the work. be made deliberately, because if a process step must scale it We do want many business rules ins琀椀tu琀椀onalized in the ERP, may interact with HRMS business rules, business rules in the however. Things like pay, bene昀椀ts, vaca琀椀on, 琀椀me-tracking, corporate learning management system, or even 昀椀nancial rules and other 昀椀nancially relevant EX applica琀椀ons must integrate located elsewhere. 琀椀ghtly with 昀椀nancial systems. But many ERP EX applica琀椀ons Over 琀椀me, as new pla琀昀orms like ServiceNow, Viva, Workday, are new and less 昀氀exible, so companies pick only the ones that work best. Vendors like Workday and Oracle have opened Oracle, and SAP con琀椀nue to evolve, it will become obvious to customers which process goes where. In the last year, their pla琀昀orms for development, but this means hiring an ServiceNow introduced a variety of new func琀椀ons: listening IT contractor to customize the ERP and then living with the posts (scalable surveys and feedback), learning posts custom development for years. (learning programs and learning pathways), employee journey Op琀椀on 2: Use a scalable EXP. The second op琀椀on, which management (journeys and work昀氀ows designed for employee transi琀椀ons), manager hubs (a place for managers to view and is now becoming mainstream, is to invest in a pla琀昀orm like support employee journeys), and employee center (a single ServiceNow (or Microso昀琀 Viva, Applaud, Salesforce Portal, and uni昀椀ed produc琀椀zed portal and mobile app). others) to manage and integrate these solu琀椀ons. ServiceNow, The Rise of the Employee Experience Pla琀昀orm: Essen琀椀al to Business Success | Copyright © 2022 The Josh Bersin Company 9 All rights reserved. Not for distribu琀椀on. Licensed material.

About the Author Josh Bersin Josh founded Bersin & Associates in 2001 to provide research and advisory services focused on corporate learning. He expanded the company’s coverage to encompass HR, talent management, talent acquisition, and leadership and became a recognized expert in the talent market. Josh sold the company to Deloitte in 2012 and was a partner in Bersin by Deloitte up until 2018. In 2019, Josh founded the Josh Bersin Academy, a professional development academy that has become the “home for HR.” In 2020, he put together a team of analysts and advisors who are now working with him to support and guide HR organizations from around the world under the umbrella of The Josh Bersin Company. He is frequently featured in publications such as Forbes, Harvard Business Review, HR Executive, The Wall Street Journal, and CLO Magazine. He is a popular blogger and has more than 800,000 followers on LinkedIn. The Josh Bersin Company Membership The Josh Bersin Company provides a wide range of research and advisory services to help HR leaders and professionals tackle the ever-evolving challenges and needs of today’s workforce. We cover all topics in HR, talent, and L&D. The Josh Bersin Academy—built on our research and powered by Nomadic Learning—helps HR practitioners grow key foundational skills. Our corporate membership program provides HR teams and senior leaders with the skills, strategies, and insights to build cutting- edge HR and people strategies through a combination of research, assessments, professional development, exclusive events, and community. In 2022, The Josh Bersin Company introduced the Global Workforce Intelligence (GWI) Project to guide market- leading businesses and their leaders through the challenges of industry convergence while remaining future-focused. For more details, contact us at [email protected]. The Rise of the Employee Experience Pla琀昀orm: Essen琀椀al to Business Success | Copyright © 2022 The Josh Bersin Company 11 All rights reserved. Not for distribu琀椀on. Licensed material.