The Urgent Call to Action and Roadmap for Large Employers
Global Employee Experience Study
Market leaders continuously seek innovations to create competitive advantage, but maintaining this edge is difficult without an engaged workforce. While talent acquisition remains a priority for many, organizations have renewed their focus on retention to optimize labor investments and realize a return on transformation initiatives.
The Third Annual Global Employee Experience Study provides an analysis of employee experience perceptions resulting from surveying employees and managers, including a focus on hourly shift workers. Compared to the 2021 and 2022 studies, 2023 results reveal that gaps in perception of how well employers are meeting the needs of their employees are closing on many fronts.
But given the significant number of dissatisfied employees indicated by the survey results, it’s clear that many employees are not receiving the support they want in critically important areas, including scheduling flexibility, access to a unified training experience (through a mobile app or otherwise), and user-friendly communications tools that provide access to the information they need most to be effective in their jobs.
This year’s study highlights the urgent call to action for employers to invest in modern workforce management solutions integrated with operational communications to meet the demands of employees while optimizing operational performance and meeting business and financial goals.
Executive Summary
While our year-over-year results show real progress in how managers understand the needs of their employees, our findings show that the underlying problems that created poor employee experience remain. By examining our 2023 survey questions through the lens of these dissatisfied employees, we provide a picture of dissatisfied employees’ experiences and spotlight the key opportunities for improvement.
Hearing from Dissatisfied Workers
Dissatisfied Sentiment
The best insights to improve employee experience may come from the most vocal dissenters.
Employees Who Don’t Have Scheduling Flexibility Are More Likely to Leave
Scheduling flexibility remains a top priority, especially for deskless workers, with clear implications for job satisfaction and employee retention. Without desired flexibility, employees struggle to balance work with life needs. Giving staff autonomy over their time can dramatically boost engagement.
79%
want to work for an employer offering scheduling flexibility
62%
41%
73%
open to leaving in the next six months
can’t swap shifts with other employees
don’t see their schedule more than a week in advance
would not recommend their employer
30%
don’t agree that their employer trains them properly
35%
prefer to access training through a mobile device
53%
have access to training digitally
21%
Dissatisfied or disengaged employees believe they will fail in their current organization and are less likely to encourage others to apply at their company. For many deskless workers, including growing numbers of digital natives, success depends on the ability to advance their skills as part of an ongoing career path.
Stagnant Career Advancement Lowers Employee Advocacy
don’t feel valued by their employer
39%
say work interactions occur on a mix of messaging or social platforms
46%
don’t agree that their employer recognizes their contributions
40%
say technology used to communicate makes it hard to maintain a positive work/life balance
52%
Effective communication between managers and employees and among team members is fundamental for an engaged workforce. Many employees lack the convenience of using a single app for critical work information, such as in-the-moment communication, scheduling, PTO, and pay—and the unofficial tools they do use could pose security risks.
Unengaged Employees Don’t Feel Valued by Their Employer
Compared to previous years, 2023 results show employees and employers are more closely aligned than ever on their perspectives of employee experience at their organizations. Even more compelling is the majority agreement by both groups on its importance, bolstering the need to make investments for change.
2023 Survey Results by Employee Experience Category
Key Insights
Given that most employees (84%) and employers (77%) in 2023 are aligned on the importance of easy access to information and training for effective job performance, it’s clear this is an important factor shaping workplace experience. However, the percentage of employees with access to training on their mobile devices remains low (at 22%) and 56% receive training through analog methods, highlighting a key opportunity for change.
Job Training
Invest in your workers to enhance their skills and nurture their intrinsic desire to contribute, innovate, and excel. Deliver micro training when and where work happens with an easy-to-use mobile app to keep their skills sharp.
All other things being equal, I would choose to work for an employer who provided easy access to information and training for my job over one who did not.
Scheduling
Employee
Recognition
Communications
Employee
Feedback
Job Training
Over the last three years, our study findings have shown increasing alignment in perception by employers and employees of the ability to deliver capabilities that create a good employee experience. Our results also indicate significant growth in the importance of these elements for employees.
The only experience aspect that saw a point decrease was the percentage of employees who feel their employer recognizes their contributions. While this difference may seem nominal, it indicates the need for stronger organizational efforts to recognize employee achievements.
This is an urgent call to action for employers to make investments that improve these agreed-upon experience challenges. For organizations, responding to issues that matter to their employees holds significant
value—often in the form of tangible business cost benefits, including improved retention, productivity, and greater customer satisfaction.
Now that employers recognize the importance of employee experience, organizations must meet employee needs with actions that address the underlying problems contributing to their dissatisfaction.
There’s a growing importance of work experience in the eyes of employees.
The Urgent Call to Action for Employers to Improve
Action Needed
Prefers Easy Access to Training and Information
2023
2022
2021
18-point increase
84%
71%
66%
2021
2022
2023
59%
61%
84%
25-point increase
Wants Employer Who Offers Scheduling Flexibility
2021
2022
2023
77%
65%
75%
2-point decrease
Feels Employer Recognizes Contributions
2022
2023
65%
85%
20-point increase
Prefers Easy Communication and Collaboration
2022
2023
74%
80%
6-point increase
Would Choose Employer Who Asks for Regular Feedback
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Recommendations
For the growing population of digital native employees, communication is nearly synonymous with mobile platforms. This generation relies on the convenience, accessibility, and real-time nature of mobile messaging, information access, and social media. Workers feel more engaged when work-related information is literally at their fingertips.
Our survey results demonstrate that while employers are using mobile technologies to communicate with their employees in real time, few businesses offer an integrated platform and instead rely on a mix of applications, social media tools, and manual methods. While decentralized mobile communications can enable faster and easier team collaboration, they also can create confusion and lead to new security vulnerabilities.
Seamless mobile integration becomes a more critical concern as organizations push to re-skill and upskill their employees and to adapt more rapidly to business changes or disruptions. Mobile technology offers a means of communicating and training a digitally native and deskless workforce in the flow of work—making training less disruptive—based on an employee’s scheduled tasks or real-time needs. The digital native workforce, familiar and comfortable with mobile tech, is ready to take advantage of these capabilities.
Embrace Mobile Technology to Manage a Digitally Savvy Workforce
When properly implemented, schedule flexibility is a win-win. Workers gain greater work/life balance while businesses gain workforce agility. This does not diminish how difficult it is to make scheduling flexibility a reality. Our survey results show that many employers currently lack the tools necessary for a deskless workforce to indicate availability preferences, swap shifts, select desired hours, or modify their schedules to balance work/life demands.
Flexible scheduling also equips organizations to seamlessly scale up staffing to meet fluctuating customer needs. Implementing on-demand scheduling systems gives managers the tools to automate scheduling activities and allow employees to fill open shifts via mobile apps. Enabling shift swaps between employees also helps organizations cover higher demand periods while offering employees greater autonomy over their schedules.
Demand forecasting and robust communications proactively schedule proper staffing levels and keep workers updated on changes. The key is leveraging technology, incentives, and processes to build a flexible framework. With the right scheduling flexibility, organizations can align labor to the needs of the business while offering greater work/life balance for employees.
Give Employees Control Over Their Schedules
While there can be multiple reasons why a disengaged employee leaves their job, there is little an organization can do to influence this outcome if they can’t recognize the symptoms. As the workforce continues to change, companies must leverage data to identify changes in worker behavior and implement real-time feedback channels to engage with employees to address their needs.
Organizations should prioritize gathering regular employee feedback through pulse surveys, digital interactions in the flow of work, and digital channels. This allows them to identify areas of strength to continue building upon as well as pain points to address. Organizations can stay ahead of trends and optimize performance by regularly soliciting employee input and rapidly translating insights into action.
Listening and responding to the workforce while celebrating wins fosters a culture of transparency, employee personal growth, and high performance. Organizations must recognize worker achievements. Praise for a job well done is meaningful when delivered proactively, sincerely, and specifically.
Ask Employees for Feedback and Show Them They Are Heard
From Alignment to Action—How to Close the Gap
Conclusion
Dissatisfied workers are speaking. Turn their insights into action.
The results of this study show that employers are actively listening to their employees and coming to a greater understanding of how their organizations are delivering the quality experiences employees expect. While understanding employee needs is a start, real progress comes when putting that insight into action.
Methodology
This global survey, conducted by Pollfish on behalf of WorkForce Software, was completed by 1,684 employees and 1,701 employers from a wide range of industries across seven global regions. The survey was composed of 28 distinct questions, both open-ended and single selection.
See How Here
Deliver the experiences your employees expect and your organization needs—it’s well worth it.
Modern Workforce Management with Integrated Employee Communications
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By 2025, 80% of large enterprises with hourly workers will have invested in workforce management
2023 Gartner Market Guide for Workforce Management Applications
®
2023
84%
77%
7 pts
Employers
Employees
2022
Employees
Employers
71%
61%
10 pts
2021
Employees
Employers
66%
98%
32 pts
18
pts
In 2023, employees rate the importance of easy access to job training and information 18 points higher than in 2021, underscoring the urgency for employers to offer mobile capabilities.
Innovation Insight
pts
25
The importance of flexible scheduling for employees has grown by 25 points in the last three years, from 59% to 84%, making it an urgent imperative for employers to enable.
2021
Employees
Employers
59%
82%
23 pts
2022
Employees
Employers
61%
56%
5 pts
2023
Employees
Employers
84%
78%
6 pts
All other things being equal, I would choose to work for an employer who offered more flexibility in scheduling over one who did not.
Our 2023 survey findings show that 84% of employees and 78% of employers recognize the importance of scheduling flexibility. However, 31% and 29% respectively report that their companies do not offer flexible scheduling, suggesting many organizations lack the technology or resources to support it.
Scheduling control is one of the most important aspects of employee experience. Enable scheduling flexibility, where company requirements can be blended with employee data such as personal leave, available hours, and even skill level.
Innovation Insight
Scheduling
pts
2
The 2-point decrease, from 77% to 75%, in employees who feel their employer recognizes their contributions indicates the need for better strategies to recognize employee achievements.
2021
Employees
Employers
77%
90%
13 pts
2022
Employees
Employers
65%
61%
4 pts
2023
Employees
Employers
75%
75%
0 pts
My employer recognizes my contributions.
2023 results show that many employees and employers agree that employee recognition is happening in the workplace. But, 25% of employees say their employers do not recognize their contributions, and over one third of employees (34%) feel they are not valued by their employer. For large employers, that can represent a significant number of people at risk of leaving if they don’t feel valued.
Recognizing employee achievements is a relatively low-cost action that can contribute to better engagement and optimized workflows. Establish consistent recognition opportunities to celebrate employees for their successes.
Innovation Insight
Employee Recognition
pts
20
The significance of integrated communications for employees has grown by 20 points since 2022, from 65% to 85%, highlighting the need to balance security and real-time communication.
2022
Employees
Employers
65%
60%
5 pts
2023
Employees
Employers
85%
75%
All other things being equal, I would choose to work for an employer who makes it easy to communicate and collaborate with other employees and my manager over one who did not.
While 85% of employees and 75% employers believe communication and collaboration between them is important, 46% of employee communications still occur over unsecured, non-integrated channels such as SMS text messages, messaging apps, email, and social media.
Most people want to do a good job and feel like part of the team. Two-way communication through secure, consumer-grade digital tools helps teams get company updates, reach each other, collaborate, and get answers fast.
Innovation Insight
Communications
pts
6
Asking for regular feedback is rated high by employees, 74% in 2022, and 80% in 2023, showcasing the need for employers to establish dedicated, consistent feedback loops.
2022
Employees
Employers
74%
61%
13 pts
2023
Employees
Employers
80%
77%
3 pts
All other things being equal, I would choose to work for an employer who asked for my feedback on a regular basis over one who did not.
This year’s study demonstrates that employees and employers both view employee feedback capabilities similarly and with high importance. 80% of employees would choose an employer who regularly asks for feedback over one who doesn’t.
Employees want the company to hear them and let their feedback influence company decisions. Use mobile-enabled tools to conduct sentiment surveys on topics like unplanned overtime or extended work hours.
Innovation Insight
Employee Feedback
THIRD ANNUAL
Greater alignment doesn’t mean a better experience.
Deskless workers have indicated the kind of change that they want to see—true scheduling flexibility, integrated communication and self-service options, on-demand training in the flow of work, and consistent opportunities for feedback and recognition.
Many organizations have accelerated their digital transformation initiatives and begun to rethink their workplace practices in light of employee expectations. Given the pace of these advancements, those who don’t invest in digital solutions to improve experience may find that their competitors have already turned this capability into a market advantage.
Modern workforce management solutions with integrated operational communications enable organizations to meet the demands of new generations of workers to optimize operational performance and meet business and financial goals.
As better employee engagement continues to serve as a business advantage—for attracting and retaining talent, as well as creating organizational resilience—providing the experiences employees expect and deserve should be a strategic priority.
have access to training digitally
21%
say technology used to communicate makes it hard to maintain a positive work/life balance
52%
Comms.
Employee Feedback
Pay
Rates
Scheduling
Job
Training
Dialing into the Workforce
For the growing population of digital native employees, communication is nearly synonymous with mobile platforms. This generation relies on the convenience, accessibility, and real-time nature of mobile messaging, information access, and social media. Workers feel more engaged when work-related information is literally at their fingertips.
Our survey results demonstrate that while employers are using mobile technologies to communicate with their employees in real time, few businesses offer an integrated platform and instead rely on a mix of applications, social media tools, and manual methods. While decentralized mobile communications can enable faster and easier team collaboration, they also can create confusion and lead to new security vulnerabilities.
Seamless mobile integration becomes a more critical concern as organizations push to re-skill and upskill their employees and to adapt more rapidly to business changes or disruptions. Mobile technology offers a means of communicating and training a digitally native and deskless workforce in the flow of work—making training less disruptive—based on an employee’s scheduled tasks or real-time needs. The digital native workforce, familiar and comfortable with mobile tech, is ready to take advantage of these capabilities.
Embrace Mobile Technology to Manage a Digitally Savvy Workforce
For the growing population of digital native employees, communication is nearly synonymous with mobile platforms. This generation relies on the convenience, accessibility, and real-time nature of mobile messaging, information access, and social media. Workers feel more engaged when work-related information is literally at their fingertips.
Our survey results demonstrate that while employers are using mobile technologies to communicate with their employees in real time, few businesses offer an integrated platform and instead rely on a mix of applications, social media tools, and manual methods. While decentralized mobile communications can enable faster and easier team collaboration, they also can create confusion and lead to new security vulnerabilities.
Seamless mobile integration becomes a more critical concern as organizations push to re-skill and upskill their employees and to adapt more rapidly to business changes or disruptions. Mobile technology offers a means of communicating and training a digitally native and deskless workforce in the flow of work—making training less disruptive—based on an employee’s scheduled tasks or real-time needs. The digital native workforce, familiar and comfortable with mobile tech, is ready to take advantage of these capabilities.
Embrace Mobile Technology to Manage a Digitally Savvy Workforce
Bridge the divide between desired business outcomes
and employee expectations by tapping into the power
of your people.
Mind the Gap and Execute with Modern Workforce Management
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Gartner 2023 Market Guide for
Workforce Management Applications
Read the Full Report
pts
25
The importance of flexible scheduling for employees has grown by 25 points in the last three years, from 59% to 84%, making it an urgent imperative for employers to enable.
2021
Employees
Employers
59%
82%
23 pts
2022
Employees
Employers
61%
56%
5 pts
2023
Employees
Employers
84%
78%
6 pts
All other things being equal, I would choose to work for an employer who offered more flexibility in scheduling over one who did not.
Scheduling control is one of the most important aspects of employee experience. Enable scheduling flexibility, where company requirements can be blended with employee data such as personal leave, available hours, and even skill level.
Innovation Insight
pts
2
The 2-point decrease, from 77% to 75%, in employees who feel their employer recognizes their contributions indicates the need for better strategies to recognize employee achievements.
2021
Employees
Employers
77%
90%
13 pts
2022
Employees
Employers
65%
61%
4 pts
2023
Employees
Employers
75%
75%
0 pts
My employer recognizes my contributions.
Recognizing employee achievements is a relatively low-cost action that can contribute to better engagement and optimized workflows. Establish consistent recognition opportunities to celebrate employees for their successes.
Innovation Insight
pts
20
The significance of integrated communications for employees has grown by 20 points since 2022, from 65% to 85%, highlighting the need to balance security and real-time communication.
2022
Employees
Employers
65%
60%
5 pts
2023
Employees
Employers
85%
75%
All other things being equal, I would choose to work for an employer who makes it easy to communicate and collaborate with other employees and my manager over one who did not.
Most people want to do a good job and feel like part of the team. Two-way communication through secure, consumer-grade
digital tools helps teams get company updates, reach each
other, collaborate, and get answers fast.
Innovation Insight
pts
6
Asking for regular feedback is rated high by employees, 74% in 2022, and 80% in 2023, showcasing the need for employers to establish dedicated, consistent feedback loops.
2022
Employees
Employers
74%
61%
13 pts
2023
Employees
Employers
80%
77%
3 pts
All other things being equal, I would choose to work for an employer who asked for my feedback on a regular basis over one who did not.
Employees want the company to hear them and let their feedback influence company decisions. Use mobile-enabled tools to conduct sentiment surveys on topics like unplanned overtime or extended work hours.
Innovation Insight
10 pts
10 pts
*Note: Report Data Refreshed October 19, 2023