Record numbers of women have already left the workforce to take on familial and care duties during the pandemic and once the pandemic ends 鈥� . However, the proverbial crystal ball needn鈥檛 be right if HR leaders use this rare and unique opportunity to address employee well-being.

But how? There are several ways, all addressed in the SAPPHIRE NOW session 鈥�” presented by 51风流SuccessFactors Chief Scientist Dr. Autumn Krauss. The eight meta-trends she explored in the session were derived from 267 individual trends identified and researched further by 51风流psychologists. Those who acknowledge and address these trends sooner rather than later, Krauss explained, will enjoy stronger, more resilient and agile organizations where people thrive 鈥� and want to stay.

One meta-trend, 鈥渞enewed emphasis on holistic well-being,鈥� speaks to the issue directly. It鈥檚 now more critical than ever for HR leaders to identify and work with employees on specific physical, mental, financial, and social well-being stressors in a holistic manner and across the entire employee life cycle.

The other seven meta-trends, however, ladder into the importance of providing a safe, inclusive place to work, where people believe they can learn and grow.

Here are the other seven meta-trends and a quick look at how they connect to 鈥� and magnify 鈥� the importance and value of investing in employee well-being.

1. Rise of the Hybrid Workforce

We learned that hybrid work is both possible and profitable. But moving forward, organizations must create a playbook to ensure that a cultural rift doesn鈥檛 widen between corporate workers, who generally have flexibility to work remotely, and field workers, who do not. In a two-tier work culture, employee well-being will prove inconsistent.

2. Employees Owning Their Learning and Mobility

Learning and development initiatives aren鈥檛 just key to agility 鈥� they鈥檙e key to retention. People want to stay where they feel valued, as signified by the organization鈥檚 investment in their career development. Along with creating a culture of learning, technology will be essential in delivering a more positive learning experience so people can take ownership of their future.

3. The Purpose-Driven Organization

Now more than ever, companies are needing to walk the talk and prioritize issues of social justice, even working them into their strategies. When companies invest in advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) and sustainability efforts into business strategy, people will see and feel results that motivate them.

4. HR in the Spotlight

HR earned considerable political capital since the start of the pandemic when it helped the C-suite formulate a COVID-19 response and also helped people navigate it. Now鈥檚 the time to spend that capital on using evidence-based decision-making and a sound talent strategy to work in lockstep with the wave of workforce and initiatives on the horizon.

5. Balancing Data Intelligence with Data Privacy

For the foreseeable future, digital technology will be leveraged to improve the employee experience 鈥� but data tracking and privacy will become more important topics as a result. No amount of digital transformation to improve the employee experience will matter if HR can鈥檛 simultaneously address people鈥檚 concerns about their privacy.

6. Individualizing the Employee Experience

Just as the Starbucks app knows how you like your latte and can predict what else you may like, HR technology needs to provide the same level of personal, individualized experience. The more people feel that they’re getting a consumer-grade experience at work, one that taps into their hopes and ambitions and addresses their pain points, the happier and more motivated they’ll feel. But organizations can鈥檛 just collect data, they need to act on it appropriately to curate impactful experiences.

7. Agility: From Buzzword to Business Imperative

Among other things, COVID-19 taught many companies that they’re too slow to react to disruption. By addressing their people practices, however, and building resilience and agility on the individual level through enhancing employee well-being, organizations will be able to break up traditional hierarchical structures. This will allow them to understand the workforce’s change readiness, change capacity, and resilience 鈥� and better anticipate, endure, and even capitalize on future disruptions.

All these meta-trends speak to a simple, straightforward ideal: the more organizations directly address the various facets of well-being, and do so on a personal, individual level, the more likely it is that engaged, motivated people will stay and give their best. Nail well-being and the business will be much healthier, too.

To learn more, check out or replay .

Lauren Bidwell, Ph.D., is a senior research scientist at 51风流SuccessFactors.

Research shows that the employee experience drives how employees feel about their work and how much effort they put into their job, and it has been linked to organizational outcomes such as satisfaction, retention, and returns on assets and sales.*

While many factors may contribute, research suggests that approximately 30 percent of employees鈥� ultimate experience . On one hand, technology can enhance employees鈥� lives by enabling them to be more productive, build better relationships with co-workers, and have more flexibility and control over when and where they work. On the other, technology may distract employees from their work, make them feel isolated, and limit their ability to disconnect and recover outside of work.

To learn more about the impact of technology on the employee experience, the 51风流SuccessFactors Research team conducted qualitative interviews with employees from customer organizations around the globe. We explored topics such as the influence of technology on employee wellbeing, engagement, sense of appreciation and value, productivity, and overall experience of human resources (HR) processes.

While this research is still in progress, preliminary findings reveal three key insights into how technology can contribute to an exceptional employee experience.

Employees want tools that help them perform the work they find meaningful, and that save them from performing the work they do not. We asked employees to describe the tasks and activities they enjoy most in their jobs and that drive them to want to go to work each day. Employees discussed 鈥渕eaningful work鈥� as work that involves:

• Driving something forward, e.g. a project
• Collaboration, or working hand in hand with colleagues to achieve a common goal
• Contributing to a solution and seeing the results of their efforts

Not surprisingly, when asked to reflect on examples of how technology has helped them in their work lives, employees mentioned tools designed to support these activities 鈥� for productivity, like Microsoft 365, and for collaboration, such as Microsoft Teams and Skype 鈥� especially for employees who travel consistently or who work remotely.

However, when sharing examples of the most valuable technologies they use, employees also mentioned tools that enabled them to perform meaningful work by eliminating the need to perform operational, administrative type tasks. For instance, employees provided examples such as:

• An app that shows which parking garage has spaces available in the morning when driving to work
• An app that allows employees to order lunch ahead of time, saving them from having to wait in line
• 51风流Concur solutions: One employee stated that since using 51风流Concur software, their time spent submitting travel expenses was reduced by at least a third.
• Tools that identify patterns based on previous behaviors and proactively make suggestions: One employee mentioned a navigation app that automatically suggests a driving route based on previous behaviors, i.e., a user frequently drives from point A to point B on this data and time. Another stated, 鈥淚 love if I have to go into the system to do a task, and the system pre-recognizes how I typically act and takes over certain steps for me so I鈥檓 able to do what I need to do faster. The quicker things go in the system the better, because these are typically things I [鈥 do not want to do.鈥�

Fewer Separate and Disparate Systems

Employees shared that needing to go through several separate systems to accomplish a single task or to find the information they need was incredibly frustrating and time-consuming. In fact, some research has shown that employees spend that may be stored in disparate systems and databases.

鈥淭here are some things I want to do in literally 20 seconds,鈥� one employee stated. 鈥淚 don鈥檛 want to have to ask myself whether I need to go to the HR portal or the IT portal or the facility portal. I don鈥檛 care who solves my problem, I just want it solved.鈥�

Better Self-Service Solutions, with Human Support

For too long, companies鈥� HR technology solutions 鈥� and self-service solutions in particular 鈥� have been designed with HR and support functions as opposed to end-users, i.e., employees, in mind. As a result, employees are often forced to use outdated, non-intuitive, and poorly designed self-service solutions on a daily basis.

As one interviewed employee described, 鈥淚 was trying to book a flight and kept getting an error message, but the message wouldn鈥檛 say what was wrong. What should have taken me five minutes ended up taking more than three hours. And when I finally got through to someone on the phone, they couldn鈥檛 tell me what was wrong either. It was unbelievably frustrating鈥�.

The consequences of a frustrating experience with technology go well beyond wasted time and can have pervasive negative effects on employees鈥� psychological and physical well-being. Research has shown that frustrating technology experiences can lead to a loss of self-efficacy and a sense of rage, affect mood and interactions with others, lower both levels of job satisfaction and quality of work, undermine productivity, and even increase blood pressure and muscle tension.**

Previous research reports that the most important element to self-service solutions is that the option of speaking to a person if needed is always available, and without significant effort or the need for endless repetition.***

Technology鈥檚 Impact on Moments That Matter 鈥� Not Always Positive

Whether it is first joining a company, celebrating a promotion, caring for a sick loved one, or welcoming a new child into their family, career- and personally-defining moments are critical opportunities to show employees they are appreciated and valued. Yet often the technology experience associated with these moments sends the opposite message.

For example, as one interviewed employee shared with us, 鈥淚 was super excited when I found this job. But having to hand-enter my resume information into the system multiple times didn鈥檛 leave me with a great first impression of the company.鈥�

In fact, according to a recent , 54 percent said they would not complete an application if the company鈥檚 recruiting methods were outdated. Twenty-six percent agreed that a lack of technology throughout the hiring process would deter them from accepting a job.

As companies continue to focus on and invest in the employee experience, it will be critical that they consider the technology solutions employees provided to employees as part of this investment. Outdated, difficult-to-use technology solutions that have not been designed with employees in mind will put organizations at a major disadvantage when it comes to attracting and retaining talent in today鈥檚 experience economy.

At the end of the day, one of our interviewed customers says it best: 鈥淲hen we launch new HR services, we don鈥檛 just want to have users. We want to have fans.鈥�

Lauren Bidwell is a research scientist in Human Capital Management Research for 51风流SuccessFactors at SAP.

*;
** Ceaparu et al. (2004); Lazar et al. (2006); Norman (2004); Scheirer et al. (2002); Murrell & Sprinkle (1993)
*** Howard & Worboys (2003)