Companies say enhancing employee experience will be priority in next three years: Survey

A hundred percent of organisations say that enhancing employee experience will be a priority in the next three years, compared to 74% who felt that way before the pandemic, according to the India findings of the Willis Towers Watson 2021 employee experience survey shared with ET.

Covid-19 proved to be a stress test of sorts with 33% organisations cutting people or hours, 58% undergoing restructuring and 38% cutting pay or benefits. Also, with more employees working in remote/hybrid models, it took a significant toll on people – as many as 52% employees reported high to moderate anxiety; 66% reported atleast some work distraction.

“While the first wave has a more significant impact on business, the second wave impacted individuals much more,” said Rajul Mathur, consulting head – talent and rewards, India – Willis Towers Watson.


When asked about the impact of pandemic and related action, 33% said it hit financial performance, 25% said it negatively shifted organisational culture, while others reported declining employee productivity (25%), engagement (42%) and well-being (13%).

“Transformative EX organisations – those that made a much more significant effort on employee engagement vis-à-vis others – are more likely to achieve better outcomes,” said Mathur. They are more likely to report 2.7x higher employee productivity than their industry peers and 90% more likely to report lower employee turnover. They also report faring better in terms of leadership, managing change and talent development.

Now, 88% of organisations have identified flexible work as a priority to improve the employee experience over the next three years; 85% are flexible about where or when work gets done and 60% are in the process of reimagining careers. However, three in 10 organisations still do not have a formal policy or set of principles to manage alternative work arrangements.

Going forward, the focus should be on a new mindset to drive EX for business. This would encompass an integrated EX strategy; digitalisation; key performance indicators (KPIs) that focus on the balance between employee engagement and cost management and investing for ROI.

Leaders and managers also need to be equipped to lead through change.

“The definition of leaders in a organisation is undergoing a change. Earlier, resilience and adaptability were Tier-2 capabilities, now it’s centrestage,” says Mathur. Employees’ working styles are changing; so is the mid manager’s role as well as that of senior leaders.

“Organisations which are able to keep their ears close to different segments of the population will be able to manage better and deliver better results,” says Mathur.