Executive Summary
Ventana Research has conducted market research in the area of Human Capital Management (HCM) for two decades. The research has been conducted against the backdrop of the idea that Human Resources (HR) must play a more strategic role in the management of the modern organization. This transformation envisions an HR department that is more of a partner to the rest of the organization — one that is less focused on transactional activities better left to automation and more on directing its resources and energy toward fostering meaningful interactions over the entire employee life cycle, from hire to exit, that create the overall Employee Experience.
It has been widely accepted since at least the early 2000s that an engaged workforce is more productive and successful than one that is not, and employee experience drives engagement. Our research shows that most organizations agree, with the majority (64%) indicating that delivering a superior employee experience is a top priority and a nearly identical number (65%) stating it is critical to have a superior employee experience to achieve the highest levels of employee productivity. Despite the general agreement of the value of employee experience, just one-fifth of organizations (19%) have the highest level of confidence in HR teams to ensure the best possible employee experience. This gap in expectations versus outcomes is significant, but it is not surprising when examined in context with the rest of the research.