Employers’ overall commitment to employee experience (EX) has come into question within 2023, a trend that is believed to be accelerated in 2024, said advisory firm Forrester in a report.

A trend that has led global employees engaged in strikes, walkouts, negotiations, and non-adherence to some of their employers’ policies.

“In 2023, employees faced several challenges: Inflation eroded their buying power, prompting them to revisit compensation with their employers; return-to-office mandates required that they adjust to the new world of hybrid work; and climate impacts, wars, and other macro events played their predicted role among the four shocks reshaping where and how employees worked,” wrote the advisory.

Employee engagement and cultural energy is expected to decline again. Two key metrics dropped between 2022 and 2023 globally: Employee engagement fell from 41% to 37%, while culture energy fell from 63% to 59%.

Both measures had increased between the years 2021 and 2022 but turned down in 2023 due to issues like return-to-office mandates and compensation disputes. 

“We predict that 2024 will see continued decline, with employee engagement dipping to 34% and culture energy to 55% globally,” they explained.

“By developing a mature EX program, your organisation can drive higher productivity, lower attrition, and more creativity. And leaders who invest in, rather than shying away from, AI recruiting and skills intelligence can increase the adaptiveness and competency of their workforce,” they added. 

Forrester predicats that overal the organisational DEI investments will fall from 33% in 2022 to 20% in 2024 which will increase the upcoming EX recession, diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs will see disinvestment.

The percentage of companies that funded a DEI function with an endorsed strategy and personnel dropped from 33% in 2022 to 27% in 2023, they explained. 

“We predict that this number will fall to 20% by the end of 2024 in the wake of cuts that disproportionately affect DEI teams. As a result, too many companies will default to “check the box” efforts such as heritage days, leading to performative — rather than substantive — DEI programs,” they added.