Even as employee relations data increasingly drives business decisions, organizations’ commitments to employee relations processes are losing steam and employee relations teams are understaffed, according to the 2021 edition of the HR Acuity Employee Relations Benchmark Study.
The study, released earlier this month, analyzed data from more than 125 organizations representing approximately 4.5 million employees globally and 2.3 million in the US. Its findings show that top management increasingly values employee relations data: 67 percent of employee relations teams now share their tracking data directly with the senior leadership, up from 59 percent in 2019. At the same time, more employee relations teams are now handling policy oversight, development, and benchmarking, although the study also suggests that this might be due to a large number of new policies related to COVID-19.