Dive Brief:

• The HR model of the past involved a significant amount of outsourcing, which created a fractured employee and candidate experience, according to research from Mercer.
• During the 1990s, business leaders were focused on efficiency and cost savings, Mercer explained: organizations combined HR business partners, centers of excellence and shared services to streamline and outsource HR services. "Over time, this created a fractured employee experience, and the cost benefit was never realized," said Mary Tinebra, North America transformation practice leader at Mercer, in a press release.
• Today's workplace demands a focus on people and won't accommodate those silos. Instead, the future-focused HR function should collaborate with the C-suite on people strategy — "taking on greater responsibility than ever before, while essentially returning to its original purpose, which is to serve the company's people and organize the workforce according to what the company needs to succeed," the report recommended.

Dive Insight:

Recent research has highlighted the significance of the employee experience but also revealed that the focus on the bottom line from the 1990s doesn't have to be completely abandoned. Researchers now believe there's "a compelling and predictive link" between employee experience and financial performance.

Marriott appears to have adopted this thinking, revealing its formula for a people-centric culture at a 2019 Workhuman conference in March. Marriott's executive vice president and global CHRO, David Rodriguez, told participants that making the shift from an operations- to a people-centric-based culture wasn't about costly tech or branding, but rather about providing a positive and meaningful work experience that kept employees happy and maintained the bottom line.

IBM similarly announced a rebranding of its HR operations in April to improve the employee experience. Big Blue said its approach aims to treat employees like the customers they are, which means giving them the same level of attentiveness that external customers receive.