Skip to main content
Contact Sales Support Careers
United States (English)
Americas
  • United States (English)
  • Canada (English)
  • Canada (Français)
  • Mexico (Español)
Europe, Middle East & Africa
  • United Kingdom (English)
  • France (Français)
  • Deutschland (Deutsch)
  • Nederland (Nederlands)
  • Other EMEA Locations
Asia/Pacific
  • India (English)
  • Australia (English)
UKG logo UKG logo
Search
Get started Get started
    • Solutions
      Solutions by Need
      People icon
      Human Resources
      Payroll icon
      Payroll
      Talent icon
      Talent
      People connected icon
      HR Service Delivery
      Clock with Person
      Time & Attendance
      Calendar day icon
      Scheduling
      Document check shield icon
      Compliance
      Chart bar statistics icon
      Reporting and Analytics
      Product Suites
      UKG Pro

      A culture-driven HCM suite designed to support your enterprise organization's needs.

      UKG Dimensions

      Workforce Management solution helping you redefine the work experience for your people.

      UKG Ready

      HR solution to help small and mid-size organizations focus on growth and making a difference for your people, every time.

      View all products
      Find the product that best fits your needs.
      Get started Get started
      get started
    • Customer Experience
      The UKG Promise

      With over 70 years of expertise with BOTH people systems and systems of work, no one knows people and how they work better than UKG.

      Our Promise
      Customer Experience

      We think you’re pretty special when you’re a UKG Customer. That’s why we build products designed to inspire your people — and your organization — to grow and thrive.

      Partner for Life
      Implementation
      Support Experience
      UKG Community
      Working Smarter Café
      Customer Stories
      Belle Tire

      UKG Pro streamlines and automates administrative and HR tasks, so that field teams and managers can spend more time with customers, and coach, train, and listen to their people.

      Eventide Senior Living Communities

      Eventide Senior Living Communities uses UKG to drive employee engagement and streamline workforce management and HCM, including cutting PBJ reporting time by 99%.

      See all customer stories
      Collaborate, learn, and get support for your UKG solution!
      Visit UKG Community Visit UKG Community
    • Resources
      • Research & Insights
        Research & Insights
        • By Business Need
        • By Type
        See all
        Growth icon
        Human Capital Management
        People icon
        Human Resources
        People connected icon
        HR Service Delivery
        Payroll icon
        Payroll
        Talent icon
        Talent
        Chart tree people icon
        Workforce Management
        Clock with Person
        Time & Attendance
        Calendar day icon
        Scheduling
        Document check shield icon
        Compliance
        Chart bar statistics icon
        Reporting and Analytics
        Lightbulb icon
        Product Info
        Video player icon
        Product Tour
        Article featured icon
        Analyst Report
        Document icon
        White Paper
        Book icon
        eBook
        Organization icon
        Industry Brief
        Chart bar icon
        Infographic
        News people icon
        Article
        Video player icon
        Webinar Replay
        Interactive
      Research & Insights
      • By Business Need
      • By Type
      See all
      Growth icon
      Human Capital Management
      People icon
      Human Resources
      People connected icon
      HR Service Delivery
      Payroll icon
      Payroll
      Talent icon
      Talent
      Chart tree people icon
      Workforce Management
      Clock with Person
      Time & Attendance
      Calendar day icon
      Scheduling
      Document check shield icon
      Compliance
      Chart bar statistics icon
      Reporting and Analytics
      Lightbulb icon
      Product Info
      Video player icon
      Product Tour
      Article featured icon
      Analyst Report
      Document icon
      White Paper
      Book icon
      eBook
      Organization icon
      Industry Brief
      Chart bar icon
      Infographic
      News people icon
      Article
      Video player icon
      Webinar Replay
      Interactive
      Events
      Tradeshows
      Conferences
      Webinars
      See all events
      Blogs
      The People Purpose Blog

      Your source for the latest life-work trends and ideas from UKG experts and leaders. Stay informed and put people first in all you do.

      Workforce Institute

      Think tank that helps organizations drive performance by addressing HCM and workforce management issues.

      Workplace Resources
      Great Place To Work
      Pay Equity Resources
      Human Insights
      UKG Developer Hub
      UKG Pro Ranks Highest in 2022 Gartner Critical Capabilities for Cloud HCM Suites for the North American Midmarket Use Case
      Get The Report
      Get The Report
      Reference Image
      UKG Ranks Highest in 2022 Gartner Critical Capabilities for Cloud HCM Suites

      Read the Gartner® Critical Capabilities analysis for UKG Pro®.

    • About Us
      About UKG

      Learn more about UKG and how our HR solutions inspire workforces and businesses around the world to drive people-focused results.

      About Us
      Why UKG
      UKG Leadership
      Newsroom
      Awards & Recognition
      UKG Ambassadors
      Culture
      Our ESG Program
      Partners
      UKG Marketplace
      Analyst Reports
      Careers

      Look to your future. If you're interested in working for a company that truly invests in their people to create a culture of belonging and innovation, we want you on our team.

      Careers at UKG
      Early Career & Internships
      Benefits
      Life at UKG
      Featured Locations
      FAQs
      Experience awesome at work.
      Search jobs at UKG Search jobs at UKG
    Contact Sales Support Careers
    United States (English)
    Americas
    • United States (English)
    • Canada (English)
    • Canada (Français)
    • Mexico (Español)
    Europe, Middle East & Africa
    • United Kingdom (English)
    • France (Français)
    • Deutschland (Deutsch)
    • Nederland (Nederlands)
    • Other EMEA Locations
    Asia/Pacific
    • India (English)
    • Australia (English)
    Find the product that best fits your needs.
    Get started Get started
    get started
    Search Get started Get started
    Employee Experience

    How to Evaluate Employee Expectations

    February 22, 2023
    A manager has a one-on-one meeting with her employee to discuss employee expectations
    • Share
    See all blog stories See all blog stories
    Stay up to date with The People Purpose Blog
    Subscribe via email Subscribe via email
    Subscribe via RSS

    Written By

    Michael Puck, Senior HCM Strategy Consultant
    Michael Puck
    Global Partner Human Insights

    Michael is part of the HCM Strategic Advisory team. As a former HR practitioner and benefits leader, he loves creating competitive HR strategies.

    Interactive Tool
    Triple E
    Triple E Gap Analysis

    UKG is proud to offer an exclusive tool that can help organizations in their journey to rise above industry peers by becoming an employee-centric organization. It all starts with employee expectations—but addressing these expectations is nearly impossible without a roadmap. Take the six-minute assessment now.

    Take the assessment Take the assessment

    Topics

    Best Practices Best Practices Burnout Burnout Communication Communication Employee Engagement Employee Engagement Employee Retention Employee Retention Leadership Leadership Workplace Culture Workplace Culture

    What is one thing that would make your work more fun? If you pose this question to your employees, you might be surprised at what you find out. 

    For example, when I asked one of my employees this question, she shared that she receives hundreds of paper business cards from the sales team every week that she enters into a database. This manual and labor-intensive task took her 6-8 hours every week. After receiving her feedback, I spent a few minutes researching and found an inexpensive solution that freed up 4-6 hours of her weekly time — a business card scanner. When the scanner was delivered to her desk, she burst into tears. Her emotional response was not because of the $79 I spent to buy a scanner. She was touched because I listened to her and took the time to address an issue she had shared with me.

    Research has shown that people-centric businesses—organizations that understand their employees’ expectations and put their employees first—are more successful. They boast higher profits, greater employee retention rates, reduced turnover, and overall higher employee satisfaction.

    Are you working for a business that looks only at the bottom-line return and sees employees still as a line item on the profit and loss statement? Or, do you work for a business that has recognized the importance of applying a people-centric focus?

    If you work for the latter, bravo! But if you work for the former, consider these approaches to evaluating your employees’ expectations and creating a people-centric business.

    How to evaluate employee expectations
     

    1. Use data to put people first
     

    At the highest level, gaining “human insights” is critically important. What do I mean by that?

    For decades many businesses have studied, analyzed, and researched countless data points specific to customers and consumers. This included customer behavior studies, purchasing patterns, trends, and expectations down to particular personas so that companies could put themselves in their customers’ shoes and create solutions in the form of products and services that people wanted.

    However, rather than only focusing on customers, businesses should apply this same approach to their employees. To be a forward-thinking organization, it’s imperative to understand your employees’ hopes, dreams, and expectations.

    The times are long gone when businesses can confine the people that work for them in the roles of employees (meaning only thinking of them in the context of what happens at work). Becoming a people-centric business means that companies need to invest time and energy in getting to know their employees more closely—on a personal level.

    2. Develop people-centric leaders
     

    Let’s make this more practical: How can your business be more in tune with its employees? A key element is managers and frontline supervisors. Indeed, research on how employee expectations have changed over the last two years has found that people-centric leaders are high on the wish list of today’s employees. 

    Research published in “Project Management and Leadership Challenges Volume II” found that 54% of employees who believe their manager cares about them as a person were engaged at work. In comparison, only 17% of employees who did not think their manager cared about them holistically were engaged. This means that managers who express a genuine interest in their employees see engagement rates that are more than 300% higher than managers who do not. 

    Managers who express a genuine interest in their employees see engagement rates that are more than 300% higher than managers who do not.

    While this sounds simple, many managers are reluctant, uncomfortable, or scared to have personal conversations with their employees. An effective way to bridge this gap is by making it a habit to ask the same ice-breaker question weekly. While the front-end of the question always stays the same, managers should vary the back end of the question from week to week. For example:

    • What is one thing that would make your work [more fun]?
    • What is one thing that would make your work [more productive]?
    • What is one thing that would make your work [less stressful]?
    • What is one thing that would make your work [more engaging]?

    I have used variations of this question for years with my direct reports, such as in the instance noted above. To make this approach successful, you must:

    1. Commit to consistency and ask your direct reports weekly. While it might not instantly lead to feedback, if you continue to ask weekly, you will eventually receive incredibly valuable input.
    2. Act based on the feedback you receive. This doesn’t mean that you must solve all the issues, but you should look into all the information you receive and provide timely feedback (within a week or two) whether you have positive feedback or not. 

    I have found that nine of 10 times no money is needed to address the things that employees bring forward. And while it isn’t possible to address or resolve all issues that employees will share with you, I can guarantee that you will earn a lot of bonus points by trying and being transparent in your feedback. And when you’re ready to have more personal conversations, it creates an excellent foundation of trust.

    3. Assess how your business is addressing employee expectations
     

    You can only make improvements if you’re willing to critically evaluate how your business is addressing your employees’ expectations. To better understand what employees expect at work, UKG has developed a tool—the Triple E Gap Analysis—which provides a tangible way to identify critical barriers and discrepancies between what your organization is doing and offering and what employees want and expect.

    The six-minute assessment offers actionable feedback on gaps in areas such as enabling workforce support and flexibility, delivering on promises, and culture and communication. The topics you identify can form the basis for transformative change to address employee expectations head-on and create an environment that attracts and retains top talent.

    Think back to my original ask: What is one thing that would make work more fun? When we listen to our employees, both the business and its people win.

    • The People Purpose Blog
    • How to Evaluate Employee Expectations

    Related Stories

    Transparent leader
    The People Purpose Blog

    How to Be a Transparent Leader (With Examples)

    Transparent leadership starts with trust. Learn six ways to be a more transparent leader. 

    Group of employees meeting in a warehouse
    The People Purpose Blog

    5 Keys to Maximizing Employee Productivity in an Economic Slowdown

    Accomplish more during leaner times by improving employee productivity and the employee experience simultaneously.

    Employee Autonomy
    The People Purpose Blog

    3 Ways to Improve Employee Autonomy at Your Organization

    Providing your employees with autonomy is a critical part of humanizing the workplace. Here are three ways to improve employee autonomy at your organization.  

    UKG logo

    Footer menu

    • Human Capital Management
      • Human Resources
      • Payroll
      • Talent
      • Reporting and Analytics
    • Workforce Management
      • Time & Attendance
      • Scheduling
      • Compliance
    • Product Suites
      • UKG Pro
      • UKG Dimensions
      • UKG Ready
    • Customer Experience
      • Implementation
      • Support Experience
      • UKG Community
      • Customer Stories
    • About Us
      • Why UKG
      • Culture
      • Our ESG Program
      • Leadership
      • Newsroom
      • Careers
      • Privacy and Security

    Sub Footer

    • Modern Slavery Statement
    • Accessibility
    • Cookie Choices
    • Cookie Notice
    • Terms of Use
    • Trademarks
    • CCPA Notice
    • Licenses
    • Privacy Notice
    © 2023 UKG Inc. All rights reserved.

    Kronos SaaShr, Inc., a UKG Company (NMLS ID#1698726) provides money transmission services on behalf of UKG Inc. customers and in connection with certain UKG products.