Employee Well-Being Has Become About Reshaping the Employee Experience as an Important Lever in Improving Productivity and End-User Customer Outcomes

• ALM Intelligence Pacesetter Research finds that innovators among professional services providers have moved their approach to employee well-being beyond crisis mode to finding pragmatic, data-grounded ways employers can improve the employees work experience

New analysis from ALM Intelligence Pacesetter Research shows that the pandemic has seriously disrupted the workplace. Still, it has also laid bare several festering problems that have long gone unaddressed in the process. These problems had become serious enough even before the pandemic to attract some attention, such as a 2016 ABA study that found alarming rates of burnout, substance abuse, suicide, and other mental distress symptoms among lawyers. Before the pandemic, with a few notable exceptions, the crisis in employee well-being tended to be treated with the equivalent of bandaids in the form of under-utilized employee health awareness programs buried in benefits packages. The pandemic forced employers to confront their employee problems head-on.

“An interesting element to how professional services providers approach employee well-being is what we call the living laboratory effect,” remarked ALM Intelligence Pacesetter Research Director Tomek Jankowski. “The pandemic forced all employers – everyone, providers and their clients – to fundamentally rethink their workforce model in 2020, and that led to some experimentation that the more innovative providers were then able (once they worked the kinks out) to share with their clients.”

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What Innovators and Pacesetters brought to the equation was the realization (some before the pandemic) that there was a measurable link between optimizing the employee experience (EX) and improving the customer experience (UX). The elements that shape the employee experience are woven together like the threads in a Persian rug, and span the employer organization – and beyond – which means that the employee experience is no longer just an HR concern. Leading innovators and Pacesetters help clients create long-term, actionable strategies for their employees’ experience that have a measurable impact on the bottom line.

In ALM Intelligence Pacesetter Research: Employee Well-being 2022-2023, the Pacesetter Advisory Council assessed seventeen providers’ strategies and service offerings identified as Innovators for their ability to deliver client impact in today’s ever-shifting employee well-being markets. Additionally, the research and analysis provide insights into the competitive dynamics and service delivery trends driving convergence across insurance & benefits, legal, management consulting, and multi-service providers.

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Research Highlights:

• The pandemic has rapidly accelerated existing trends around employee well-being in a way that has fundamentally changed the dynamics of employee-employer relations
• In recent years some innovative providers have been focusing on the employee experience (EX), recognizing the link between that and enhancing the end-user customer experience (UX)
• Professional services providers tend to fall starkly into one of a few service approach categories: compliance, benefits/rewards, workforce management, and holistic solutions
• Employees often cite the intangible elements as at least as important, if not more important than just compensation in the employee experience, like feeling valued by both the employer and fellow employees or work-life balance
• A consistent theme is that providers now expect to work with the C-Suite or the board (not just HR) and must address the needs of a much broader group of client stakeholders

ALM Intelligence evaluated the employee well-being capabilities and offerings of the following providers: Allen & Overy, Aon, Bain & Company, Borden Ladner Gervais, Boston Consulting Group, Buck, Deloitte, Eagle Hill Consulting, EY, Korn Ferry, KPMG, Mercer, North Highland; Ogletree, Deakins, Nash, Smoak & Stewart; Oliver Wyman, PwC, and Willis Towers Watson.

ALM Intelligence Pacesetter Research provides independent, objective research to providers and buyers of professional services, coupled with practical insights that inform the decision-making process for strategic planning and procurement professionals.

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