Who Should Own The Employee Experience?

The employee experience is what I define as the combination of culture, technology and the physical space. It is the recognition by the organization that it must create a place where people truly want to show up instead of having a place where people need to show up. Simple statement but with a big impact. This is perhaps the biggest area of investment that I'm seeing business leaders around the world focus on today, which is both exciting and also challenging. We all want to work for an organization that takes into account our experiences of working there. But what does this look like? How does it scale across thousands of people around the world? Where should organizations start? What happens if they mess up? How long does this take? These are just a few of the questions that organizations ask themselves when it comes to designing employee experiences. After all, there is no blueprint or formula for this. Employee experience is only recently getting the attention and investment that it deserves which means that for most out there, this is unchartered territory. But the very first question that organizations should answer is, "Who owns the employee experience?"

In every single organization that I have worked with or researched, this is owned by HR. But with a caveat. Even though HR owns the employee experience it's not just up to HR to create this. In soccer, the goalie owns any soccer ball that comes flying at the net but it's actually everyone's job to keep the ball from going into their own goal, if it does, the whole team (not just the goalie) loses. The same is true for employee experience. Although HR is being tasked as the employee experience torch bearer this isn't just an HR responsibility. I'm seeing a few different approaches take shape and it's important to point out that there isn't a single or best path to take.

At Airbnb for example they don't have an HR function. Instead, the traditional roles of HR, facilities, and even food and beverage role up to one person. I spoke with their Global Head of Employee Experience and you can listen to that conversation to learn more about how and why they structured it this way. Pandora also has a VP of employee experience but that function actually does role up to the Chief Human Resources Officer. Still, other organizations like LinkedIn are actually staffing for capabilities that are not typically required in HR, for example data science and analytics. Another approach that some organizations like Cisco and Accenture seem to be taking is one based on having a cross-functional team responsible for driving the employee experience. Since this is comprised of culture, technology and physical space, oftentimes this might mean bringing together HR, IT and facilities management (among others). I recently spoke with the CIO of Accenture and he works very closely with their Chief Leadership and Human Resources Officer to make sure that employees have access to the best tools to get their jobs done.

I do believe that HR should own the employee experience; it just makes sense. This is the one function inside of our organizations that is responsible for people and so it makes for a natural evolution. As I've said many times in the past, HR is going through a massive transformation and is being thrust into a new world where it can truly lead and shape the future of work!

(Disclosure: Cisco, Pandora, Linkedin, and Accenture are members of The Future of Work Community.)

Jacob Morgan is a keynote speaker, author and futurist. For more, subscribe to his newsletter or visit TheFutureOrganization.