HR Leaders Struggle to Prioritize Employee Experience due to Increasing Responsibilities

BambooHR, the industry’s leading cloud-hosted software provider dedicated to powering the strategic evolution of human resources, today announced its first ever Employee Experience Report. The report reveals that while small business HR leaders have at least some understanding of the importance of employee experience (EX), they spend a significant portion of their work hours devoted to transactional HR duties, and they expect their jobs will become increasingly complicated.

“2020 has cracked open our traditional prioritization of customer experience (CX) as the most important metric for business success,” said Brad Rencher, CEO of BambooHR. “It’s more clear than ever that our people understand their worth and they’re asking for more opportunities, growth and trust, and to be seen as true contributors. As we move through the challenges of COVID-19 and beyond, employee experience should be a top priority for all businesses.”

Released in conjunction with BambooHR’s sixth-annual Virtual HR Summit, the research showed:

EX and CX Leaders Operate in Silos
Even in small businesses, there is limited communication between the owners of customer and employee experience. Business leaders involved in HR perceive career-related factors such as compensation, career growth, and performance reviews to be far more important than perks

such as on-site amenities, free food and snacks, and company recreational events in terms of the impact on both positive employee and customer experience outcomes. However, there is a large disconnect between the departments responsible for EX versus those involved in CX.

HR Duties Increasingly Complicated
Building a positive employee experience takes time and unfortunately, small business owners and managers spend more time, on average, managing quotidian HR-related duties than they do on improving it. Most small businesses are planning to grow over the next few years, which will likely increase HR responsibilities. In fact, two-thirds of business owners and managers expect their HR-related duties to increase in the coming year and over one-third anticipate needing to devote more resources to HR as their organization grows.

EX Prioritization Limited
Compared to other metrics of organizational health, EX ranks near the bottom of the pack in terms of priorities for small businesses. It is recognized as a critical measure of organizational health by less than half of small business owners HR leaders, reflecting a misunderstanding of the importance of EX in business performance.

“Making an effort to build a positive employee experience is no longer an option, but an imperative to stand out and stay competitive in 2020. Not only does this effort attract and retain talent, but it creates a long-lasting and compelling employer brand,” said Amy Frampton, head of marketing at BambooHR. “Employee endorsements, alongside your product and customer experience, provide powerful validation that make your employer brand shine.”

Survey Methodology
In September 2020, Y2 Analytics surveyed 302 small business owners and managers that have key influence over HR decisions in their organization. Respondents worked at an organization with between 26-500 employees.

With over 600 employees, 19,000 customers and over a million users worldwide, BambooHR is a leading and innovative platform for Human Resources in the SMB market. BambooHR’s software makes it easy for HR professionals to collect, maintain, and analyze data, improve the way they hire talent, onboard new employees, manage compensation, and develop their company culture. It’s designed to set organizations free to focus on what matters most—people. BambooHR’s clients include innovators like Asana, Foursquare, Stance, and Reddit. BambooHR also hosts more than 30,000 HR professionals at its annual HR Virtual Summit.