Top organizations recognize that a positive employee experience is more than just a “nice to have.” It’s a game-changer that boosts retention, engagement, and performance, ultimately impacting the bottom line.
So let’s talk about it! With the help of our Mentorloop Industry Advisory Council, we get into all things EX: What really is Employee Experience (EX)? Why is it so vital to every workplace? And what can HR or People & Culture professionals do to improve it in their organizations?
Let’s get to it!
What Is Employee Experience?
Gartner defines employee experience as “the way in which employees internalize and interpret the interactions they have with their organization, as well as the context that underlies those interactions.” Simply, it’s how employees feel about their experience working in a company and how they perceive its culture and practices while they’re on the job.
In a recent webinar with Mentorloop Industry Advisory Council members Lainie Tayler and Michael Werle, they shared some nuanced perspectives that deepen this understanding:
Michael shares that the strategic view to look at employee experience is that it’s “the sum of perceptions, emotions, and interactions across the employment life cycle.” He says it’s more than the traditional employee engagement surveys and instead seeing EX as a strategic capability that drives performance, retention, and brand reputation.
Lainie adds to this by offering a more day-to-day view: “(Employee Experience is the) thousands of little daily decisions that a leader or a person might make in service to the organization.” And that while you can be deliberate about building the framework, the real value lies in how it shows up within the culture in all those small, everyday experiences.
Advice from Michael Werle:
“Employee experience happens whether you design it intentionally or not.
If you don’t shape it deliberately, it still occurs, it’s just left to chance, and with that comes significant business risk.”
So at its core, EX is the sum of all interactions an employee has with their employer and it’s shaped by the physical workplace, the organizational culture, leadership, recognition, and access to growth opportunities. A useful way to understand it is through the employee lifecycle.
The Employee Lifecycle
Each stage of the lifecycle influences how employees feel about their work and organization. Strengthening EX requires attention to every stage:
Attraction
First impressions matter. Employer branding, reputation, and values-driven messaging attract top talent and set expectations about company culture.
Recruitment
First impressions matter. Employer branding, reputation, and values-driven messaging attract top talent and set expectations about company culture.
Advice from Lainie Tayler:
The experience you promise during (these stages) have to match the reality they encounter as employees.
This is how you build trust before you need it instead of the other way around.
Onboarding
A structured, but personalised onboarding program helps new hires feel welcomed, connected, and productive faster. Think orientation sessions, peer buddies, and early feedback loops.
Industry experts emphasize that the first 6 months of an employee joining is the nist critical window in shaping an employee’s experience.
This is where you establish rituals and feedback loops, and most importantly, ensure that the employee’s expectations match what was promisedin the earlier stages.
Career Development & Learning
Opportunities for skill development, mentoring, and advancement show that your organization invests in employees’ growth.
Retention
Opportunities for skill development, mentoring, and advancement show that your organization invests in employees’ growth.
Advice from our Council:
A second critical touchpoint in the employee experience comes when moving talent from one level to the next — whether a more senior or more complex role. The experience needs to intentionally change at these intersection points, with the same 0-6 month intensive check-in approach applied to any movement within the organization.
Separation/Offboarding
Respectful, structured offboarding maintains positive relationships, supports employer branding, and provides feedback for continuous improvement.
Advice from Michael Werle:
Don’t underestimate the impact of offboarding on remaining employees. People in the business watch how you treat departing employees, and if you’re not treating them well, it can unravel all your good EX work.
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Beyond the Lifecycle: Core Elements of EX
Day-to-day experiences also shape how employees feel about your organization:
- Work Environment: Physical and digital spaces impact productivity, collaboration, and engagement. Reliable technology and thoughtfully designed spaces are essential.
- Culture and Leadership: Organizational values, behaviors, and leadership styles influence employee sentiment. A culture rooted in trust and inclusive leadership fosters loyalty.
- Recognition and Wellbeing: Employees thrive when their contributions are acknowledged and when support exists for mental, physical, and emotional wellbeing.
Why is Employee Experience so Crucial?
Organizations that prioritize EX see tangible and measurable benefits in retention, engagement, productivity, and overall business performance. Let’s break it down.
Talent Attraction and Retention
According to the AIHR, 87% of employee experience experts agree that a great EX helps retain and attract talent. A Glassdoor Mission & Culture Survey also found that 77% of adults in key global markets consider a company’s culture before applying. In other words, a positive EX is a magnet for top talent.
But attracting talent is only half the battle. Employees who start with high expectations but experience poor onboarding or workplace culture quickly disengage. Kincentric reports that 49% of employees feel their organization isn’t delivering on the experience they were promised.
A SHRM report found that employees around the world who rate their experience as positive are:
- 90% less likely to think about leaving their employer;
- 83% less likely to be actively job hunting, with 78% less likely to have actively searched for a new job within the past six months;
- 8.9 times more likely to be satisfied at work;
- 1.2 times more likely to be engaged at work, and when compared with those with negative experiences, 3x more engaged.
When organizations meet or even exceed the expectations they set during hiring, they don’t just retain their talent, they build long-term advocates for the company.
Productivity and Business Outcomes
The Academy to Innovate HR reports that organizations with strong EX see higher productivity. Satisfied, empowered, and valued employees are more motivated to perform, contributing to organizational goals—sometimes leading to over 50% higher revenue.
Companies with strong EX also report 2x higher customer satisfaction than those with weaker experiences. That makes sense: employees who feel undervalued or disengaged are less likely to care about the customer experience, while happy, supported employees naturally extend their positivity to clients.
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI)
DEI is central to the employee experience. Research shows:
- 80% of people aged 18–34 say working for an employer that promotes diversity and inclusion is important (Monster).
- Companies with high gender diversity on executive teams are 25% more likely to experience above-average profitability (McKinsey & Company).
- 25% of employees report not feeling like they belong at work, which can hurt performance, wellbeing, and retention (BetterUp).
For millennials and Gen Z especially, DEI isn’t just a checkbox, it’s a dealbreaker. Companies that authentically embed diversity and inclusion into their employee experience don’t just attract and retain talent, they spark innovation and see better business results.
Psychological Safety
The belief that one can speak up, take risks, and make mistakes without fear of negative consequences, known as psychological safety, is foundational to positive employee experience. When employees feel psychologically safe, they’re more likely to share ideas, admit errors, ask questions, and challenge the status quo. This openness drives innovation, improves problem-solving, and strengthens team collaboration. A well-designed EX creates the conditions for psychological safety through:
- Supportive leadership that welcomes diverse perspectives
- Clear communication channels where feedback is encouraged
- Recognition that values learning from mistakes
- Inclusive practices that ensure all voices are heard
The Implications of Employee Experience
A strong employee experience directly impacts both people and business outcomes. From higher retention to greater customer satisfaction and more engaged, motivated employees, investing in EX is not optional, it’s essential.
Risk Mitigation
Michael Werle highlights that employee experience is also increasingly critical for mitigating organizational risks. Psychosocial hazards in the workplace—including excessive workloads, lack of role clarity, poor workplace relationships, and inadequate support—are becoming major board-level concerns with legal and regulatory implications. A well-designed EX contributes significantly to reducing these risks. Organizations that neglect EX expose themselves to considerable business risk, including:
- Increased absenteeism and presenteeism
- Higher turnover costs and recruitment expenses
- Potential psychosocial hazards with associated legal/regulatory risks and liability
- Damaged employer brand and reputation
- Reduced productivity and engagement
- Workers’ compensation claims related to workplace stress
With stakes this high, it’s essential to understand what employee experience really means, the key touchpoints that shape it, and how organizations can improve it.
What Constitutes a Great Employee Experience?
A great EX doesn’t happen by accident, it’s the result of deliberate choices. Employees today want more than a paycheck; they want purpose, growth opportunities, recognition, and belonging.
So let’s talk about some key characteristics of a strong employee experience.
Engagement
In organizations that have strong, positive EX, employees are motivated, and emotionally invested. They also often go beyond their job descriptions by contributing ideas, supporting colleagues, and improving processes. Research shows that highly engaged employees are significantly less likely to leave their organization, helping to stabilize retention.
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It’s important, however, to make sure you are not falling into what Lainie calls “the work perks and beanbag philosophy” when it comes to engagement. Investing in investing in surface-level amenities rather than fundamental experience design is not just potentially costly, it’s also dangerous. Just because employees use and engage with these perks doesn’t necessarily mean they’re happy with their experience.
Empowerment
People thrive when they feel trusted with autonomy and recognized for their contributions. Empowerment means giving employees both the resources and the authority to make decisions in their roles, which not only drives ownership but also accelerates innovation. When your people feel empowered, they are more confident, proactive, and committed to organizational goals.
Connection
Belonging matters. Feeling seen, heard, and aligned with the company’s mission and values helps employees invest emotionally in their work. This connection is built through strong leadership, inclusive practices, and meaningful collaboration. When employees feel connected, silos break down, teamwork improves, and teams are more resilient in times of change.
Holistic Value
Employees want to be recognized not just for what they produce, but for who they are as people. This means respecting work-life balance, supporting wellbeing, and valuing diverse perspectives. When organizations show genuine care for their people, employees are more likely to feel loyal, motivated, and proud to represent the brand.
EX Goes Beyond a Single Touchpoint
At its heart, a great employee experience is about more than perks or policies. Instead, it’s about creating an environment where people feel genuinely engaged, empowered, connected, and, most importantly, valued as human beings. Organizations that invest in these areas see stronger performance and healthier workplace cultures, which is a win-win for both employees and employers.
Who is Responsible for Employee Experience
Leadership Must Lead the Charge
Senior leaders set the tone, define culture, and allocate resources that make positive employee experiences possible. Think of employee experience like an orchestra: every instrument matters, but the conductor ensures the music comes together harmoniously. In the workplace, leadership is that conductor.
Michael stresses that leadership needs to see the employee experience as a business enabler, not just an HR initiative. Intentional employee experience strategies and tactics need to be woven into ways of working and everything the organization does. Laine also adds that it’s critical for EX to be at the forefront of leaders’ and executives’ minds because undoing and fixing bad cultures and terrible employee experience is probably the hardest thing to do and costs organizations significant money. Being deliberate about EX from the start and keeping it on the agenda of the most senior people in the business is essential.
It Takes a Village: The Role of Every Stakeholder
While leadership must drive EX strategically, creating great employee experience is a collective effort:
HR and People & Culture teams plan, develop, and enforce EX initiatives, programs, and strategies. They act as architects of the experience framework.
Managers translate these initiatives into everyday practices, supporting teams and modeling desired behaviors. They’re the frontline of employee experience delivery.
Peers and co-workers significantly impact how employees perceive their experience through daily interactions, collaboration, and support. Research from SHRM shows that workers rank “the work you do,” “co-workers,” and “managers” as the three greatest influences on their experience, highlighting how layered and interconnected EX truly is.
Employees themselves contribute by engaging with programs, offering feedback, and embracing a collaborative, growth-oriented culture.
Shared Responsibility, Clear Accountability
Think of employee experience like an orchestra: every instrument matters, but the conductor ensures the music comes together harmoniously. In the workplace, leadership is that conductor… but the music? That’s everyone, from peers to managers to HR teams.
So while improving EX is a collective effort, it requires strong, visible leadership to guide the organization and ensure every touchpoint aligns with the desired experience. When responsibility is shared but accountability is clear—starting at the top—organizations create environments where employees feel supported, connected, and empowered to do their best work.
How to Improve the Employee Experience
Improving EX requires more than surface-level perks. Forget the pizza parties and ping-pong tables. While they’re cute and fun, they’re not nearly enough. Creating a great employee experience is about making employees feel genuinely supported, heard, and connected at every stage of their journey.
Linking Employee Experience to Business Strategy
Lainie Taylor emphasizes that employee experience cannot be “cookie cutter” or left to chance. It must start with strategy:
- Identify the strategic imperative: What is the organization trying to achieve financially, with customers, consumers, or in terms of growth?
- Work backwards from strategy: What do we need from our people to deliver that? What experience do they need to deliver their best work?
- Create intentional feedback loops: As you build and deliver against strategy, constantly challenge the employee experience. Perks won’t always work and won’t always drive the discretionary effort you’re looking for.
- Remember the goal: You’re looking for employees to be open, honest, truthful, fast, and nimble. To get that, you need to make the experience right for them based on your data, demographics, business context, and strategy.
Advice from Lainie Tayler:
A financial/commercial reality that leaders must consider is that for most businesses, people represent the biggest or second-biggest line item on the P&L. If you’re not actively managing that line in your P&L through intentional employee experience design, you’re leaving significant value on the table.
Foster a Strong Organizational Culture
A healthy culture is the backbone of employee experience.
- Build trust, inclusion, and psychological safety to allow employees to bring their full selves to work without fear of judgment
- Open communication channels and regular feedback loops ensure that employees feel informed and heard
- Celebrate both individual and team achievements to reinforce a sense of purpose
Creating a Culture of Care
Michael reminds leaders to “focus on what you can do to support people through moments that matter.” Policies and systems don’t guide informal behaviors, so think intentionally about how you design these everyday interactions.
Invest in Employee Wellbeing
Employee wellbeing is central to performance and retention.
- Provide access to physical and mental health resources demonstrates genuine care for employees
- Flexible work arrangements where applicable help them balance personal and professional commitments
- Ensuring workloads are designed to be both challenging and sustainable reduce burnout risk and keep motivation high
Improve Onboarding and Integration
- Validate that promises match reality
- Build trust before you need it
- Catch cultural mismatches early when they can still be addressed
- Establish feedback patterns that will serve the employment relationship long-term
Onboarding is often a make-or-break moment in the employee lifecycle. When onboarding is done well, employees hit the ground running with confidence and clarity.
- A structured and welcoming process sets the tone for long-term engagement.
- Ensure new employees connect quickly with their team and understand their role in the company’s mission helps foster early loyalty
- Assign buddies or peer mentors to enhance integration, providing new hires with a support network and practical guidance
- Consider personalising the onboarding experience in small ways, like tailoring a new joiner’s welcome drink to their exact coffee preference or maybe even welcoming their pet to the team as an honorary member if it’s a hybrid or remote position.
Michael Werle on personalizing the onboarding experience
Support Career Development and Learning
Career growth is one of the top drivers of retention.
- Provide structured learning pathways, as well as opportunities for upskilling and reskilling, ensures employees feel prepared for the future of work.
- Encourage individuals to set development goals and track their progress empowers them to take ownership of their careers
- Internal mobility opportunities, such as cross-functional projects, interactions, or role changes, help employees envision a long-term future with the company while keeping talent engaged and challenged.
Enhance Leadership and Management
We don’t need to tell you that leadership has a direct impact on the employee experience. So it’s important to strengthen this area of your organization as well.
- Train managers to act as coaches and empathetic leaders who foster trust and loyalty, while providing clarity, recognition, and support. This ensures employees feel motivated and valued.
- Hold leaders accountable for shaping a positive workplace culture helps align management practices with organizational values.
- Focus on leaders during times of transition. During these times, managers themselves are uncertain about what to do and how to behave. Providing leadership workshops on leading through uncertainty helps them support their teams effectively even when they don’t have all the answers.
A Note on Leaders from Lainie
Let’s be real. Leaders are paid more for a reason. So we should expect them to be in service to their team and to the organization, often sitting in the middle. They must be:
- More open to feedback than their teams
- Smarter, more confident, and more grown-up than their teams
- Willing to continually improve themselves for the business
- Able to take feedback without getting defensive, learning from it even when blindsided
Setting these expectations can help your leaders better understand the responsibility that comes with the better paycheck and encourage them to buy into their role in creating a better employee experience for all.
Create a Great Work Environment
The physical and digital environments where employees work greatly influence their experience.
- Provide intuitive digital tools and systems to reduce friction and enable efficiency. You’d be surprised at how much forcing people to work with difficult or outdated tools affects their desire to look elsewhere.
- Provide thoughtfully designed physical workspaces to encourage collaboration, creativity, and focus.
- For hybrid and remote setups, ensure equity in access to resources, clear communication, and inclusion in decision-making to help all employees feel supported, regardless of location.
Encourage Employee Voice and Involvement
Employees want to feel heard and organizations that listen benefit from valuable insights.
- Conduct surveys, pulse checks, and listening sessions to show employees that their opinions matter.
- Go a step further by involving employees in shaping policies or workplace practices reinforces trust and ownership.
- You can also involve team members in recruitment and onboarding to help assess cultural and team fit (just ensure proper policies and processes are in place to avoid homogeneity and cliques).
- Acting visibly on feedback is also crucial; when employees see change happen as a result of their input, it strengthens their sense of influence and belonging.
What if anyone on your team could shape strategy?
Mentorloop Industry Advisory Council member Christian Miran unpacks how participatory governance gives every team member a voice—and how shifting from consensus to consent can unlock more learning and momentum.
Lainie Taylor shares an initiative she has implemented while working with some of her clients.
It’s a structured feedback period which she calls “Truth Week” or “Amnesty Week”.
Prioritize Recognition and Rewards
We don’t just mean compensation. This is about acknowledging contributions in a meaningful way.
- Implement well-designed recognition programs that align with organizational values encourage desired behaviors and reinforce culture
- Celebrate both team milestones and individual achievements to foster pride and motivation, as well as encourage a shared ownership of outcomes
Recognition programs don’t have to be expensive to be high impact.
Michael Werle shares a low-cost, high-impact recognition program called “What Outstanding Work” or WOW that he has seen implemented by an e-waste recycling client.
Build Connection, Inclusion, and Belonging
Human connection is one of the strongest predictors of positive EX.
- Strengthening diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives ensures that all employees feel represented and respected
- Encouraging cross-team collaboration helps break down silos and creates opportunities for employees to form meaningful relationships.
- Supporting employee resource groups or communities of practice provides safe spaces for connection, shared learning, and belonging.
Provide Flexibility and Autonomy
Employees now expect to be given flexibility.
- Offer hybrid or remote work options where possible. This allows employees to better balance work and life.
- Beyond location, trusting employees with autonomy in how they deliver results creates empowerment and ownership. By focusing on outcomes rather than hours logged, organizations signal trust and respect in their employees’ capabilities and judgment
These are incredibly valuable to your people and key to inspiring productivity and innovation.
Learn From the Ones Who Leave
Exit interviews uncover what went wrong and highlight areas to improve. Acting on feedback from departing employees helps prevent future issues and maintains morale. It’s also an opportunity to identify where the remaining team members need support.
Michael Werle suggests that you consider conducting offboarding surveys online rather than only in face-to-face interviews. People are often more candid in online formats, especially if you’re asking the right questions. Have the written responses first to elicit more honest information, then sit down with the departing person to discuss their feedback.
Additionally, Lainie Tayler suggests making your offboarding process context appropriate.
- Downsizing/restructuring: Focus on care, respect, and support through the transition (see case study below)
- Career advancement departures: Celebrate their growth and maintain the relationship
- Reorganization: Be transparent about changes and provide resources for the transition
Real-World Case Study:
Compassionate Restructuring
Michael Werle shares his experience working with a manufacturing subsidiary in the eastern suburbs of Melbourne, Australia who needed to close a factory with 90 highly technical, skilled workers — many who had been there for decades and feeling like they have nothing to show on a resume.
The company’s leadership decided to focus on a culture of care when offboaring these employees, many of whom have loyally worked for them for most of their lives. Here’s what they did:
- Provided leadership support: Conducted workshops with managers on “leading through uncertainty” since they were uncertain themselves
- Three-day employment expo: Invited companies needing those skills to showcase their business, values, and opportunities right in the workplace
- Comprehensive support: Brought in super funds, manufacturing associations, and other resources
- Phased communication: Sent specific newsletters and updates to remaining employees, inviting them to upcoming events to keep them engaged
- Visible commitment: Leadership showed willingness to do whatever they could to support people
The results were incredibly satisfying:
- Offboarded employees receiving 2-3 job offers each
- Grateful former employees passing on unsolicited “thank you” feedback to the general manager
- Strong morale maintained among remaining employees and even those who have left
- Organizational values have held strong as they were demonstrated in action during a difficult time
Hear Michael talk about his experience working with this company and how the compassionate way employees were offboarded resulted in a win for everyone and no bad blood after a drastic restructure.
Key Insight from Michael
This caring way of offboaring during a drastic change really supported people through the process while treating them with respect and dignity. The remaining employees watched this happen and it reinforced their trust in leadership. Had the company handled this poorly, it would have unraveled all of their previous EX investments.
Measuring Employee Experience: Beyond Engagement Scores
The Right Metrics at the Right Levels
Lainie Taylor advises that you avoid the trap of measuring from the bottom up and panicking when “all our people are unhappy.” Employee experience metrics need to be more strategic and nuanced. Here’s how:
Match metrics to organizational level and goals
Not all teams should show the same satisfaction scores at the same time. Different levels of the organization need different measures.
For example, you might measure executives on strategic metrics like “Are we building the leadership capability needed for our 3-year plan?” while measuring frontline employees on operational metrics like “Do I have the tools I need to do my job well today?” Both are valid employee experience measures, but they serve different purposes and shouldn’t be compared directly.
Align measurements with strategic priorities
Make sure what you measure reflects what you actually need from employees. For example, if your strategy requires rapid innovation and experimentation, ask questions like “Do I feel safe to try new approaches and fail?” or “How quickly can we test new ideas?” rather than just measuring comfort and stability. And don’t penalize leaders when their teams report feeling uncomfortable or uncertain. These feelings can be productive signs of growth rather than problems to fix immediately.
If you’re prioritizing speed-to-market, a team reporting some stress about tight deadlines might actually indicate they’re appropriately focused on urgency, not that employee experience is failing.
Start with simple, fundamental questions
Rather than complex engagement surveys, begin with clarity-focused questions like “Do I know what’s expected of me to deliver?” This clarity index reveals whether people have what they need to be effective, which is the real goal of thoughtfully designing employee experience.
Include external perspectives
Consider Net Promoter Score from customers, clients, or partners. This outside lens helps validate whether your internal employee experience is actually translating into positive external outcomes. Employees who don’t serve customers well, regardless of whether they’re highly engaged in other areas or not, probably aren’t having a great employee experience.
Essential Metrics to Track
- Absenteeism: Rising absenteeism often signals EX problems before they appear in surveys
- Retention rates: Track both overall and by cohort (new hires, high performers, diversity segments, etc.)
- Engagement survey results: Use tools like Great Place to Work or Kincentric, but don’t rely solely on engagement
- Organizational change effectiveness: During restructures or transitions, measure how well people are experiencing the change
- Early-tenure feedback: Survey new employees at 4 weeks, 3 months, and 6 months specifically about their recruitment and onboarding experience
Using Data Strategically
Collecting employee experience data is only valuable if you use it strategically to drive meaningful change. Raw numbers don’t create impact, the story you tell with that data and the actions you take because of it do.
Here’s how to make your EX data work harder:
Tell a story with your data
Don’t just present statistics. Weave them into a narrative that connects to business outcomes. Link your EX insights directly to business strategy around care, productivity, retention, innovation, and customer satisfaction.
For example, instead of saying “engagement scores dropped 5%,” explain “teams in our innovation division show lower comfort scores but higher experimentation rates, which aligns with our strategic pivot toward rapid product development.” This helps stakeholders understand not just what the data says, but what it means for the business.
Identify improvement opportunities
Use data to pinpoint where employee experience can reduce risk or unlock value, not just to confirm what’s working. Look for patterns that reveal friction points in the employee journey—places where the experience is breaking down and costing the organization.
This might be unusually high turnover in a specific department during the first six months, indicating an onboarding problem, or low clarity scores among mid-level managers, suggesting they need better communication from leadership about strategic direction.
Accept discomfort during transformation
Be prepared for some metrics to look uncomfortable if you’re on a strategic journey, and communicate this context to stakeholders. Not every dip in satisfaction is a red flag. Some indicate that necessary change is happening. The key is knowing which discomfort is productive (challenge and growth) versus destructive (burnout and disengagement).
Set expectations with leadership that transformation often looks messy in the data before it looks successful.
Act on feedback and show it
The most important part of collecting employee experience data is demonstrating that their input creates visible change. When employees see their feedback translated into action—whether it’s a policy change, a new program, or even an explanation of why something can’t change—it builds trust in the feedback process.
Close the loop by communicating back to employees what you heard, what you’re doing about it, and why. This creates a virtuous cycle where employees stay engaged with providing honest feedback because they see it matters.
Making the Board-Level Business Case
Our experts stress the importance of framing the realities in terms of the commercial and the financial when making the case for EX investment to executives, especially to those who may be hesitant about it.
The Commercial Realities
People are your organization — full stop.
This isn’t just philosophical, it’s practical reality. Without people, there is no product, no service, no innovation, no execution. Every strategic initiative, every customer interaction, every dollar of revenue flows through your people.
When executives understand that the organization is its people rather than people being just another resource, EX becomes non-negotiable.
People represent your largest or second-largest P&L expense.
This makes the business case obvious: if you’re spending 40-60% of your budget on people but not actively managing their experience, you’re essentially leaving your biggest investment unmanaged.
No CFO would tolerate that approach with capital equipment or technology investments. Ask executives: “Would you spend millions on new equipment without a plan to maximize its performance?” The same logic applies to people.
You must have the best people to enable your strategy and deliver shareholder value
Strategy doesn’t execute itself—people execute strategy. The gap between a mediocre strategy with exceptional people and an exceptional strategy with mediocre people shows that talent quality matters more than plans on paper.
Great EX attracts and retains the best people, while poor EX means you’re trying to execute ambitious strategies with whoever is willing to stay despite the dysfunction.
If employee experience isn’t delivering ROI back to the bottom line, hold HR and leaders accountable
This reframes EX as a measurable business outcome, not a feel-good initiative. Just as marketing must show campaign ROI and operations must show efficiency gains, EX should demonstrate its impact on retention costs, productivity metrics, customer satisfaction, and revenue per employee.
This accountability ensures EX stays strategic rather than becoming a collection of disconnected perks.
Key Talking Points
Our experts also suggest a few key talking points you could use to really gain that leadership buy-in.
Organizations with strong EX outperform markets in profitability and top-line revenue
This isn’t theory—it’s documented across industries. Companies with engaged workforces see higher margins because engaged employees are more productive, innovative, and customer-focused. They also grow revenue faster because great EX becomes a competitive advantage in attracting talent and serving customers. Use this to position EX as a growth driver, not a cost center.
A well-designed EX is not just about making people happy, it’s about making them effective
This distinction is critical for winning over skeptical executives who see employee satisfaction initiatives as “soft.” Happiness is nice but doesn’t guarantee results. Effectiveness means employees have clarity about what’s expected, the tools and support to deliver, and the psychological safety to solve problems and innovate. An effective workforce drives business outcomes; a merely happy one might not.
You’re seeking discretionary effort: people who are open, honest, truthful, fast, and nimble
Modern business requires agility and innovation that can’t be commanded, it must be willingly given. Discretionary effort is the difference between employees doing the minimum required and going above and beyond. This extra effort—spotting opportunities, solving problems proactively, collaborating across boundaries—is what separates market leaders from followers. You can’t get discretionary effort through intimidation or transaction; you earn it through great employee experience.
To get that effort, the experience must be right for your people based on your specific context.
Cookie-cutter EX programs fail because what motivates and enables a tech startup differs from a manufacturing company or professional services firm. Your people’s demographics, your strategic priorities, your competitive pressures, and your culture all shape what “right” looks like. This customization is why EX requires strategic thinking and investment, not just copying best practices from other companies.
What to Include in Your Slide Deck
- Link EX to business strategy around care, productivity, retention, innovation, and customer satisfaction metrics
- Use compelling data: Show the cost of turnover, the revenue impact of engagement, customer satisfaction correlations
- Highlight psychosocial safety risks: EX contributes to reducing legal and regulatory risks in this increasingly important area
- Be contextual: Cite specific examples and emerging trends relevant to your industry and situation
- Create a value proposition: Frame EX as a business enabler that drives performance, not an HR “nice to have”
- Break it into manageable steps: If leadership sees it as too big or too hard, show incremental wins
- Address past failures: If previous initiatives didn’t work, understand why and show how this approach differs
Understanding Leadership Resistance
Michael Werle notes that there are things to remember when you encounter hesitant executives:
- Remember that it’s lonely at the top: C-Level leaders don’t have many people to talk to, so work closely with them
- Ask about concerns: There may be legacy experiences from failed initiatives in past organizations
- Acknowledge imperfection: Things won’t always go right — frame that as an opportunity to reflect and improve
- Get sponsorship early: Without C-suite buy-in, EX initiatives struggle regardless of their quality
- Show incremental value: Demonstrate quick wins while building toward comprehensive change
Boosting the Employee Experience Through Mentoring
Mentoring plays a pivotal role in shaping a positive EX. When done right, it touches every stage of the employee lifecycle, from the excitement of joining to ongoing career development, and even offboarding.
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Improving Employee Engagement Through Meaningful Relationships
Mentoring builds trust-based relationships that give employees a stronger sense of purpose and belonging. Disengaged employees are more often than not disconnected from their colleagues or leadership. Mentoring opportunities can help bridge that gap. Employees who participate in mentoring programs report higher engagement levels and are more likely to contribute ideas, support peers, and go above and beyond in their roles.
Encouraging Continuous Learning and Development
Mentoring is particularly effective in supporting learning initiatives because it personalizes development, making it more relevant and actionable. Mentors often guide employees in identifying skill gaps, setting development goals, and pursuing growth opportunities.
A natural result of this is that employees with mentoring support are more likely to participate in upskilling or reskilling programs, which enhances both individual performance and organizational capability. This hands-on support strengthens the effectiveness and efficiency of the company’s learning and development initiatives while empowering employees to take ownership of their career growth.
Enhancing Team Dynamics and Collaboration
Mentoring initiatives that open employees up to cross-functional interactions fosters collaboration as they connect people from different departments, roles, or locations. This means that not only do these programs help close skills gaps, but also encourages employees to work together and share knowledge. Teams that participate in mentoring programs experience better communication, stronger relationships, and reduced silos—all of which helps improve productivity and innovation.
Providing Employees with a Strong Support Network
By its nature, mentoring relationships require genuine human connection. Therefore, making mentoring opportunities available to your people allows them to create a reliable network of guidance and encouragement for themselves.
Employees with strong support networks are less likely to feel isolated or disengaged. That’s because mentors (and even mentees) help provide perspective, advice, and emotional support, helping employees navigate challenges, build confidence, and feel connected to the workplace culture, goals, and outcomes.
Unlocking Internal Mobility and Career Growth
Mentoring equips employees with the tools to explore new roles and pathways within the organization. Mentoring programs help with surfacing opportunities for internal mobility as it helps your people interact with different parts of the business, be it vertically or laterally, which in turn helps them surface opportunities.
This not only helps with employee retention but also accelerates your people’s career progression. Employees supported by mentors are more likely to pursue promotions, lateral moves, or stretch assignments, helping the organization develop talent internally, reducing reliance on external hiring.
Final Thoughts
Employee experience is a critical factor in organizational success. By understanding its components and implementing initiatives like mentoring programs, organizations can create a supportive and engaging environment that benefits both employees and the organization as a whole.
Remember these key principles:
- EX happens whether you design it or not — intentional design reduces business risk
- Start with strategy, not perks — work backwards from business goals to determine what experience your people need
- Focus on the first six months — this is your highest-ROI investment period
- Measure what matters at each level — accept discomfort during transformation
- Make it a business imperative, not an HR program — EX must be owned from the board down
- Keep it simple and authentic — low-cost programs that reflect genuine care outperform expensive but hollow initiatives
- Build trust before you need it — especially during onboarding and transitions
Investing in EX is not just about improving the workplace; it’s about building a foundation for long-term success. For most organizations, your people represent your biggest P&L line item. If you’re not actively managing that investment through deliberate employee experience design, you’re leaving extraordinary value on the table while also putting your organization at risk.
