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Charting unique pathways: Our expert guide to employee experience journey mapping

As the working world is changing, with remote and hybrid setups becoming more common, organizations are looking to find ways to ensure their teams still have a consistent and positive employee experience. Frameworks such as the employee experience (EX) journey map can help to guide these new processes. It’s worth investing energy into this as companies that design a great EX report lower stress and burnout, and their people are 1.4 times more likely to find purpose in their roles.* 

Still, how does mapping the EX journey work? Employee journey maps help chart and visualize the end-to-end experience of working at your company from the perspectives of your team members. Their primary purpose is to highlight the employee's point of view and uncover inefficiencies and areas for improvement. They can also provide an overview of the internal processes and roles recruiters, hiring managers, human resources leaders, and team leads play in shaping the experience.

We created a downloadable template that HR and people ops leaders can use as a starting point for their own journey maps, providing a step-by-step process you can follow to make the best use of this free resource.

* McClean & Co , 2023 ‍

🧩 Discover what pieces are missing from your current EX strategy Use our free, editable template to record employee data, map the EX journey, and make your organization an even better place to work. 👉 Download the template

What is the employee experience journey?

The employee journey encompasses all the major milestones, events, interactions, and impressions an individual experiences throughout their tenure with an organization. Some people leaders refer to the EX journey as key touchpoints or “moments that matter.” Still, this perspective might be somewhat limiting as it overlooks the fact that a positive EX journey is also about building a strong, trusting relationship between employees and organizations. Essentially, every moment counts because it influences how team members feel about you, from pre- to post-employment. ‍

Why map out the employee experience journey?

Mapping out the employee journey means creating a visual blueprint you can use to identify current areas for improvement and customize for different roles. Doing so is a worthwhile investment of time and effort that can contribute to significant cultural and operational outcomes, such as:

• Smoother, more thorough onboarding processes — Only 43% of employees say their onboarding included more than paperwork and a one-day orientation. Implementing an EX journey map to create a more in-depth onboarding experience can set your company apart and help your new hires feel more welcome from day one.
• Relevant career development opportunities — An effective employee journey map takes your team members’ unique professional and personal career goals into account. This allows you to offer better training opportunities, which 76% of professionals say has an impact on their decision to stay with a company.
• Improved productivity — An EX journey map can help you overcome productivity gaps with better technology, resources, processes, and communication. In doing so, you could become up to 1.8 times more productive than organizations that don’t prioritize the employee experience.  
• Greater recruitment success — Using a journey map can help you get a better sense of what candidates are looking for throughout their tenure. That way, you can tailor your messaging to better resonate with job seekers’ highest priority goals.  ‍

“If you’re familiar with customer journey mapping, then you may know more about employee journey mapping (EJM) than you realize. Employee journey mapping uses the same concepts and best practices of customer journey mapping to help you understand your employee experience better, provide the resources, tools, and support employees need, and align employees’ daily actions and accountabilities with the customer experience.” — Jeannie Walters , Customer Experience Speaker and CEO of Experience Investigators

Employee experience journey map template

🤔 Get inside employees’ heads  Use our template to gather team member insights at every stage and understand how their needs change throughout their tenures. 👉 Download the template

7 steps to create your employee experience journey map

Whether you utilize our editable template or create your own, mapping the employee journey in this way allows you to easily spot where your EX efforts are falling short and make an initial action plan within the same document. Let’s look at our recommended step-by-step process for strategizing, researching, documenting, and improving the employee experience for your organization.  ‍

1. Get clear about your goals for mapping the employee journey

The key question that HR and people ops need to ask themselves at this stage is, “What do we want to know about the employee journey and why?” This prevents journey mapping from becoming a cursory exercise and transforms it into a more meaningful, strategic endeavor that helps you align with your overall company goals.

If it’s your first time creating a journey map, for example, your initial goal may be to identify your current paint points, gaps, and challenges so you can better support your team members for the next 12 months. 

If you’ve mapped the employee journey before and have implemented improvements in the past, a more specific goal might be to address communication issues and improve the feedback and review processes across all touchpoints.  ‍

2. Conduct employee research

In order to get a valid understanding of the real issues, you need to first dig deeper into previous survey data, manager feedback, performance scores, and EX metrics like retention, turnover, and engagement. You should also talk to department heads, managers, team leads, and employees themselves for fresh, updated more insights. In your research, be sure to get an understanding of how team members describe their current journey as well as the ideal experience so you can identify your existing pain points and structure a better path. 

Here are a few questions you can ask employees:

• What expectations did you have at every stage of your professional journey? 
• How have we succeeded or failed in living up to those expectations?
• What were your biggest frustrations during the onboarding, training, and engagement stages?
• What competencies were you hoping to develop at every stage?
• At each stage of the process, how did you feel about communicating with your manager and leadership team?

Providing anonymous feedback channels for employees is key if you want truly valuable, candid input. You can help team members feel safe sharing their thoughts with methods such as:

• Anonymous surveys — Using a platform like Leapsome means your surveys will be anonymous by default. ‍
• Suggestion boxes or forums — This allows employees to confidentially share their input and ask questions without prompting. That’s why Leapsome offers both an anonymous suggestion box and Q&A board where team members can ask questions and get answers from leadership. ‍
• Focus groups — Organize an in-office or virtual meeting with team members, ask meaningful questions about their current experience, and use their answers to create an anonymous report. If possible, you can arrange this with a third-party research company to ensure confidentiality.

🔎 Make sure you have a tentative action plan to share with employees when asking them for feedback. This will help you overcome any survey fatigue team members may be feeling due to previous inaction and encourage them to provide more and better feedback.  

3. Determine the scope & roles your journey map will cover

Attempting to map the journey for every single role in your organization will lead you to develop an employee experience that’s too vague and irrelevant to the difficulties that specific teams are experiencing. Instead, use the data you’ve now gathered to hone in on your most urgent issues.  

For instance, as you review your research, you may notice positive reports during the recruitment and onboarding stages. However, you might uncover that your teams typically show decreased engagement around the development stage. That could mean it’s time to update your career progression framework or make it a more central part of your professional growth processes.  ‍

4. Craft your EX journey map

Now, you’ll draw on your previous three steps and bring together your goals, scope, and research to update your processes and construct your ideal employee experience journey. To do this, you can use our template, which covers these core areas:

• Touchpoints , or the places where employees come into contact with managers, leaders, and other stakeholders.
• Processes , or the ideal steps managers and employees should take at each touchpoint to give team members the best experience.
• Metrics and monitoring , so you can record your current EX data and quickly identify areas of weakness.
• Notes , where you can document feedback from employees and stakeholders.
• Next steps , where you’ll outline your solutions. 

Of course, every organization has its own specific goals, internal structure, and culture. That’s why we’ve made our entire template editable and customizable, with ready-to-use content you can use for inspiration. For example, if your company is 100% remote , you may need more processes during onboarding that promote belonging, recognition, and team integration. ‍

🔎 You can use our template to link to a fully fleshed-out process and next steps documents for each stage, which is ideal for building transparency and ensuring everyone is on the same page about your company’s specific strategies.

5. Consult your journey map to identify improvement opportunities

Use the notes section in our template to capture what you’ve learned from team member research and outline your current iteration of the employee journey. In particular, note the initial expectations and eventual frustrations team members mentioned in their feedback and prioritize specific roles or issues that need to be addressed. 

In the next steps section, summarize what actions you plan to take based on the most critical concerns. Perhaps several employees mention feeling stifled in their professional development. You could then introduce a formal learning and training budget as a next step to improve on this. ‍

6. Share your plan & implement initiatives

Once you’ve finalized your action plan for improving the employee experience, communicate your strategy with leaders and team members so you can secure additional feedback on your proposed ideas and support for your initiatives moving forward. To be as transparent as possible:

• Explain your motivation for mapping the employee journey — Reiterate why you decided to map the employee journey and improve EX from the outset. For example, your organization may have gone through a recent restructuring, and you might have noticed that engagement has been declining ever since. ‍
• Describe your approach — Share how you mapped the staff journey based on your current EX processes and employee research.  ‍
• Discuss the why behind your proposed strategy — Provide the rationale behind your action plan and clearly link it to current business goals and objectives. ‍
• Break your strategy down into steps — Be sure to offer timelines and share who’s responsible for leading each initiative. ‍
• Follow up — After presenting your plan, contact leadership and stakeholders to address their questions and concerns. ‍

7. Refine & iterate on your journey maps over time

Like customers, the needs of your employees can change and fluctuate, typically in response to industry and economic changes. That’s why you should review and update your EX journey map every six months to a year and follow the same process each time. You can even utilize an employee experience platform to support you with this

Remember: No matter how favorable your employee experience metrics are, there’s always more to learn and understand about what team members are looking for from their work environment. 

🔎 Employee experience platforms like Leapsome can help you streamline how you gather team member data, set the right EX goals, and implement strategies that allow for better communication, reduced stress, and more employee autonomy.

Measuring the employee journey

Reviewing your employee experience metrics regularly helps you detect and mitigate issues early before they become major challenges. Doing so also means you can illustrate your progress to upper management and the executive team over time, demonstrating the value of your EX programs. Here are a few key indicators you should consistently refer to:

• Retention and turnover rates — Low retention rates may signal that team members aren’t having a positive employee experience. However, you need to compare them against employee tenures to discern when the most turnover typically happens. For instance, you may notice that team members tend to quit after their first eighteen months, which could suggest they’re dissatisfied with a lack of training, development, and career opportunities. 
• Employee Net Promoter Score (eNPS) — The eNPS is a valuable metric because it allows you to quickly assess engagement. It only requires employees to answer one question: “On a scale of zero to ten, how likely are you to recommend us as a place to work for your family and friends?” Your final score can range from -100 to 100, and most companies have a score between 10 and 30. While it’s not a great standalone metric because it presents you with limited data, it’s a great starting point that can help you determine when it’s time to investigate the employee experience further. 
• Survey results — Take note of your highest and lowest scores on previous engagement and culture surveys and read answers to open-ended questions thoroughly. If you use Leapsome’s Surveys module, you can quickly determine which factors you need to target to drive more positive outcomes. Our sentiment analysis function also uses AI to interpret open-ended answers so you can quickly scan them before exploring further.

• Performance scores — A great employee experience often corresponds with enhanced motivation, higher engagement, and, as a result, satisfactory performance. High performance scores also speak to the effectiveness of managers and stakeholders during the onboarding, training, and development stages. ‍

How software supports employee journey mapping

As employee expectations change and business priorities evolve, EX journey maps can help you respond effectively and improve the employee experience with greater efficiency. Moreover, they provide an in-depth understanding of how team members feel about their everyday interactions and overall relationship with your business. If your organization is genuinely committed to putting its people first, you need these individual insights to create a more personalized work experience for your team members.

Still, what do you do if you lack the time, personnel, or tech to gather the requisite insights? How do you overcome resistance from leadership without the right data and tools?

Leapsome allows you to automate the operational and analytical side of the journey mapping so you can focus on finding more innovative solutions to complex EX challenges. With our Surveys and Reviews modules, you can track engagement and pulse scores, retention rates, your eNPS, and employee performance scores with charts and visualizations to show you how those metrics have changed over time. Then, use our Goals module to design EX initiatives that align with current business objectives. 

With Leapsome, you’ll gain actionable insights and drive targeted improvements across every stage of the employee experience. ‍

👣 More positive impressions and connections every step of the way Use Leapsome to actively listen, gain insights, and implement changes based on employee feedback so you can make the entire work experience more meaningful. 👉 Book a demo

Leapsome Team

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Employee experience journey map: A complete guide + example + template

Today, we are all obsessed with the experience of the customer. However, only some seem to care about employee experience. This makes no sense whatsoever.

It is common to think that customers are the drivers of our business. And while this is true, imagine what would happen if all employees from your company decided to take a couple of days off, stay home, and watch Netflix? This would be a disaster. Yet, many companies still don't see the importance of designing a better employee experience.

• 1 What is an employee journey?
• 2 Benefits of employee journey mapping
• 3 Employee experience journey mapping
• 4 What to map?
• 5 Employee journey stages
• 6.1 Start with employee experience research
• 6.2 Produce an employee persona
• 6.3 Map the employee experience journey
• 7 What’s next?
• 8 Wrapping up

What is an employee journey?

Put simply, an employee journey is the complete experience an individual has while they're employed at an organization, starting from the day they apply for the job until the day they leave. Such a journey includes every interaction they have with the organization, whether it's having a conversation with a manager, participating in a training session, or attending a team meeting. Think of it like a story that unfolds over time, each chapter representing a different part of the work life.

For example, consider Steve, who just got a job at a technology firm. His employee journey starts with applying for a job, getting an interview invitation, and having the interview. Then he has the second interview and receives the job offer, which moves Steve to the next stage — his first day of work, where he's welcomed by his colleagues and continues as he works on projects, receives feedback, and grows his skills. 

Over the years, Steve might get promoted, switch to different roles within the company, or take part in special programs. His journey captures all these experiences right up until his retirement party or the moment he leaves the company, capturing the entire arc of his career at the firm.

Benefits of employee journey mapping

Why is it essential to know the state of your employees’ journeys and improve them? Many smart companies all over the world are using a very effective idea. They treat their employees really well, just like they do with their customers. 

They've figured out that this is super important. In this paragraph, we'll explain why this is a big deal and how it can make companies much better in today's world.

Here are a few down-to-earth points as to why you should take employee experience seriously:

• Employee engagement means customer success. Did you know engaged employees are almost 90% less likely to leave their company compared to employees who have a low level of engagement? Leave alone the fact that engaged employees are a lot more productive.
• Employees come at a great cost . And it’s not just about money. Customers do not interact with CEOs. They interact with front-desk staff, customer support, sales, you name it. Mistakes of these people may seriously damage your company’s reputation. That alone is a good reason to start thinking about designing a better employee experience.
• Word of mouth. Finally, just like a great customer product, an outstanding employee experience gets spread by word of mouth. It becomes one of the ways you attract talented people to the company.
• Enhanced onboarding and retention. By understanding the employee journey, organizations can create a more structured and engaging onboarding process. This will help new hires become productive more quickly and feel a greater sense of belonging, which can reduce turnover rates.

Now that we’re on the same page regarding the importance of designing a better experience for employees at a company, it’s time to proceed to actionable to-dos.

Read also: Case study on improving the employee journey

Employee experience journey mapping

One of the proven approaches to analyzing, understanding, and enhancing the employee experience and employee journeys is a great technique called customer journey mapping.

Not familiar with this subject? Check out our complete guide on creating a customer journey map .

The idea behind this technique is fairly simple: you take the journey people take when interacting with your business and break it down into stages. The next step is to look at each stage from different angles to get a complete picture of what the experience of this particular person may look like. In other words, a map of your employee’s journey helps you see through the eyes of your customer or, in our case, through the eyes of employees. 

There’s another similar technique called employee experience mapping. These two techniques are often used interchangeably, but it should be noted that experience mapping takes a broader view. It goes beyond chronicling the stages an employee goes through, delving into the qualitative aspects of an employee's daily life within the organization, their experience with it. This encompasses, for example, the emotional experiences of employees at various touchpoints, like participating in daily team meetings, using the company’s tools and technologies, or during interactions with leadership.

What to map?

First, it’s important to decide which part of the employee experience journey you want to start with. At this point, there are a couple of routes you may take:

• High-level mapping. Obviously, it simply would take too much time to map the entire journey, as the employee lifecycle is way too long for one map. Unless you want to start with a high-level map and dive into details later as you dig more information. The downside of a high-level approach is that you won't get a lot out of it. The formula is fewer details = fewer insights.
• Focus on a specific part of the journey. It would be a whole lot easier to start with something like onboarding. The best part about onboarding is that if you are an HR, you have just enough knowledge to take the first steps.
• Identify the most problematic stage and start with it. However, it’s not that easy to tell which part is the most problematic without running research.

Employee journey stages

As we’ve touched the employee journey stages, let’s consider some of the common ones to give you an idea of what to include in your employee experience journey map.

• Attraction. This is the beginning of the journey, where potential employees first encounter the company brand or job opening. They form initial impressions about the company culture and values, and these impressions are often influenced by the company website, social media presence, and employer reviews.
• Recruitment. The potential employee actively considers the job opening and applies for a position. This stage may encompass submitting applications, attending interviews, and communicating with the company's hiring team.
• Hiring. This is when you make the job offer, and the candidate accepts it. 
• Onboarding. The new employee starts their job, they get oriented and integrated into the organization. They learn about company policies, may undergo training for their specific role, and start building relationships with the team and managers.
• Development. This stage involves the employee's growth within the organization. It includes receiving feedback, pursuing professional development opportunities, and potentially participating in mentoring or coaching programs.
• Advancement. This is when the employee moves up within the company hierarchy through promotions or transfers. 
• Exit. This is the final stage of the employee journey when the employee leaves the organization, whether for retirement, a new job, or other reasons. The exit process can include such substages as exit interviews, knowledge transfer, and the employee's transition out of the company.

Looking for more information about employee journey stages to add to your model of journey map? Check out our deck of cheat cards to look deeper into the stages and substages of employee journeys.

Three steps in designing an employee journey map

Now, we will cover the basic steps for creating a full-fledged, true-to-love employee journey map.

Start with employee experience research

Employee research, often referred to as employee surveys or employee feedback programs, is of paramount importance for organizations across various industries. 

It involves collecting, analyzing, and acting upon feedback from employees to gain insights into their experiences, attitudes, and needs within the workplace. Here are some key reasons why employee research is important:

• It enhances employee engagement. By understanding what engages or disengages employees, organizations can take targeted actions to boost engagement.
• It supports informed decision-making. Employee research provides quantifiable insights, allowing leaders to allocate resources more effectively and prioritize initiatives that matter most to employees.
• It helps measure progress. By conducting surveys periodically, organizations can track progress over time. They can see how their efforts to address employee concerns and improve the workplace have translated into tangible results.

In other words, employee research is a strategic tool that empowers organizations to create better workplaces, improve employee satisfaction, increase productivity, and drive overall success. It aligns the interests of employees and employers, contributing to a positive organizational culture and sustainable growth. 

So, you should always start with profound research. Otherwise, what exactly are we going to put on that map? And when it comes to interviewing employees, some really nice factors contribute to great research:

• Employees are easy to get in touch with, and such research is inexpensive compared to customer research. Imagine a situation where you have to bring a bunch of customers for a focus group or an interview. Each has a different time availability and level of involvement. Plus, chances are they might want to have something in return. Whereas, employees are almost always there and ready to share their thoughts over a cup of coffee.
• You have lots of data already. If you’ve been working in the company for a while, there’s probably enough information for you to start with employee journey mapping. And you can always talk to the HR department to get this information.
• Co-creation opportunities. There is nothing better than inviting coworkers for a journey mapping workshop . And again, it’s much easier within a company than when you’re trying to bring in real customers.

In addition to employee feedback and interviews, it may also be helpful to review internal audit reports to gain a better understanding of potential areas for improvement in the employee experience journey.

Surely, there will be a conflict of interests and ethics issues, so be ready to get creative!

Before doing any kind of research, make sure you come up with a list of sources. They can be:

• Employee feedback. If you are an HR, chances are you have a lot of info on hand that can be used for employee experience mapping.
• Interviews with employees. Trust me, they have so much to say, and chances are they wanted to say it years ago.
• Interviews with managers. They observe employees and are able to give you a whole different perspective on things.
• Polls and surveys. Those can give a lot of quantitative data. And the best part is that polls can be anonymous.

Produce an employee persona

To truly empathize with employees, it’s vital to create an employee persona. It is a made-up person that is based on real employees. It should have some basic description as well as some of the details you found during the research phase: goals, motivations and frustrations, some background, and maybe even skills.

Meet Michael, our example, a young finance professional in the heart of NYC. With a year's experience under his belt, he aspired to land a job in a prestigious firm. Living with his brother's family in their cozy apartment, he found solace in their company but yearned for his own space. His daily routine includes job hunting between work, and his mind is always set on reaching the top of the corporate ladder.

You can have one, two, or multiple personas depending on your needs. To create your own persona, here's our guide with examples of how to create a persona in 7 steps .

Map the employee experience journey

Now, after the research has been done and personas have been created, it’s time to put everything on a map. The way you map an employee experience journey is the following:

• Define the stages you need for your map

If we talk about the journey part that covers a new employee onboarding, there will be stages like awareness, research, first contact, phone screening, job interview, the hiring process, the first day, the list goes on. It is very likely that some stages will have multiple substages (especially the hiring process and job interview).

• Decide on map layers or sections

These are layers of data you want to have on your map. Some of the commonly used journey map layers include employee goals, employee expectations, emotional experience, process, channels, touchpoints, and problems.

For each stage you defined, fill in the map sections with data about this stage. For example, write down the goals of the employee persona as well as their expectations or describe the process the employee persona goes through at each stage.

Feel free to add anything that can benefit you in the search for employee experience insights. If you feel like adding some quotes from real employees — it's great. Want to add a photo of the workplace for a new employee? Go ahead! 

In fact, if you're mapping employee experience in our journey mapping tool , multiple sections will help you capture all the details you might want to have in your map!

• Find flaws and come up with solutions

Once you see the whole picture, you can start looking for roadblocks that prevent employees from, for example, getting the best onboarding experience.

Once you put roadblocks on the map, you can come up with ideas and solutions. In the end, you will have a map that looks somewhat like this:

What’s next?

Once the journey map has been created, it serves as a valuable foundation for a positive employee experience. To ensure that their experience continually improves and stays aligned with the evolving needs of your company, consider the following actions:

• Collect ongoing feedback. Encourage employees to provide feedback throughout their journey. This can be done through surveys, one-on-one discussions, or anonymous feedback channels. This feedback should be used to identify pain points and areas for improvement.
• Regularly update the map. As processes and procedures change within your organization, update the map accordingly. This ensures that it remains an accurate reflection of the journey and can guide improvements effectively.
• Implement quick wins. Identify low-hanging fruit or quick wins based on the map insights. These are small, immediate changes that can significantly improve the experience without requiring extensive resources or time.
• Prioritize key touchpoints. Focus on the most critical touchpoints in the journey that have the greatest impact on the employee experience. Allocate resources and efforts to improve these areas first.
• Involve cross-functional teams. Collaborate with HR, IT, training, and other departments to address issues and implement changes. A cross-functional approach ensures a holistic perspective and comprehensive solutions.
• Set clear objectives. Define specific goals and objectives for improving the employee experience. This provides a clear direction for change initiatives and helps measure their success.
• Training and development. Invest in training and development programs for managers and mentors involved in onboarding. Equip them with the skills and knowledge needed to support the company’s employees effectively.
• Leverage technology. Use technology to streamline and automate parts of the onboarding process. This can reduce administrative burdens and create a more seamless experience for new hires.
• Monitor progress. Continuously monitor the impact of changes on the employee experience. Key performance indicators (KPIs) should be tracked and analyzed to ensure that improvements are achieving the desired outcomes.
• Employee involvement. Involve new employees in the co-creation of their onboarding journey. Seek their input and preferences to tailor the process to individual needs.
• Celebrate successes. Acknowledge and celebrate successes and improvements at different stages of your employees’ journey. Positive reinforcement can motivate teams to keep making enhancements.
• Stay compliant. Ensure that the onboarding process remains compliant with all relevant laws and regulations. Regularly review and update documentation as needed.
• Communication and transparency. Maintain open and transparent communication with employees regarding changes in the onboarding process. Provide clear explanations and expectations to manage their experience effectively.

Remember, journey mapping is not a one-time activity; it should evolve alongside your company's growth and changing needs. By actively listening to employee feedback, making data-driven decisions, and continually refining the onboarding experience, your organization can create a positive and impactful journey for new employees from day one.

Wrapping up

Mapping the employee experience is undoubtedly a challenging undertaking, one that demands a significant amount of effort, time, and resources. However, the rewards that come with creating an exceptional workplace environment and a satisfied workforce are simply too compelling to ignore.

Good news: we have a library of free templates, including employee experience map templates, which you can use for high-level mapping. Either download a PDF file and print it out or create a map in our Journey Mapping Tool, tweak it as you like, and then export it to show all the insights you came up with! 

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Thanks for the map. It’s a great template to start with for my company’s employee journey.

You’re welcome, Chris! We also have templates for remote employee journey and an employee journey mapping whitepaper with expert advice. Be sure to check those out and happy mapping!

Thank you for these employee journey mapping examples. Our problem is not so much with onboarding but with keeping people from leaving after 6-8 months. Do you have any advice on how to improve retention in the long run?

Hi Tarik, you’re welcome! We do have some employee experience examples you could use for better retention, and a detailed breakdown of common stages people go after the probation period is over: annual performance evaluation, office events, paternity leave, skill upgrading, etc.

You can find them all in our filled-out template called “End-to-end employee journey map” right here: https://uxpressia.com/templates/education-and-career

JOSH BERSIN

Insights on Corporate Talent, Learning, and HR Technology

• Diversity and Inclusion / Employee Engagement / Measurement and Analytics

The Employee Experience: It’s Trickier (and more important) Than You Thought

by joshbersin · Published March 24, 2019 · Updated March 25, 2019

I just finished a week of meetings discussing HR Technology and the Employee Experience and I want to give you some thoughts. This topic is enormously important, and it’s actually harder than it looks.

Why This Topic Has Become So Big

First, the phrase “Employee Experience” has become a giant vortex for everything in HR. All the programs we’ve invested in over the years (employee engagement, diversity and inclusion, leadership development, performance management) are all part of the employee experience. So in a sense Employee Experience is not a “program,” it’s a “topic.” (Or maybe a mindset.)

And wrapped around this topic we have hundreds of new technology tools to help diagnose and improve the employee experience . Every survey tool, portal tool, mobile app, and process management tool now has “employee experience” slapped on its website, telling us “this, too, will make your employee experience better.”

It turns out we are now in a stage where most companies have too much technology, and not enough time.  (Time is now the most precious resource at work.) So a major part of the employee experience is simplifying the technology experience, and designing HR programs that happen “in the flow of work.”

I’m starting a big research project to study the adoption of HR technology (hope to share findings this Fall) and I think you’ll be surprised how we’ve failed to deliver on lots of the systems we’ve purchased.  ( One study just found that 59% of cloud-based HCM buyers did not achieve the business results they hoped.)

Third, while the topic is crowded with books and articles, the real methodologies to improve employee experience are just emerging. I”m working with quite a few companies on this topic so let me share what I’ve seen.

The Methodology We Are Discovering

If you want to improve your employee experience, productivity, wellbeing, and output, what should you do? Where do you start?

Here are some things I’ve discovered:

• Design thinking: this really matters. It’s time for you to “empathize” with your employees, follow them around, survey and interview them, and sit down with them in workshops. They will tell you what bugs them at work, and you’ll hear all sorts of little things that make work difficult.
• Start with the basics : look at the common “moments that matter” at work first, and flatten these issue completely. Onboarding, job changes, relocation, and all the little things can really bog people down if they’re difficult. Every company can look at these topics and map out better solutions.
• Partner with IT and Finance:   as I discuss in the Employee Experience Platform report , none of these problems is HR”s alone. Bring finance and IT into the team immediately, they are going to be part of the solution.
• Practice Co-creation: every solution you develop should be “co-created” with business people and leaders. There’s no way to improve the employee experience without employees being involved. We have to work with them to fix old and broken processes, design new systems, and make work easier. Job shadowing is a good practice to use.
• Look at New Tools: the ERP and HCM platforms may not help as much as you think. Every client I met with in Europe told me their big HR systems project did NOT necessarily improve the employee experience. In some cases they did, but only if they looked at the platform project as an “employee experience project.” (more on Employee Experience Platforms )
• Practice process simplification: every “process harmonization” project I uncover comes down to one thing. We have a tendency in business to make things too complicated. As your company grows, acquires, and changes people keep tacking on new steps, approvals, and branches to everything.
• Segment the workforce:   we can’t possibly fix every employee’s experience in every way at once, so we need to segment the workforce. After we take care of the basics (ie. core HR practices, IT), we can move into specific strategies for the workforces or personas that matter most.

Becoming A Business Consultant

After you’ve covered the basics, much of this work comes down to work simplification – and it may include job redesign as well. So you’re going to become a business consultant, which is the best place HR should be.

A few tricks to consider: some companies design their organization around the customer and employee, not around the hierarchy. Southwest Airlines designs its employee experience around the airplane and crew. One of the manufacturers I talked with designs its experiences around the customer and service engineering team. UPS designs much of its business around the driver and the distribution center. Retail banks often design around the retail branch. And companies like T-Mobile design around the sales team.

This is the type of approach that gives you focus as you look at the top issues to address.

Applying Marie Kondo

As I’ve interviewed companies, I find these projects are like reading the book “ The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up ,” by Marie Kondo. Companies have to say good-bye to the processes that we don’t need, and simply keep the things they love.

As she advises in her process, if something is sitting in the back of the closet, just take it out, thank it for its service, and give it away. This “ continuous decluttering ” process is what we need to do in HR.

Examples Of What To Do

Let me share a few things I’ve seen to help you get started.

• Avoid system projects without a focus . Several of the companies I met with told me “we are implementing a new system because we have too many systems and they’re not all integrated.” And guess what. The new “system” is not going as well as they hoped. Why?  They didn’t design around the employee experience, they designed around the back-end. If consolidation is your goal, that’s nice – but employees don’t care. What they want is simplicity, ease of use, and a single place to go. You may not need a new system to accomplish this – an employee experience platform sitting in front of existing systems may be far easier.
• Create employee personas. One of the companies I met with (a large TV network) created a set of personas they now use to design solutions. They built these personas with help from the business unit and then mapped all the various HR transactions against these personas. Each persona had its own design session (co-created with the business) and they created a role called “innovation consultant” in HR to rethink the way things get done. They’re implementing many of their new ideas in ServiceNow and other tools, but it was the personas that got the business leaders excited.
• Look at everything.  One of the companies I met with (Coca Cola) found that ordering a new employee credit card required 52 different process steps. I’m sure all those steps were well intended when they were designed, but it ended up wasting hours and hours of employees’ time. Re-engineering this simple thing, coupled with a relook at onboarding, enabled them to save a million hours a year of employee time. This entire project was cost-justified immediately, and now they know how to look for other time-wasting processes.
• Work on onboarding. Everyone I talk with tells me their onboarding process is complex and incomplete. One of the companies told me their service engineers suffer a 50% turnover rate in the first year. This is because there really is no strategic onboarding process, so managers are filling in the gap. Employee moves are a similar opportunity. (Have you ever had a job where the first week was horrible?  It sets a bad tone for a long time.)
• Engage the people analytics team. These problems are all about measurement. Where are people wasting time? How much effort is going into doing something?  Where are people clicking and who are they emailing? If you have a good ONA tool (TrustSphere, Microsoft Workplace Analytics, etc.), a good survey system, and a good set of instrumentation on your workforce you’ll need the data. SAP’s $8 billion acquisition of Qualtrics was justified by helping to instrument employee feedback – this data and the analytics team should be part of your plan.

One of the companies I interviewed used an ONA (Organizational Network Analysis) tool to analyze employee productivity in their sales force. The data found that the low performing sales teams were spending far more time communicating with managers than their high-performing peers. As the HR team dove in, they discovered that these “low-performing” managers were micro-managing sales teams on pricing, configuration, and sales offers. The more empowered teams were outperforming their peers.

The answer?  Fix the “sales employee experience.” 

How? The team worked with sales leadership to further empower sales teams with pricing, configuration, and negotiation authority.

More to Come

I’m digging into this topic in detail and developing a whole course on it. Let me conclude that this is an essential topic in business today, and the practices and tools are now becoming clear.

Finally, consider what we’ve done for customers. Journey mapping, segmentation, and micro-targeting are well-established practices in marketing and product management. Now they’ve come to HR.

Just remember that “the customer experience is dependent on the employee experience.” Every time we make employees’ lives better, we better serve customers as well.

There’s the motivation to take this topic seriously!

Tags: co-creation design thinking employee engagement employee experience employee experience platform exp servicenow simply irresistible

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Employee experience and why it's critical

By Hannah Price

If you neglect your employees’ experience, you do so at your own peril. I didn't write that to be dramatic; employee experience impacts everything in your business—productivity, retention, your workplace culture, and more.

If you’re not already, it’s time to sit up and take a good, honest look at it.

This article will give you a comprehensive breakdown of everything to do with employee experience; what it is (what it isn’t ), whether it’s actually important, who’s responsible for it, and how to improve it . Let’s jump right in.

What exactly is employee experience?

First off, let’s be clear about what “employee experience” means. It’s a nebulous term that's hard to pin down.

Essentially, employee experience refers to everything an employee experiences at work—their interactions with their boss, their software, their teams, and hundreds of other things. It’s a holistic term that considers the full spectrum of an employee’s experiences throughout their entire time at a company.

One easy way to understand employee experience is to think of its popular counterpart, customer experience. Think about everything that falls under the wide umbrella of customer experience, then simply replace the concept of customer with employee.

What employee experience is not

The meaning of employee experience is commonly misunderstood. To clarify further, I’ve included a few things that employee experience is not :

Perks & Committees: Casual Fridays and free beer are fun perks, but they’re not the sum of employee experience. They are, by definition, perks; the cherry on top of the ice-cream sundae. However, if the ice-cream sundae is awful, the cherry will not make up for it. Your employee experience is like the sundae, it runs so much deeper than perks and social committees.

Employee Life Cycle (ELC): ELC is the chronological journey of an employee at your company; onboarding, development, offboarding, etc. The ELC is part of employee experience, however it’s just a small piece. It’s also commonly the responsibility of the HR department, whereas employee experience is the responsibility of every leader in your company (and, in part, every employee).

Employee Value Proposition (EVP): Your EVP is centered around what your organization provides (beyond remuneration) in order to attract, engage, retain, and delight people.

Thus, EVP is part of your employee experience but it’s not the whole thing. It doesn’t encapsulate all of those small moments and deeds that impact the employee experience.

When we talk about employee experience, “we are also talking about days where there are difficult performance reviews, or how well did a manager support an employee the day she learned her son had cancer? Or consider whether the company really did anything to address its employees’ concerns following its last employee engagement survey .” -  DecisionWise

How important is employee experience?

In a recent study by Deloitte University Press, Josh Bersin et al found that almost 80% of executives worldwide rated employee experience as important or very important.

This is hardly surprising when you consider its impact. When the employee experience is good, employees are happy, engaged, and able to get their work done efficiently. That delivers better bottom line results. In an academic study, Alex Edmans determined :

Who is responsible for employee experience?

This is a fascinating question, and the answer appears to be: employee experience is the work of most (if not, all) of the people in your organization.

In a nutshell, those at the management level have a huge influence on the organization’s environment. They’re in a position of power that can start a positive (or negative) spiral.

However, other employees are not without power. When faced with challenging situations, it’s the employee’s decision as to how they react. Do they fly off the handle, gossip about the issue, bottle everything up, or take measures to seek out the source of the problem and fix it? In this way, every employee affects the experience for other employees.

Thus, improving the employee experience will most likely start with the leadership and management level; they lay the groundwork of putting employees first . However, it’s up to employees to work within a genuine framework and positively contribute to the overall experience. (Here’s a detailed article from Hppy on this topic.)

How to improve employee experience

Although people recognize the importance of improving employee experience, 59% of the respondents to the Deloitte survey (mentioned above) didn’t know how they were going to tackle the problem. Delivering a great employee experience can be elusive and challenging.

On this point, Ryan Scott (CEO of Causecast) has some great words of advice :

“The employee experience may be broad in scope, but it starts by optimizing every touchpoint that an employee comes in contact with, to create an integrated experience that feels holistic throughout every stage.”

The key word here is holistic . A great employee experience is holistic. It seamlessly takes you from end to end, starting from the first day you encounter your new employee.

Herein lies one of the big challenges for improving employee experience. Its components are dispersed across many different people, tools, files, and forms. The first step to changing this, is to glue these pieces together and make your employee experience consistent and enjoyable.

How do you do this? Get the right people and the right technology.   The next section explains what to look for. 

4 tips for improving employee experience

1. get good technology.

Good technology (specifically, a good communications tool) will enable you to streamline communication and processes, and improve your company culture and engagement. It will help you stitch your employee experience together and approach it holistically. If you want more details, an employee success platform can boost employee engagement .

However, while good technology can make life easier, it can’t do all of the work. Once you’ve laid the groundwork for a positive employee experience—given people the tools and processes they need to effectively get their job done—the rest is down to the humans in the equation.

For example, it's up to humans to take part in using the communications platform to achieve the overall company goal. Whether this is communicating more through chat, recognizing others publicly for good work, or simply keeping files updated and available to all. It's up to the users—the people—to improve employee experience via the technology.

2. Encourage honest dialogue

For dialogue to occur, there needs to be open channels for communication (whether that’s through technology, over the phone, or in person). Everyone needs to know how to connect with each other (and who to connect with on certain issues).

For the dialogue to be honest , employees need to feel safe. They need to know they can voice their true thoughts and feelings, without negative repercussions. For this, there needs to be a healthy dose of trust and respect throughout your workplace.

When employees have trust in their employer and colleagues, they’ll be more willing to provide honest feedback. As an employer, this will allow you to find out what’s working (and what’s not) for your employees, which in turn will enable you to make effective changes that improve overall experience. (If you’re interested in learning more, check out this actionable article on ways to build trust in the workplace ).

3. Make every moment count

As mentioned earlier, employee experience is holistic. It’s not simply about following processes that have been previously laid out. Interactions with employees should be empathetic and thoughtful, regardless of where you are or what you’re discussing. Your employee experience should be genuine and you should take every opportunity to deliver an excellent experience for all.

4. Enable your managers

We discussed previously that leadership and management teams have a large influence on employee experience. If you’re an executive, ensure that the leaders below you are empowered to take positive action and know what’s expected of them. (Check out this article on empowering middle management ,  or forward this piece to your HR team .)

Gallup’s Chairman, Jim Clifton, comprehensively explains why this is so important:

”While the world's workplace is going through extraordinary change, the practice of management has been frozen in time for more than 30 years. [...] What the whole world wants is a good job, and we are failing to deliver it—particularly to millennials.

To summarize Gallup's analytics from 160 countries on the global workplace, our conclusion is that organizations should change from having command-and-control managers to high-performance coaches.

Why "high-performance coaches"? Because millennials demand development over satisfaction. They demand ongoing conversations over annual reviews. They demand strengths-based discussions over weakness-based "gap" discussions that produce zero results.”

If you want a thriving workforce, successful business, and happy customers, you need to start with your employees. How you treat them will have a knock-on effect that ripples throughout your company. It’s time to examine your employee experience and, where necessary, get started on making positive changes. Today.

A focus on employee success boosts productivity and joy

Read more by Hannah Price

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How Mobility functions can evolve and thrive with a workforce in flux

EY Global People Advisory Services Tax Leader

EY Global Mobility Reimagined Leader

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The ey 2024 mobility reimagined survey reveals mobility agility can drive business resilience, if mobility evolves to activate key drivers..

Three questions to ask:

• How can an evolved, agile mobility function help organizations be more resilient?
• Why is the mobility function critical in winning the race for talent and skills?
• How can better metrics help mobility realize its full strategic and tactical potential?

F orged in an era of dynamic challenges, modern workforce mobility functions are now called to fill new needs and challenge old assumptions. The “next normal” of work has accelerated the need for organizations to proactively refine how and where they work across jurisdictions, while enhancing employee experience linked to the “why.” Past mobility models rooted solely in business travel or long-term relocation are not necessarily fit for a more digital, integrated and strategic purpose. Instead, functions need to evolve their approach to workforce mobility to be high-impact, efficient, and cost-effective while helping to achieve growth for the business and for people.

Now in its second year, the EY 2024 Mobility Reimagined Survey builds on trending insights from more than 1,000 mobility professionals and employees across 21 global geographies. The results identify drivers of evolved mobility functions that can lead to better outcomes for mobile employees, business goals and organizational resilience. The drivers are: strategic alignment, talent linkage, digital focus, flexibility and use of external expertise.

EY research identified five drivers of evolved mobility functions that can lead to better outcomes: strategic alignment, talent linkage, digital focus, flexibility and use of external expertise.

The survey shows:

• Benefits of evolved mobility: Mobility functions that focus on the five drivers are 2.3 times more likely to say mobility helps organizational resilience; 2.2 times more likely to say mobility improves their sustainability agenda; 1.5 times more likely to say mobility helps address talent shortages; and 1.3 times more likely to cite positive mobility return on investment (ROI) and response to talent shortages.
• More scope, tighter budgets: 71% of employers say cross-border mobility risks have increased in the last two years, with 66% expecting mobility’s scope to increase. Nearly all respondents (97%) are looking to manage costs more effectively.
• Retaining talent: 64% of employees say they’re more likely to stay with their employer after a long-term cross-border assignment, with the quality of the experience being the most relevant factor.
• Unrealized potential: 95% of employers believe there are benefits to more closely aligning mobility to business and talent goals, but 60% still see mobility as isolated or siloed from other functions.
• Defining ROI: Nearly all employers (99%) are tracking ROI of their mobility programs, up from 80% in 2023. But there is greater opportunity to align effective metrics with the shape and purpose of the mobility function.
• Generative technology: 93% of mobility functions are using generative AI (GenAI) to some extent, with only 22% using it routinely. The most “evolved” mobility programs are nearly twice as likely to already use GenAI routinely, compared to programs that are merely “effective.”

About the research

In January 2024, EY conducted the second installment of the Mobility Reimagined Survey to unravel the key forces and factors shaping global mobility. It explores how organizations can deliver better business and talent outcomes by leveraging mobility to cultivate sustainable growth and build resiliency. An anonymous online survey was carried out by a third-party vendor, comprising 531 employees and 528 employers spanning 21 different sectors and over 21 global geographies across the Americas, Asia-Pacific, and EMEIA (Europe, the Middle East, India and Africa).

Evolving mobility to break old assumptions

Workforce mobility is critical for business resilience. New challenges require it to strategically evolve to face growing complexity.

Beyond any single or cyclical event, new conditions for cross-border business require new thinking about the purpose and potential of workforce mobility programs. Market and labor trends demand more agility and thoughtfulness around mobility investment and influence within organizations.

Following a dramatic decrease in business travel spending connected to economic, health, and geopolitical uncertainty, spending (pdf)  is expected to reach US$1.8t by 2027, up 75% from 2022 levels. At the same time, employers are looking globally to find in-demand skills, and are building models for a knowledge-driven workforce that shows a preference to work remotely at least two days per week.

Mobility professionals already show some adaptation to the new demands on their function, especially with respect to implementing systems or policies to address increased risks with a distributed workforce. With added focus on workforce mobility comes a need for added visibility: nearly all employers (98%) say they are tracking domestic and international employee movements, compared to just 49% of employers in last year’s survey. Growing attention on the increased scope of mobility is also evidenced in slightly higher numbers of employers who have developed policies or approaches for flexible mobility, and expect higher mobility technology investments in the next five years.

But to thrive in this era of flux, mobility functions need to do more than adapt at a piecemeal pace. Functions which fully evolve their models with an agile mindset, serving their organization’s business and talent strategy in a cost-effective way, see better outcomes. A more evolved mobility function displays:

• Strategic alignment: connecting workforce mobility strategy with broader organizational objectives
• Talent linkage: using mobility for talent attraction, retention, and development
• Digital focus: extent of automation and digitization of mobility processes
• Flexibility: agility in the customization of mobility experiences, including options of program types and  benefits
• External expertise: co-sourcing or outsourcing of select processes

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Survey respondents fall into three categories based on their level of adoption of these five drivers, with an “Evolved” 25% showing highest adoption levels; an “Emerging” middle 50% showing some adoption; and 25% having functions that are merely “Effective,” with low adoption.  

When comparing findings of the “Evolved” group with mobility functions that are just “Effective,” there are clearly better reported outcomes for organizational resilience, ROI, securing talent, and achieving sustainability goals.

Identifying 'Evolved' mobility functions

To segment mobility functions, we measured the degree they are taking action across five areas: the strategic alignment of mobility, the use of mobility to develop future talent, the automation of the mobility function, mobility outsourcing, and flexibility of the mobility program.

We scored each respondent based on their level of action in each of these five areas (with respondents receiving a higher score if they have taken more action in each area). Using the total score in each area as well as the average across all five areas, we created an index that segmented respondents into high action (Evolved), medium action (Emerging) and lower action (Effective).

All five areas were equally weighted. Evolved functions comprised 25% of employers surveyed, while Emerging functions made up 50% and 25% were Effective.

The greater influence of “Evolved” mobility functions on broader outcomes can be connected to their higher level of integration and awareness of organizational health and aspiration. Mobility professionals (95%) agree that strategic alignment of their function to business and talent strategy has multiple benefits, with a further 89% agreeing mobility helps secure organizational resilience. But most (60%) still believe mobility is isolated or siloed from other functions, with just as many (58%) believing the function is hampered by lack of internal data exchange.

The most evolved mobility functions are not passive observers of organizational strategy, but proactive learners and advisers to human resources and other parts of the business. Perhaps because of this proactivity and connectedness to the business, the “evolved” functions are more aware of the rising risks associated with cross-border travel, more likely to believe their scope is increasing, and more likely to build initiatives to control costs and improve efficiency.

Aligning metrics with desired outcomes

Part of understanding the present and potential influence of mobility on the wider organization is having metrics that measure the function based on the right focus areas. Although nearly all mobility professionals are tracking ROI in some way, there is no universal norm. The largest number of employers (64%) track performance ratings, with cost (56%) and the function’s impact on business revenues and finances (54%) being the next most common metrics feeding an ROI analysis.

But to realize the mobility function’s strategic potential, especially connected to talent strategy, organizations need to adapt what metrics they track, and how. They need to ask whether they are tracking the right things, and whether they really understand their objectives and are collecting metrics accordingly. For example, if an organization wants to know what role mobility assignments play in career pathways, they should measure those outcomes. At present, less than half of respondents track talent retention and employee promotion after a mobility assignment, with further disparities between mobility program types seen through the lens of inclusive and equitable growth. “Evolved” mobility functions are roughly twice as likely than “Effective” functions to track KPIs of tailored support for family members or dependents, and having diversity, equity and inclusion-related goals for managers.

Most mobility professionals (86%) say their function improves the overall sustainability agenda and targets for their organization, including in helping to manage the carbon footprint, contributing to corporate sustainability targets, and prioritizing environmentally friendly transport options. But just as with talent indicators, it’s not clear that mobility functions are tracking the right data to have the greatest strategic influence. The EY 2023 Sustainability Value Study showed 85% of global organizations don’t have processes to measure emissions on an ongoing basis, for example.

As most mobility professionals (57%) report “somewhat positive” or “neutral” returns on their mobility programs, there is an opportunity for organizations to recalibrate their collection of metrics around sustainability, talent and business goals in a tangible and realistic way. This recalibration can provide hard data of mobility’s strategic influence, and help organizations realize its potential.

Workforce flexibility and the race for talent

The mobility function can help re-energize your workforce, if it is aligned and measured with talent strategy in mind.

The imperative for mobility functions to evolve in step with talent strategy is as much a reflection of current trends as it is a recognition of a greater transformation in workforce realities. The EY 2023 Work Reimagined Survey reported a persistently high number of employees (34%) willing to leave their jobs in the next year, with pay being their primary concern. Employees and employers largely agree the question is settled as to whether remote and hybrid work will persist in the “next normal.” The new question is in what form, and to what end.

Mobility professionals say their organizations recognize this shift, with 82% having developed a policy or approach for hybrid mobility. But employers aren’t yet convinced that remote work is an adequate alternative to cross-border travel. Just 41% of employers think hybrid mobility can replace physical movements of employees, and 49% believe it doesn’t offer the same level of learning for senior professionals especially.

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Still, to respond to what prospective and current employees are seeking, organizations need to remain flexible in how they think about their mobility programs and talent strategy. Mobility functions need to be built for remote, hybrid and physical mobility experiences, without neglecting the advantages or pitfalls of a single configuration.  

For example, 92% of mobile employees say an international experience can be life-changing. It’s testament to the influence a cross-border assignment can have on current employees, and prospective ones. Employees cite career growth as the leading reason to seek further mobility experiences, with 64% saying they are more likely to stay with their employer after a long-term mobile assignment. Analysis shows that the quality of the experience matters most in the staying power of the mobile assignment.

Recognizing the broader benefits to talent development is another distinction between “Evolved” and merely “Effective” mobility functions. Nearly all (96%) of “Evolved” functions and just 41% of “Effective” employers are tied to two or more core areas of talent development, including:

• Developmental programs designed to include mobility experiences
• Mobility included as part of career milestones for leadership
• Early career programs designed with mobility steps
• Mobility experiences offered to top and solid performers

Recognizing risk and realizing talent opportunities

Efforts to improve mobility programs to better serve broader workforce strategy cannot ignore increased complexity and risk exposure. For all the potential dividends tied to integrating varied mobility types with talent goals, there remains a gap in recognition and focus of legal, tax, cybersecurity risks associated with a mobile workforce. Employers are much more likely than employees to be aware of the risks arising from their hybrid work strategy, for example, but awareness doesn’t always lead to action.

While 84% of employers recognize data privacy risks from hybrid mobility arrangements, just 55% have policies to address those risks — a moderate improvement from last year’s 47%. On the other hand, an even greater 87% of employers are aware of cybersecurity risks from hybrid work, but just 46% have policies to address them, down from 51% last year. The need to close the gap of awareness and action to manage risks is one proactively addressed by the more “Effective” functions, and is an area of necessary focus for all.

There is no one-size-fits-all approach to mobility programs, with organizations needing to chart their path based on a unique constellation of designs and objectives. By linking the function to talent development goals and processes, and to targets for talent attraction and retention, organizations can add greater value for employees through exceptional experiences, and encourage new workforce models for agile organizations.

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Increased complexity in enabling a cross-border and distributed workforce has only heightened the need for streamlined and advanced technology that also contributes to an improved employee value proposition. For employees on a cross-border assignment or hybrid working arrangements, the right technology is a lifeline to their teams and a resource to improve efficiency. Mobility functions have a role in helping to realize operational gains while enhancing employee experience.  

In the next two years, 80% of mobility professionals plan to increase their investment in mobility technology, up from the 67% planning increases in last year’s survey. Most employers (91%) see automation and digitalization as beneficial for the function, with the top three benefits found in process simplification, process standardization, and compliance with tax and immigration policies.  

The accelerating journey toward GenAI tools will also likely influence investments and workflows in the coming 12 months. Currently 71% of mobility functions only use GenAI somewhat, with 22% using it routinely. Sentiment around the technology is positive, with 79% of employers saying GenAI will have a positive impact on the function in areas like ways of working in the function, ways of working flexibly, employee experience and enabling new job opportunities.

This expectation of the benefits of GenAI for mobility functions aligns with sentiments of the broader workforce seen in the EY 2023 Work Reimagined Survey . That survey showed a 33% net positive sentiment of employers and employees who believe GenAI will boost productivity and new ways of working, with an even greater 44% net positive of respondents expecting GenAI to benefit flexible working.

The potential of GenAI solutions is still being realized, but some applications are already seen as enhancing mobile employee experience. The use of AI-based chatbots, language tools or travel assistants can foster connection and access to information in an asynchronous working world. These specific use cases are in addition to GenAI’s inherent ability to create “rough drafts” of unique outputs based on disparate data sets.

A people-first approach to technology

But technology is only useful in the hands of people trained and comfortable using it. With a rapidly evolving technology ecosystem — especially connected to GenAI-enabled solutions — there can be an impulse to fill operational needs without assessing the full strategic impact. Rising cost pressures underscore the need for targeted investments that serve broader business goals. Increasing competition to find people with in-demand skills bolster the case for organizations to keep a people-first mindset through technological innovation. “Evolved” mobility functions are more likely to be trying transformational technologies to stay competitive, with 27% routinely using GenAI at work compared to 14% of functions that are just “Effective.”

For mobile employees, user experience (UX) of technology has a direct connection with their overall employee experience (EX). Framing digitalization efforts as part of a broader evolution of the mobility function, in line with integration with workforce strategy, holds greater opportunities than remaining in a transactional silo.

Rethinking models for mobility’s new frontier

With added scope, mobility needs to evolve its operating model for a new kind of cost-capability calculus.

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With added scope, closer strategic alignment and added investments in technology, mobility functions will need to reimagine their operating models to account for better coordination of internal stakeholders and external partners. Most respondents (58%) to the  EY CEO Outlook Pulse  said they are planning to accelerate transformation efforts in the next 12 months, with roughly three-quarters of CEO respondents expecting a “lower for longer” economic growth environment. For workforce mobility, and the two-thirds of employers expecting the scope of the function to grow without major growth in headcount, these factors require a new cost-capability calculus in how the function operates.  

Already, mobility functions report a mix of operating models. The most common are centralized models, used by 46% of respondents, or centers of excellence (CoE), used by 45% of mobility functions. Greater divisions in operating model choices are seen when comparing “Evolved” mobility functions with their counterparts, showing much more willingness to mix and match resources to provide the greatest service to the organization, and greatest level of adaptability to increase efficiency while alleviating workload pressures.  

This willingness to flex operating models allows mobility functions to refine certain activities based on their organization’s profile, needs, and resources. Of employers, 83% see benefits in engaging third-party service providers for certain processes and aspects of mobility programs. But outsourcing is more often part of the solution for more complex organizations. As such, employers are more likely to outsource mobility processes if they have more complex operations across multiple countries.

Maintaining greater organizational visibility and integration with other functions is a concern for employers regardless of operating model, but the use of a CoE shows at least moderate improvements in connectivity. For employers with centralized mobility functions, 65% say the function is siloed from the rest of the business, compared to just 57% of employers with a CoE model. Two-thirds of employers with a shared service center model say the mobility function is hindered by lack of data exchange, compared to the lower 57% of employers with a CoE. The CoE model may see better connectivity because it offers a separation of delivery for mobility services, allowing a focus on strategic work to be completed elsewhere.

Five actions to drive an “Evolved” mobility function

As organizations look to evolve their mobility function to cope with growing complexity, and help achieve broader strategic goals, it’s important to recognize the interplay of agility and resilience. By being willing to embark on a bespoke reimagination of mobility’s capabilities and strategic role, organizations can break the function out of transactional isolation.

Here are five actions for organizations to take:

1. Act strategically

• Embed and align mobility into the wider organizational strategy.
• Increase the strategic effectiveness of mobility by reducing operational silos and improved exchange of data with other business functions.

2. Integrate with talent

• Embed mobility into the wider workforce agenda, recognizing its importance to developing future leaders.
• Enhance the mobility experience. Mobility has a crucial role in boosting talent retention, and the quality of the assignee experience is central to this.

3. Focus on digital

• Promote the use of new digital tools and ensure humans are at the center of transformation.
• Prepare for GenAI to become widely adopted, with the potential to transform ways of working and mobile employee experience.

4. Build people-first mobility programs

• Build in flexibility to mobility programs to enhance employee experience.
• Create a people mobility strategy that enables compliant hybrid and remote work.
• Put sustainable and inclusive thinking at the heart of Mobility programs.

5. Develop resilient operating models

• Proactively address the rising risks caused by the changing mix of work models and international regulation.
• Leverage external providers to access know-how and take the pressure off in-house resources.

EY 2024 Mobility Reimagined Survey

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The EY 2024 Mobility Reimagined Survey reveals five drivers of evolved mobility functions that can lead to better outcomes for mobile employees, business goals and organizational resilience. Past mobility models focused only on business travel or long-term relocation are not necessarily fit for a more digital, integrated and strategic purpose. Evolving workforce mobility to provide a cross-border approach that is high-impact, efficient, and cost-effective can help promote growth for the business and for people.

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