Better EX drives down attrition

The 2020s have been full of disruption and uncertainty for employers and employees alike.

“The pandemic, geopolitical disruption, and economic uncertainty have driven people to work longer and harder. Yet these efforts are unsustainable,” Bruce Temkin, head of the Qualtrics XM Institute, tells UNLEASH.

As a result, it is no surprise that employees are “reclaiming their boundaries with work”. This is playing out in ‘quiet quitting’ and the ‘Great Resignation’, begging the question, what must employers do to avoid costly high attrition rates?

The link between EX and productivity

Ultimately, workers want to be happy and productive at work, but they need the right environment to thrive. So Qualtrics is calling on employers to rethink their employee experience (EX).

Temkin wrote in a blog post: “Engaged employees continue to represent the front-end to a virtuous cycle that fuels stronger business results, and the system breaks down if employees aren’t committed to their work.

This blog cites findings from the Qualtrics’ 2023 consumer trends, which surveyed 22,000 global employees and found that 62% would work harder if their organization treated them better.

When extrapolated to the entire global workforce, this equals 2.5 billion workers who aren’t working their hardest because of a challenging EX.

This is particularly true in Asia Pacific – 93% of Chinese, 90% of Indian and 84% of Indonesia workers agreed they would work harder if they were treated better.

40% in the US and 47% in Canada agreed; the picture was more mixed across Europe but remaining around a third or higher agreeing: 47% in the UK, 54% in France, 29% in Germany, 64% in Italy and 51% in Spain.

So how much organizations go about improving their EX?

“If organizations want to deliver on employee experience (EX) and retain talent, a good place to start is by listening. This is an area that needs a lot of improvement,” notes Temkin.

63% of the 22,000 global employees surveyed by Qualtrics said their employer needed to be better at listening to feedback, and this impacted their decision to stay in the company.

49% of those who believe their employer needs to be listen to them more were likely to look for a new job in the next six months, compared to just 24% of those who didn’t think their employer needed to do better around feedback.

Listening had the largest impact on retention in the UK, Australia, the US, Singapore, New Zealand and Thailand.

But this listening must be active, and employers must take action based on the feedback – this is where experience management technology can really help organizations.

According to Temkin, “that doesn’t mean companies should give employees everything that they ask for” – particularly in a challenging economic climate.

But “building an ongoing practice of obtaining candid feedback, acknowledging this, and taking action will go a long way in building employee trust, engagement and productivity – which in turn impacts core business metrics such as customer retention and revenue growth”, concludes Temkin.

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