Employees With a Positive Employee Experience are 68% Less Likely to Consider Leaving, New SHRM Research Highlights

ALEXANDRIA, VA – SHRM, the trusted authority on all things work, released its new “The Case for Employee Experience” report today, expanding its coverage of the most influential workplace issues and advocating for the cultivation of healthy, productive work environments. We are delighted to share our findings on what “employee experience” means to both employees and HR professionals alike, in celebration of Employee Appreciation Day.

The survey concluded that employee experience is either the first or second highest priority of 46% of HR professionals and 36% of US workers. Additionally, it claims that the productive culture promoted by positive employee experience makes workers 68% less likely to consider leaving their jobs.

“SHRM is passionate about improving the world of work through its timely workplace research and thought leadership,” said Johnny C. Taylor, Jr., SHRM-SCP, President and CEO, SHRM. “’The Case for Employee Experience’ highlights the key role that positive work culture has in reducing turnover and increasing productivity. As SHRM observes Employee Appreciation Day, we encourage organizations to consider what this concept means to their employees and use that information to benefit all members of their workplaces.”

Key findings include:

• US workers have many different ideas about what the term “employee experience” means to them. Some definitions are more common among employees, while others are most popular among HR professionals.
  • The most popular conception of “employee experience” among both employees (20%) and HR professionals (18%) is how a person perceives or feels about their organization.
  • HR Professionals are more likely to attribute employee experience to what a person “sees, feels, hears and does” in the workplace, while employees have more varied ideas of this concept, from workplace interactions to the atmosphere of the work environment.
  •  Interestingly, the second most popular (18%) definition of employee experience among US employees is the experience an employee brings from their previous employment, rather than anything to do with what it is like to work for their current employer. Additionally, 16% of US workers don’t know what employee experience is.
• Similarly, US workers and HR professionals have varying opinions about which elements have the greatest effect on employee experience.
  • The study population was given a list of 10 factors related to the workplace and asked to assign a percentage to each, detailing how much they believe each factor influences overall employee experience, with higher percentages denoting greater influence.
    • After averaging the numerical responses for each factor, the most influential factor in employee experience among both US workers and HR professionals was “The work that you do”, at 19.8% and 17.7% respectively.
  • U.S. workers are more likely to view their coworkers as a highly influential factor in their employee experience than HR professionals are, with these groups averaging 13% and 11% on this factor respectively.
    •  Meanwhile, work managers have 17% influence over total employee experience for HR professionals, compared to only 12.5% for workers.
• Although employee experience is still loosely defined, it has promising correlations with other work climate measures.
  • Positive employee experience and high levels of employee engagement are reliable predictors of job satisfaction. Employee experience influences about 49% of all job satisfaction, while employee engagement influences about 51%.
  • Employee experience is also linked to decreased turnover. SHRM research shows that 42% of employees that are experiencing negative work culture think about leaving their jobs. Meanwhile, only 9% of employees who are experiencing positive work culture consider leaving.

To view the full Employee Experience Report, click here.

Methodology:

An online survey was conducted from Feb. 7 to Feb. 27, 2023. The total sample of 2,403 respondents included 1,197 HR professionals from the SHRM Voice of Work Research Panel (weighted to represent U.S. organizations) and 1,206 U.S. workers from the AmeriSpeak Panel (weighted to represent U.S. workers). AmeriSpeak is a probability-based panel developed by NORC at the University of Chicago.

About SHRM:

SHRM is a member-driven catalyst for creating better workplaces where people and businesses thrive together. As the trusted authority on all things work, SHRM is the foremost expert, researcher, advocate, and thought leader on issues and innovations impacting today’s evolving workplaces.  With nearly 340,000 members in 180 countries, SHRM touches the lives of more than 362 million workers and their families globally. Discover more at SHRM.org.