2023 Predictions: Employee Experience Trends

In these days of continued robust change, WorkTango asked our executive leaders who collectively share more than 50 years of HR industry experience about their key employee experience predictions for 2023.

This is the 2nd in a 4-part 2023 blog series.

Here’s what Patrick Manzo, WorkTango’s CEO, Rob Catalano, Chief Marketing & Strategy Officer, and Monique McDonough, Chief Operating Officer had to say about employee experience:.

1) What are your top three predictions/upcoming trends for employee experience in 2023?

ROB:

Employee experience will be a major focus as we face market and economic uncertainties. Retaining staff and building an inspiring workplace culture will be paramount. Three major focus/trends:

• Agility – Spending much more effort in annual engagement’ processes.
• Digitization – Technology for the modern workforce will necessitate that organizations become more agile and frequent in all key engagement pillars (listening, recognition, development, performance, and well-being as examples). 
• Data – Will not sit in isolation. Leveraging data points from all engagement programs will support better predictability on attrition and guide better people decisions overall.

PATRICK:

For starters, employee experience will be a business driver, even in a recession environment. Companies laying off employees will need to engage those who remain; build an employee-alumni program for the return of talent; and maintain a positive employer brand. Second, organizations will need to look for integrated technology that aligns insights and actions, clarifies whether employees are engaged, and tracks the effectiveness of what’s being done to improve engagement. Finally, professional development will grow in importance.

2) Beyond employee pulse surveys, how else can business leaders and managers understand what is most important to employees?

ROB:

Pulse surveys have traditionally been focused on frequency of the same question, and have historically zeroed in on measurement only. Going forward, organizations must supplement frequency in measurement with frequency of diagnostics, which is what I call Active Listening. It effectively allows organizations to not only measure, but understand what’s working, and get insights to inform what actions to take across the entire employee lifecycle. 

PATRICK:

To understand what employees need and want, our organization encourages regular manager and employee interaction, transparent 2-way communications, and processes for top-down and bottom-up goal alignment.

MONIQUE:

Real-time feedback helps us understand what’s important to employees. Especially in hybrid or fully-remote environments, real-time feedback at all levels is critical to ensure alignment exists on priorities, efforts are focused on the most important work, and the organization is able to quickly course-correct if employee sentiment dips.

3) How will hybrid and remote work continue to impact employee experience? What will change in 2023?

MONIQUE: 

Hybrid and remote work is here to stay. Organizations must lean into new and innovative ways to drive deeper connections across teams. Today’s employees want recognition for doing meaningful work – and not just from their direct manager, but from colleagues and senior leadership as well. In 2023, people-centric companies will become more intentional, purposeful and responsive to employee needs. 

PATRICK:

Not much will change in terms of remote work. It’s here to stay and will require creativity to continue to build culture, onboard employees, and maintain engagement.

ROB:

Hybrid and remote work will require modern levels of connection beyond annual practices such as engagement surveys, performance reviews every 12 months, or “years of service” milestone awards. Leadership enablement will be critical. That means leveraging leaders to support better relationships and build better team experiences by offering leaders the ability to recognize and reward in real time, real-time insights, and through mandating frequent 1-on-1 conversations and quarterly performance discussions to support alignment and employee success.