Discover what employee experience (EX) really means, how it differs from engagement, and the best strategies, tools, and examples to improve yours in 2025.
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Access NowEmployee experience (EX) encompasses the full journey of an employee’s interactions with a company from recruitment, through onboarding, day-to-day work, development, and even post-exit reflections. It goes way beyond engagement, including elements like workplace culture, autonomy, well-being, technology, and communications.
Research emphasizes that EX is a more holistic, human-centered measure of work life, similar to the “customer experience” metaphor applied to employees.
Workhuman’s Anna Chmura points out that a positive employee experience varies depending on individual needs. The cliché, “Money doesn’t buy happiness,” is true, she says.
“A positive employee experience is not determined by salary alone. There are alternative ways to keep your employees happy, besides handing out a raise or promotion.”
Anna Chmura
There are many factors to consider, including the need to create a positive, collaborative company culture and ensuring work is meaningful. It is also vital that those in charge lead with authenticity and empathy.
The reality is that neglecting EX carries serious risks, both human and financial.
Gallup’s State of the Global Workplace 2024 and 2025 reports “feature findings from the world’s largest ongoing study of the employee experience. We examine how employees feel about their work and their lives, an important predictor of organizational resilience and performance.”
The 2025 report, which focuses on declining employee engagement, shows that global engagement dropped from 23% in 2023 to 21% in 2024, resulting in an estimated US$438 billion in lost productivity worldwide. The 2024 report provided a broader global cost estimate of US$8.9 trillion that represented 9% of global GDP.
SHRM’s The Case for Employee Experience, released in 2024, indicates that 42% of employees experiencing a negative work culture consider leaving, compared to 9% in positive environments. EX also influences 49% of job satisfaction, closely matching the influence of employee engagement, which is about 51%.
Employee experience refers to the overarching journey and interactions an employee has with their organization from start to finish. It’s the complete, multi-stage journey of how employees perceive and interact with their employer.
A SHRM post, Creating a Great Employee Experience, quotes senior researcher Kristina Meacham. She describes EX as a holistic concept that integrates engagement, workplace environment, culture, communications, autonomy, technology, well-being, and internal feedback mechanisms, stating that it’s much like a customer journey, but for employees.
“Employee experience wants to look at the totality and of what it’s like to work at an organization at a very broad level. If you add employee experience to the mix, you’re going to be able to improve your ability to predict organizational success.”
Kristina Meacham
According to a post in a 1998 edition of the Harvard Business Review, it was an emerging Experience Economy that inspired firms to design experiences and not just services.
Then in the 2010s, HR shifted from “engagement” programs to end-to-end journey design. Deloitte’s 2017 Global Human Capital Trends report formalized EX with design thinking, personas, and journey maps. The employee experience: Culture, engagement, and beyond presents data showing how important EX was way back then, with the U.S. ranking fourth (85%) behind Brazil (93%), India (89%), and China (88%).
“A productive, positive employee experience has emerged as the new contract between employer and employee. Just as marketing and product teams have moved beyond customer satisfaction to look at total customer experience, so is HR refocusing its efforts on building programs, strategies, and teams that understand and continuously improve the entire employee experience.”
Deloitte
Soon after, Jacob Morgan’s 2017 book The Employee Experience Advantage helped mainstream EX as a strategic discipline spanning workspace, tools, and culture.
Employee experience is shaped by more than just money, perks, or surface-level benefits. It’s built on core foundations that influence how people feel, perform, and grow at work. Drawing from leading 2024–2025 research by leading organizations, including Gallup and Deloitte, the following five pillars represent the most influential and enduring drivers of EX.
A strong sense of purpose is at the heart of employee experience. Employees want to know that their work matters and aligns with the organization's mission and values. A healthy culture fosters psychological safety, inclusion, shared values, and ethical leadership, which are all factors that drive commitment and engagement.
Kristina Meacham highlights the crucial importance of creating a positive culture. She states that the four criteria HR professionals and workers agree are most important in creating the employee experience can help form the basis of an action plan for improvement. They are:
Gallup’s research shows that employees who feel connected to their organization’s mission are four times more likely to be engaged. When culture and purpose are strong, performance and retention follow naturally.
“When leaders build a company culture around employee engagement, following science-based management practices, the result is higher productivity and profitability. These benefits reproduce across industries and cultures, from pharmaceutical manufacturing in Europe to luxury hotels in Thailand.”
Gallup
Employees expect more than just a job. They want a career path. This pillar includes learning opportunities, skill development, coaching, mentorship, and clear advancement paths. SHRM and LinkedIn research show that a lack of growth is one of the top reasons employees leave.
Furthermore, LinkedIn’s Workplace Learning Report 2025 emphasizes that development must be continuous, accessible, and personalized. Forward-thinking organizations integrate microlearning, peer coaching, and stretch assignments into everyday workflows.
“When employees don’t move ahead, they leave and take their skills elsewhere. By investing in career development, employers counteract the anxiety that comes with rapid change by building loyalty, energy, and innovation for the next era of work. In short, great companies are built on great careers.”
Leadership is probably the single most influential factor in shaping employee experience. This pillar includes:
According to Gallup, managers account for 70% of the variance in team engagement, making their behavior, communication, and consistency central to how employees experience work. However, the problem is that less than half the world’s managers (44%) say they have received management training.
“The most achievable opportunity for leaders is to provide basic role training for every manager.”
Gallup
Certainly, organizations that invest in manager enablement, including emotional readiness, data-driven decision making, and inclusive leadership practices, see significant gains in retention, well-being, and alignment.
The 2025 Deloitte Global Human Capital Trends report calls for leadership strategies that move from control to human sustainability, emphasizing leaders who help employees thrive both inside and outside of work.
Employees need the right tools, clarity, and freedom to succeed. This pillar covers access to resources, streamlined workflows, decision-making autonomy, and well-designed roles. It also includes reducing friction, digitally and operationally, so employees can focus on meaningful work.
Deloitte’s 2025 trend report shows that organizations with strong enablement practices are more agile, innovative, and productive. Empowered employees act faster, solve more problems, and experience higher satisfaction.
In today’s workplace, wellbeing is non-negotiable. This pillar encompasses mental health support, workload balance, social connection, and a genuine sense of belonging. It’s about feeling safe, seen, and supported, without needing to hide aspects of one’s identity.
Deloitte calls this the shift toward “human sustainability”: the idea that work should improve people’s lives, not just extract value. Companies that prioritize belonging and well-being see stronger retention, trust, and loyalty.
As we explain in detail in 10 Reasons Why Employee Experience Is Important, a well-designed employee experience is a crucial element of any successful internal communications plan and a strategic driver of business success. When employees feel valued, supported, and aligned with their organization’s mission, performance will follow.
Here’s how a positive EX makes a measurable difference:
Employees who feel connected to their work and workplace are more likely to be engaged, satisfied, and committed. A strong experience, from onboarding to daily communication, fosters deeper involvement, leading to better performance and greater loyalty.
A positive work environment encourages people to stay, and it attracts new talent. In a competitive labor market, how your current employees feel becomes part of your external brand. Organizations known for strong employee experience are better positioned to recruit top performers and keep them.
Happy, empowered employees get more done and are less likely to find reasons for not showing up to work. When the workplace supports physical and mental well-being, people take fewer sick days and show up ready to contribute — not just in body, but in focus and energy.
There’s a direct line between how employees feel and how they treat customers. Motivated employees are more likely to go the extra mile, represent the brand authentically, and create better service outcomes.
People who feel safe, trusted, and equipped to do their jobs are more adaptable and creative. A strong EX unlocks innovation by removing friction, encouraging input, and creating space for new ideas to emerge.
Although closely related, employee experience and employee engagement are not the same. Understanding the difference is essential for building effective people strategies.
Employee experience is the broader journey. It encompasses every touchpoint, environment, and interaction an employee has with an organization, from recruitment to exit. It includes culture, leadership, tools, processes, development, and well-being. It’s what the organization designs and delivers.
Employee engagement, on the other hand, is the employee’s emotional and psychological response to that experience. It reflects how committed, motivated, and involved they feel at work. Engagement is an outcome — one of the strongest signals that the experience is working.
Think of it this way: Employee experience is what the organization shapes. Engagement is how the employee feels.
When EX is intentionally managed, with clear purpose, strong leadership, and the right tools, engagement improves naturally. But if it is neglected, even well-meaning engagement initiatives will fall short.
In its digital workplace productivity series, Deloitte uses “productivity” in reference to a wide range of business outcomes that a modern digital workplace enables. These include productivity, innovation, inclusion, connection, collaboration, and purpose engagement. They also highlight a major trend that productivity and experience are “mutually amplifying.”
Simplistically, “employees who are happier at work are more productive, and more productive employees tend to be happier at work.”
Around the time he wrote his best seller about employee experience, Jacob Morgan, who is a professionally trained futurist, predicted the evolution of work. More recently, he identified the “future of work”. Right at the top of his list of past and future elements is employee engagement vs employee experience.
In May 2025, he wrote that this is “such a crucial topic that I’m now working on a new employee experience book!” We can’t wait to read it!
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“There is no question that engaged employees perform better, aspire higher, and achieve more, but you can't create employee engagement without designing employee experiences first.”
Jacob Morgan
So, what are some of the best practices that will make the employee experience in your organization successful?
First impressions shape long-term engagement. A well-designed onboarding process should go beyond paperwork to create belonging, clarity, and momentum from day one. Immersive intros, early mentorship, and clear role expectations help new hires feel connected and confident long before their first team meeting.
Ongoing recognition builds motivation and morale. Whether it’s public praise, peer-to-peer shoutouts, or digital badges, reinforcing wins in the moment shows employees they’re seen and valued. Real-time recognition platforms and inclusive reward programs are especially effective in hybrid environments.
Professional growth is a key driver of a positive employee experience. Offering flexible, self-directed learning tied to career goals shows your organization is invested in your people’s futures. Additionally, AI-enabled platforms can tailor learning to interests and skill gaps while creating a culture that supports upskilling, not just tracking it.
Work-life integration is foundational to a modern employee experience strategy. Hybrid and flexible schedules allow people to perform at their best while showing trust in their autonomy. When backed by supportive norms and the right tools, flexibility improves productivity, reduces burnout, and strengthens retention.
Well-being isn’t a program; it’s a signal of how much the organization cares. Breaks, mental health support, and realistic workloads all contribute. Mindfulness moments, wellness resources, and clear boundaries around availability will all help reduce stress and build resilience.
Giving employees a voice in shaping their work environment fuels employee engagement and innovation. Platforms that encourage idea sharing, whether through innovation hubs, surveys, or suggestion channels, will reinforce that employees are not just contributors but co-creators of company culture.
Employee experience isn’t static. It evolves at every stage of the employee journey. From the first interaction to the final day, each touchpoint shapes how employees feel, perform, and talk about the organization. Managing the full lifecycle is essential to building a strong, sustainable experience.
The all-important employee experience starts well before day one. From job descriptions to interviews, the hiring process sets expectations and signals company values. Clear communication, timely feedback, and inclusive practices help candidates feel respected and excited—regardless of the outcome. A positive hiring experience boosts employer brand and attracts stronger talent.
Onboarding is a critical moment of truth. It’s where intention meets reality. A smooth, structured onboarding experience fosters early connection, shortens the learning curve, and sets the tone for long-term engagement. Great onboarding includes social integration, role clarity, and access to tools — not just policy walkthroughs.
This is where employee experience truly lives. The day-to-day environment, whether in a physical office space, hybrid, or remote, defines how employees experience autonomy, recognition, feedback, workload, and team dynamics. Psychological safety, clear communication, and modern tools all contribute to whether work feels meaningful and manageable.
Opportunities to learn and progress are among the strongest predictors of retention. Whether through formal training, mentoring, or stretch assignments, growth signals investment. It really is that simple! Personalized, ongoing development helps employees feel empowered and helps organizations build future-ready talent.
Career transitions, whether via a promotion, internal move, or exit, leave a lasting impression. Supporting employees through these changes with transparency, gratitude, and open feedback protects relationships and brand reputation. A strong offboarding process can turn even an exit into a positive experience.
To bring employee experience to life, it's helpful to look at organizations that have embedded employee experience principles into the everyday realities of work — not just policy or values. Two key enablers stand out:
When done well, both serve as powerful foundations for engagement, autonomy, and trust.
The workplace experience includes everything employees encounter in their physical or hybrid environment, from office layout and collaboration spaces to cultural signals, flexibility norms, and day-to-day interaction models. Sometimes referred to as the workforce experience, it's not just about location; it's about how the environment supports employees, enabling them to do their best work while feeling safe, included, and respected.
Atlassian’s “Team Anywhere” policy allows employees to work from anywhere, supported by redesigned physical offices focused on intentional collaboration rather than assigned desks. Their offices now function as hubs for creativity and social connection, while remote team norms are built around clear documentation, asynchronous work, and equitable meeting practices.
The result is a more inclusive, autonomy-driven workplace experience—one that has increased satisfaction across global teams, especially among caregivers and those in underrepresented geographies.
Digital employee experience (DEX) refers to the technology ecosystem that supports how employees communicate, access resources, complete tasks, and learn. An intuitive, integrated digital environment reduces friction and helps employees feel enabled, while a fragmented or outdated one leads to frustration and disengagement.
Unilever has reimagined its DEX with tools that streamline performance, development, and flexibility. Its internal platform integrates payroll, benefits, learning, and scheduling, while AI-driven assistants support skill-building, wellbeing check-ins, and internal mobility.
By eliminating friction and enabling self-service, Unilever empowers employees to navigate their journey with more autonomy and confidence, reinforcing the organization's commitment to modern, human-centered EX.
Employee Experience Management (EXM) is the intentional design, delivery, and continuous improvement of the employee experience across every stage of the employee lifecycle. Unlike ad hoc engagement efforts, EXM is strategic, structured, and cross-functional, involving HR, IT, communications, leadership, and more.
Effective employee experience aligns people-centered thinking with business outcomes, ensuring that every interaction, system, and policy supports employee well-being, performance, and connection.
A strong EXM strategy begins with a clear framework that helps leaders understand what to measure and improve. One widely used model structures employee experience into three interconnected layers:
This layered approach helps organizations diagnose gaps, prioritize actions, and connect employee perceptions with operational realities.
Leading organizations also map these layers into each employee lifecycle stage (e.g., hiring, onboarding, day-to-day, development, transitions), building a clear picture of where to invest for the biggest impact.
Borrowed from design thinking and CX, employee experience design is a human-centered, iterative process for improving how employees interact with their workplace. It goes beyond internal surveys and starts with a deep understanding and co-creation.
The most common methodology includes the ability to:
This method creates not just better systems, but experiences that employees want to be part of. Organizations like IBM, SAP, and Deloitte have used employee experience design successfully to transform outdated workflows into engaging, human-first journeys.
Embrace journey mapping and transform employee satisfaction and engagement into a data-driven strategy.
Improving employee experience doesn’t happen by accident. It takes clear intent, actionable insights, and consistent follow-through. The following employee experience strategies represent some of the most effective ways to elevate EX — from first impressions to long-term culture shifts.
An employee experience strategy starts with understanding. Use a mix of engagement surveys, pulse checks, focus groups, and 1:1s to uncover what employees need, value, and struggle with. But listening isn’t enough. What matters most is acting on feedback. Close the loop visibly to build trust and momentum.
A strong and positive employee experience strategy isn’t about checking boxes. It’s about solving problems to meet real needs. Set measurable objectives that connect to broader business outcomes like retention, productivity, or innovation. This will ensure that EX efforts are both human-centered and results-driven.
Use personas to represent different employee segments by role, location, or motivation. Then map their journeys from onboarding to exit. This can help uncover friction points and “moments that matter” where strategic improvements can have an outsized impact.
Senior leaders set the tone—but managers shape daily experience. Provide leadership with training, tools, and behavioral expectations that reinforce trust, coaching, and fairness. When both top-down vision and team-level behaviors align, employee experience becomes part of the culture.
Give employees tools that make work easier, not more complicated. Prioritize platforms that streamline collaboration, personalize content, and reduce digital noise, supporting seamless communication across hybrid and remote teams.
Employee experience isn’t static. Use continuous feedback, real-time insights, and agile iteration to keep your strategy relevant, so that it evolves alongside employee needs, business priorities, and workforce expectations.
Looking for fresh ways to elevate your employee experience? These 10 employee experience ideas help humanize the workplace, build trust, and deliver moments that truly matter across the employee journey.
Surprise new hires before day one with a branded welcome box that contains company swag, a handwritten note from their new team, and a mini-guide to the culture. Make sure it sets the tone so that it reduces anxiety and builds an early connection.
Instead of one-size-fits-all onboarding, offer a choose-your-own-adventure path and allow new hires to pick modules based on role, learning style, or curiosity. As part of your employee experience strategy, these should be guided by a buddy or mentor.
Break down silos by giving employees regular, casual access to leadership. These sessions build transparency, foster dialogue, and reinforce that all voices matter.
Simplify the digital employee experience with a single portal that combines HR tools, FAQs, recognition, calendars, and internal updates. Make sure these are mobile-friendly and personalized to role or location.
Let employees browse internal gigs, learning paths, stretch projects, and mentorships in one place. This will support career mobility and show the company invests in long-term growth.
Use a digital tool or Slack plug-in that allows employees to recognize peers instantly for small wins — collaboration, kindness, extra effort. Visibility drives engagement and belonging.
Declare one day each week “meeting-free,” or block focus hours by default on calendars. This small shift signals that deep work is valued and will improve energy and output.
Give employees an annual wellness stipend with flexible use. These could be gym memberships, therapy, yoga apps, childcare, pet care, or nature retreats. Support wellbeing their way.
Hold quarterly “culture sprints” where small cross-functional teams tackle an EX pain point and prototype fast solutions. These might include meeting overload or feedback gaps.
Treat the exit process as a closing chapter, not a cutoff. Offer career coaching, alumni community access, and a farewell message from leadership. A positive exit experience strengthens your employer brand and increases the chances of valuable ormer employees returning in the future.
Embrace journey mapping and transform employee satisfaction and engagement into a data-driven strategy.
You can’t improve what you don’t measure. That’s why tracking employee experience requires more than occasional engagement scores. It calls for a mix of quantitative and qualitative tools across the entire employee lifecycle. From onboarding feedback to internal analytics, today’s EX leaders use multiple data sources to understand how employees feel, where friction lives, and what drives performance, trust, and retention.
The key is to make Employee experience measurement continuous, contextual, and actionable — not just a one-off HR initiative.
Pulse surveys, engagement surveys, and lifecycle surveys (at onboarding, anniversaries, or exits) remain the backbone of employee experience measurement. The most effective employee experience survey will go beyond satisfaction and ask about belonging, clarity, empowerment, wellbeing, and recognition.
Surveys should be:
Even simple tools can work if the feedback is timely and meaningful.
How messages are received is just as important as what is said. Internal communication metrics like open rates, click-through rates, scroll depth, read time, and channel preferences reveal how connected and informed employees really feel.
Advanced analytics can:
These insights help communicators adjust strategies in real time, especially in complex, hybrid organizations.
Journey mapping helps teams visualize the full employee lifecycle, identifying key moments (and pain points) that shape an employee experience strategy.
Use journey maps to:
Journey maps are powerful design tools for targeted EX improvements.
At both ends of the employee journey, onboarding and exit feedback offer deep insight into what expectations are being met — or missed. For example, during:
Both feedback types are most valuable when analyzed over time and fed into leadership discussions — not simply filed away.
Employee experience is increasingly on leaders’ radars, and the data shows why. Fresh insights underscore that improving EX can significantly boost engagement, retention, productivity, and even financial performance. Key stats offer powerful storytelling tools—whether you're making the business case, designing initiatives, or communicating impact.
AI is reshaping how organizations deliver employee experience, from personalized learning to smart task automation. AI tools can elevate efficiency, highlight wellness gaps, and tailor communications and development pathways.
Approached thoughtfully, AI accelerates employee experience and helps employees focus on more meaningful, creative work.
Crafting a modern employee experience often involves the right digital ecosystem. From streamlined onboarding and well-being to recognition and internal mobility, platforms centralize and personalize EX delivery.
Explore the three top-performing platforms that balance usability, analytics, and engagement, each helping organizations deliver more human-centered experience journeys.
Creating a truly personalized, data-informed employee experience takes more than good intentions. It takes the right tools. Cerkl Broadcast empowers internal communications and HR teams to deliver relevant, timely, and engaging experiences at scale.
With Broadcast, you can:
Whether you're onboarding new hires, recognizing team wins, or promoting wellness programs, Broadcast’s omnichannel platform helps you connect with employees in ways that matter. Without adding complexity to your workflow.
Employee experience isn't a single moment. It's every message, every milestone, and every interaction. Broadcast has solutions that make them all count.
If you’re feeling a little intimidated about improving the employee experience in your organization, relax. We have developed an employee experience journey mapping template to simplify the process of identifying root causes of high turnover and disengagement. It will help you to identify not only pain points but also your goals and the best possible employee experience strategy to follow. Better still, it’s absolutely free.
Embrace journey mapping and transform employee satisfaction and engagement into a data-driven strategy.
What is the main difference between employee engagement and employee experience? Employee experience is the full journey an employee has with an organization, including culture, systems, leadership, and every interaction. Engagement is the emotional response to that experience — how motivated, connected, and committed the employee feels.
What are the stages of the employee experience lifecycle? The key stages include hiring, onboarding, everyday work, learning and development, internal transitions, and exits. Each stage offers opportunities to shape how employees feel, perform, and grow.
What makes a good employee experience? A good employee experience is one where people feel valued, supported, and empowered to do their best work. It’s built on trust, clarity, growth opportunities, and an inclusive, responsive culture.
Embrace journey mapping and transform employee satisfaction and engagement into a data-driven strategy.
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