Research: How Employee Experience Impacts Your Bottom Line | Harvard Business Review

Few would dispute that a positive employee experience (EX) positively influences the success of an organization. And as HR leaders strive to show more of a direct link between EX and business outcomes within their firms, this article shares an approach for doing just that in a large global retail brand organization. The researchers obtained three years of in-depth employee and financial data from over 1,000 brick-and-mortar locations across the U.S. They researched the causal impact of EX (defined by four measures) on customer experience and business outcomes like revenue and profits. Results show that if an average store could move from the bottom quartile to the top quartile in each of the EX metrics studied, they would increase their revenue by over 50%, and profits by nearly as much. While this example is based on results from one organization, previous research by IBM Smarter Workforce Institute and Workhuman showed the positive impact of EX on return on sales and assets. One challenge of comparing various studies is that different indices are used to measure EX. Still, studies like these can help firms conduct studies of their own. Since it’s important to identify practices that drive a more positive EX, I am resharing this 116-page report, The Definitive Guide: Employee Experience, commissioned by Microsoft and prepared by Josh Bersin Academy. The report highlights EX trends, best practices, supporting technologies, and EX maturity across industry sectors.