It feels like employee experience (EX) is under the gun, so to speak. After all, who cares about their “experience” if employees aren’t treated as valuable?
Ironically, for those organizations that are shifting the narrative to greater efficiencies, revenue, and sales, they’re missing the point. Study after study indicates that treating employees better actually leads to the business results they’re focused on. In other words, it’s not an either/or proposition.
Additionally, companies who set clear focus and programs on employee centricity yielded huge changes in understanding how to better retain employees, remove barriers to increase productivity and launch wellness initiatives to reduce burnout and inertia. So how do we change the narrative to help reinforce the need for ongoing employee experience?
The challenges started because many of the current employee support programs were implemented as a reaction to ethical and moral challenges in the workplace. Instead of being implemented as a business case, it became a social one – making it harder to justify and show returns on investment.
Paul Rubenstein, an executive at people analytics company Visier, made it crystal clear: “Pledges and statements are nice. But data lights the path to accountability and change”.
"TRUST IS BUILT IN DROPS, AND LOST IN BUCKETS…"– KEVIN KELLY, EXCELLENT ADVICE FOR LIVING: WISDOM I WISH I'D KNOWN EARLIER
The shift away from Employee Experience (EX) is demonstrated in Edelman’s Trust Index, which shows trust in business has dropped faster this year than in years past. 2025 specifically however shows a historic drop in employer trust—the first in 25 years. This is significant and demonstrates the impact of employee sentiment on the workplace success:
Employees who feel trusted at work are more productive and 30% more likely to go above and beyond for customers.
Innovation thrives on willingness to take risks. If employees don’t feel safe pushing a new idea or are afraid of the risk of failure they will not risk being innovative or supporting as change agents.
AI adoption rates directly correlate with whether employees trust their leaders about technology's impact.
Instead of viewing productivity as a zero-sum game where long hours and sacrifice are necessary to accomplish a goal, we can emphasize that a healthier (physically, financially, socially, mentally) workforce is a more productive workforce for the long term. With more people in the workforce than before, we have an aging population living and working longer, with escalating levels of burnout. Employee experience should be a requirement to ensure all employees can perform their best.
To redefine productivity, we must shift focus from traditional in-office metrics and active computer time to outcomes-based performance evaluation, acknowledging that productivity is less about the hours spent at a desk and more about the quality and impact of the work produced.
OKRs (Objectives and Key Results): This method involves setting clear, measurable objectives and tracking progress through key results. OKRs help align individual and team efforts with broader organizational goals, fostering a results-oriented culture (Doerr, 2018).
EX Opportunity: Employee Experience teams track which teams are thriving and which are lagging. Looking at team structure, design, and management styles helps the organization understand best practices, hiring needs, and wellness measures that drive higher performance.
Innovation and Creativity Metrics: Encouraging innovation can lead to long-term competitive advantages. Tracking the number of new ideas generated, projects initiated, and patents filed can indicate how innovative and creative the workforce is. (Dyer et al., 2011).
EX Opportunity: By studying the difference between innovative and less creative teams we can see what hampers performance. Are there policies or bureaucracy getting in the way? Is there room in the project plans to test and iterate? Does management respect a fail-fast mentality?
Project Completion and Success Rates: Measuring the completion of projects on time and within budget, along with the quality of the outcomes, can provide a clear picture of productivity without focusing on time spent at the desk (PMI, 2020).
EX Opportunity: I have seen success by examining team structures. How big are the teams working on the project, is there a communication gap between teams, managers etc.
Personal Development and Learning Metrics: Tracking employee participation in training and development programs, as well as the acquisition of new skills, can help assess productivity in terms of continuous growth and improvement (Kirkpatrick, 2006).
EX Opportunity: By tracking the number of hours employees engage in learning (either on the job or outside) and aligning to performance, we can create clear proof points of engagement and productivity.
Ultimately, employee needs are persistent, not reactions – the drive behind the Great Resignation was a symptom of years of burnout and frustration. By continuing to support EX programs, companies can address long-standing issues of burnout, and exhaustion and create a more resilient and engaged workforce. It is not about a social reaction, but a carefully designed program that understands employees perform best in a culture of trust and safety.
The physical, mental, and emotional well-being of employees is critical to keeping employees working both efficiently and effectively. By dismantling these programs, companies risk a decline in employee health, leading to increased absenteeism, reduced productivity and higher healthcare costs. Critically, the new workforce of Gen-Z sees wellness as core benefits, along the lines of medical and PTO. Millennials are no longer seeking management roles, to avoid the stress and burdens that come with managing teams as well as to further ensure their own autonomy in the workplace.
As humans, we all want a place to feel safe and empowered. The good news is that there are clear business outcomes associated with a focus on the whole human:
Employee Well-being Programs:
Action: Implement wellness programs that focus on mental, physical, and emotional health. Study your organization to understand what employees need to perform at their best (fitness programs, Employee Resource Groups, coaching/ therapeutic services etc).
Business Outcome: Improved employee well-being leads to higher job satisfaction and reduced turnover rates, lowering recruitment, health and training costs.
Transparent Communication:
Action: Create a culture of open communication where executives are communicating regularly with employees and in turn, employees feel safe to voice their concerns and ideas.
Business Outcome: Transparency builds trust, leading to better teamwork and collaboration. It also helps to identify issues early, leading to quicker problem resolution and continuous improvement.
Recognition and Rewards:
Action: Establish a robust recognition and reward system that highlights and reinforces the culture and behaviors of the organization. Employees then see their hard work and achievements being recognized.
Business Outcome: Recognized employees are motivated and tend to perform better. This can increase overall productivity and drive the company's success.
Establishing Autonomy:
Action: Create clarity and guidelines about expectations and required outcomes. Be very clear about the guidelines and processes that must be followed. Then you can offer employees the freedom to decide how the work gets done.
Business Outcome: According to Daniel Pink, autonomy is one of the critical factors that drive engagement at work. In fact, a study by Smartz Solutions found that call centers that allow agents to handle customer issues independently saw a 20% increase in productivity and a significant reduction in employee turnover. By trusting employees to manage their responsibilities, companies can create a culture of ownership and accountability, ultimately driving innovation and engagement
Simply put, EX is essential to getting the best out of employees. An organization can be focused on revenue and optimization while still supporting EX goals – in fact, it's your easiest way forward.