by EmpyreanWhy Your People Experience Matters More Today than Ever Before
A Connected and Personalized People Experience Can Help You Overcome 2023’s Top Employer Challenges
The past few years have presented challenge after challenge for employers, making it harder than ever for HR teams to support their people and reach their goals. Workforces are more dispersed than ever, turnover is high, engagement is low, and it continues to be a candidate’s job market.
But regardless of these challenges, organizations committed to creating connected, personalized people experiences have been able to strengthen their employer brand, and with it, raise their levels of engagement, retention, and the overall well-being of their people.
What is a People Experience?
Organizations are made up of people; individuals working towards a common goal but each with their own unique perspectives, backgrounds, experiences, and motivators.
The way your teams experience and connect to your company culture and benefit programs influence everything from engagement to retention to performance – each of which has a tremendous impact on HR and organizational success.
A strong, strategically executed people experience and benefits strategy should be leveraged by HR and benefits leaders to advance all people-related goals. The key to leveraging benefits success to advance your broader HR goals is delivering these life-enriching benefits through a personalized, connected people experience.
Today’s Top Employer Challenges
Here are some of the top challenges employers are facing today that can be improved by offering a strong people and benefits experience.
Talent Attraction
Even through today’s economic uncertainties and highly publicized layoffs, the January 2023 jobs report showed that the unemployment rate continues to hover around 3.4 percent.
Even before they apply for a position, your potential new hires begin to engage with your employer brand. A strong candidate experience drives your ability to attract talent, and your Talent Acquisition teams need reliable tools to leverage your company culture and benefits programs to compete in today’s competitive market.
Engagement & Retention
A recent study conducted by Monster.com found that a staggering 96 percent of U.S. workers will be looking for a new job in 2023. Forty percent of those surveyed say they need to find a higher-paying position due to inflation and rising costs of living.
Employees often overlook the value of their total rewards package and other workplace benefits like a strong culture, flexible work arrangements, and opportunities for professional development and advancement.
To engage and retain talent, it is critical that you deliver positive, personalized experiences that make each person within your organization feel valued and supported as the individuals they are – or your talent will look elsewhere without hesitation.
It can be hard for people to recognize the value you bring as their employer. A rich benefits program has been traditionally a disconnected one, experienced through different carrier apps, your intranet, and even corporate email.
A connected and centralized people experience brings together all that you offer as an employer – better demonstrating to your teams just how you’re supporting them in both work and in life in a way that is tailored to their unique situation, lifestyle, and life stage.
Increased Benefit Expectations
Today’s consumers have nearly unlimited choices when it comes to purchasing items they need and want.
Benefits and healthcare are no different, putting employers and the entire health system under more pressure than ever to transform the consumer experience and provide transparent, easy-to-navigate health and wellness experiences.
A positive benefits experience not only drives well-being for your people, but also demonstrates the value of the benefits you offer as their employer. Connecting benefits into one experience empowers your team to choose and use the best benefits for them while optimizing their value.
Benefit Education Gaps
Even as people demand more from their benefits programs, benefits education gaps persist. According to a recent Aflac study, nearly 3 in 5 employees spend less than 30 minutes researching their benefits, with 24% of those surveyed reporting spending less than five minutes.
Your employees need year-round guidance on choosing and using the best benefits available for their unique situations and circumstances. Creating personalized messages and experiences guides your people towards better benefit enrollment, adoption, and utilization decisions, improving the wellbeing of both your people and their loved ones.
Centralizing benefit experiences and communication points also increases levels of benefit engagement while offering more opportunities to educate your people about how to find and use the best resources available to them in ways that improve overall benefits and workplace satisfaction.
Diversity, Equity, Inclusion & Belonging
The positive influence of diverse and inclusive workplaces on organizational success has been well documented. Diverse and inclusive workplaces are tied to:
- Higher revenue growth
- Greater readiness to innovate
- Increased ability to recruit a diverse talent pool
- 5.4 times higher rates of employee retention
No matter how rich your benefits program is, you may be delivering it in an inequitable, non-inclusive way. Your people need to understand how the benefits you offer specifically support them today in their current situation while setting them up for success tomorrow.
Unless benefits are delivered in a way that feels personalized for each member of your population at any life stage or circumstance, no one will feel like they belong.
Dispersed Workforces
Whether you have an in-office, hybrid, or remote-first workplace, or if you have a high population of front-line and deskless workers, today’s workforce is more geographically dispersed than ever before.
Employers that are strategic and thoughtful about how to engage workforces scattered across different locations by creating one centralized, accessible communication channel will find the most success in connecting their people to their culture.
Lack of Financial Security Impacting Employees
U.S. workplaces lose an estimated $500 billion dollars each year due to lost productivity tied to personal financial stressors plaguing their employees.
Due to the rising cost of consumer goods, more than a third of all American workers report that they made a difficult healthcare decision in the past year, including having to choose between paying for a prescription or medical treatment and other household bills.
More than 84 percent of employers report increased retention as a result of their financial wellness benefit offerings. As your people navigate rising expenses and other financial insecurity, they are relying on you to help them make informed and educated financial wellness decisions that are right for them today and in the future. Employees value this type of support and guidance, and a connected people experience can help them optimize the financial wellness programs you offer.
Are you ready to change the way you think about your people experience?
If you’re ready to change the way you think about your people experience, we can help.
+YOU is a single entry point that connects your people to your company culture and all the benefits and resources you’ve invested in to support them – from one centralized place.
Learn how NexTier leveraged +YOU to connect its dispersed, deskless workforce amidst 41% headcount growth.