Employee experience (EX) has risen sharply on the agenda for HR leaders. In today’s workplace, employees expect seamless support across every function – from HR and finance to IT and facilities. Yet many organisations still find themselves struggling with fragmented systems, duplicated processes and delays that frustrate rather than empower.

According to the latest Freshworks Employee Experience Benchmark Report, HR and other business teams are adopting proven IT service management (ITSM) principles such as structured workflows, automation and self-service tools, and achieving results that often surpass their IT counterparts. Business functions using these practices are reporting a 79.5% first-contact resolution rate compared to 74.1% in IT. The lesson is clear: the playbook that helped IT deliver faster, smarter service can also help HR improve responsiveness and boost EX.

Breaking down silos

The biggest obstacle is the persistence of silos. For example, imagine it is an employee’s first week. They are trying to get their benefits set up, expenses reimbursed, laptop configured, and security badge activated. Each request involves a different system, a different team and often a different timeline. What should be a positive start quickly becomes a scavenger hunt across disconnected processes.

Freshworks’ research shows that nearly half of organisations see these internal silos as the main barrier to effective service delivery. For HR, that translates into longer onboarding times, delayed responses to payroll or benefits queries and lower satisfaction scores. Left unchecked, these gaps erode morale and productivity. Over time, they also impact retention, with frustrated employees more likely to look elsewhere for a smoother workplace experience.

Building the right foundations

So how can HR teams begin to improve EX in a practical way? The first step is simplification. A common mistake is to invest in automation before workflows are properly defined. Automation only delivers results when processes are clear, consistent and easy to follow. Mapping the employee journey, from onboarding through to offboarding, helps highlight where requests get stuck. Once the unnecessary steps are removed, the foundations are in place to automate with confidence.

The next priority is self-service. Employees today expect consumer-grade experiences. They want to find answers as easily as they would when tracking a parcel or booking a flight. HR can meet this expectation by developing knowledge bases, FAQs and AI agents that resolve common questions instantly. Organisations that enable self-service see resolution times improve dramatically and satisfaction levels climb. For HR teams, this also frees up time to focus on more strategic priorities such as wellbeing, diversity and leadership development.

Finally, HR leaders need to take a cross-functional view. Most employee requests span multiple departments, so designing support around a single function only adds to the frustration. Leading organisations are moving towards enterprise service management -an approach where HR, IT, finance and facilities share platforms, data and workflows. This ensures that employees experience one coherent system of support, rather than a patchwork of separate ones. It also gives HR greater visibility into where bottlenecks occur and how processes can be continuously improved.

Where AI fits in

Artificial intelligence is adding further speed and scale to service delivery. AI co-pilots can categorise and route requests, virtual agents can resolve repetitive questions and analytics can highlight bottlenecks before they escalate. In the benchmark, organisations using AI-powered service tools cut average resolution times by more than three quarters. But AI works best when built on solid foundations. HR leaders should see it as an accelerator for well-designed processes, not a replacement for them.

From firefighting to impact

The move towards enterprise-wide service management mirrors the rise of ERP systems two decades ago. Just as ERP unified data and processes across finance and operations, today’s service platforms can unify the employee support experience across HR and beyond. For HR leaders, this is an opportunity to shift focus from firefighting individual requests to designing seamless experiences that make working life easier. That matters for productivity, engagement and retention alike. Crucially, it also aligns HR with wider business goals, reinforcing the function’s role as a driver of organisational performance rather than simply an administrative service.

The end goal is simple: employees should be able to focus on doing their best work without being slowed down by bureaucracy. When HR applies the ITSM playbook, it can deliver the kind of responsive, frictionless service that makes employee experience a genuine competitive advantage.