Editorial
The words “employee” and “experience,” when combined, have become similar to other corporate jargon favorites like “digital transformation,” “digital workplace,” “big data” and “agile,” to name a few. They all sound good; can be heard in many a keynote address; but can be empty of meaning depending on the context. I admit, I’ve been guilty of using “employee experience” in a similar fashion in my writing.
This realization caused me to dig deeper into what employee experience really means; why it matters; who is responsible for it; and what needs to happen for companies to successfully provide an excellent one.
What Is Employee Experience?
Depending on who you ask, you’ll likely hear a different definition of employee experience:
- The HR Spin: Josh Bersin, a leading authority on HR and workplace trends, defines employee experience as “how your organization shapes the way people work and live — from productivity to flexibility, wellbeing, health and everything in between.”
- The IT Spin: Gartner, who speaks to many an IT professional looking for new technologies, defines it 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. Those in IT will focus on the usability of systems, digital access and whether employees can easily find and use the tools they need to do their jobs.”
- The Comms Spin: Communications professionals, who I have surrounded myself with for years as a consultant, will likely tell you that they have a significant impact on the employee experience, which is defined as the clear and consistent delivery of messages that keep employees informed and connected to their company and leadership.
- The BizOps Spin: Ask someone in business operations, and they will tell you that the employee experience is the success of the day-to-day work environment: processes, workflows, scheduling, frontline practices and physical spaces.
Each comes at defining employee experience from their own point of view. There is nothing wrong with this. It’s a dog-eat-dog world we live and work in. But one thing is clear: employee experience touches and involves pretty much everyone in a company. Shouldn’t the definitions reflect this, without subjectivity or spin?
So, here’s my attempt at defining employee experience — keeping it simple, all-encompassing and not based on work function or bias:
“Employee Experience Is the Operating System of Work.”
This definition combines how people feel about their ability to do their jobs, shaped by access to information, tools and leadership behaviors. It applies to an entire organization, not just a few departments. And like any operating system, it needs a clear owner, rules of the road and regular updates.
Who Is Responsible for It?
Just as the definition of EX changed depending on who you asked, so too goes the question of responsibility. If you ask Josh Bersin, he would likely say HR is responsible for employee experience. Gartner would probably agree so long as IT can decide what technologies should be used. Communications, especially those charged with internal/employee communications, would claim responsibility since they are ultimately responsible for informing and engaging employees, as well as keeping track of employee sentiment in order to respond appropriately through communications. Those in the many business operations might also claim ownership as the ones directly responsible for generating the dollars and cents.
But, my definition of employee experience changes this paradigm. Anyone who is responsible for or touches the employee lifecycle now owns it. It is a companywide responsibility.
But we know what happens when there are too many cooks in the kitchen ....
A Governance Gap
It’s unrealistic to think HR, IT, Communications and Operations will suddenly align on their own. Like anything else that impacts an entire organization, there is a need to come up with a plan and reach consensus. That is the governance gap.
My thesis for years has been professionals in IT and those in Communications must work collaboratively. They serve the same key audience — a company’s employees — and often have no choice but to partner, especially when it comes to the critical tool of the corporate intranet.
Most companies therefore assume employee experience will happen if each department does its job well. This is why it has never been clearly defined. Without coordination, what employees actually feel (i.e. “experience”) is a fragmented patchwork: HR policies that aren’t understood, IT tools that don’t connect, operations processes that add friction, and communications that don’t cut through the noise. Everyone touches the employee, yet no one ensures those touchpoints add up to a coherent experience.
What’s missing is a formal structure of accountability; a way to set shared standards, define priorities and measure outcomes across functions. Without these, employee experience remains a slogan rather than a managed discipline.
Closing the Gap: C-Suite Ownership of EX
Responsibility for employee experience can’t sit in the siloed layers of HR, IT or Communications. It has to sit at the top. A company’s CEO should ultimately own employee experience, the same way the C-Suite owns customer experience, culture and financial performance.
I don’t say this philosophically. There are very practical reasons for the helm taking responsibility and ownership, especially if quick action is required. Only the CEO has the authority to cut across silos and make employee experience a true organizational priority. Without that signal, every function will default to its own definition of success.
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So let’s get real. Once a company concludes that employee experience must become a priority, here are five straightforward steps it can take to operationalize employee experience based on a shared definition and demonstrate that it isn’t an afterthought:
- CEO companywide announcement: “Employee Experience is now a strategic priority for our company.”
- Formation of an Employee Experience Council made up of HR, IT Communications and Operations leaders (and employee representatives to keep them honest)
- The Council is charged with coming up with a plan and standards for how information is shared, ensures tools are accessible and consistent, and audits “moments that matter” across the employee lifecycle; metrics are determined to gauge success (things like time-to-awareness for critical updates, ability to find information, trust in leadership communications, onboarding speed and reduced attrition).
- Within a finite period of time (2 months? 3?), the Council reports back to the CEO with the plan which is then presented to the C-Suite and Board of Directors for approval.
- The CEO (or other designated leader) reports to the Board of Directors annually on the new EX metrics, just as they do on financials, ESG and other business goals. He or she also reports same to the company’s workforce.
Conclusion
Employee experience is not a buzzword or a side project. It’s the operating system of work. When the C-Suite steps up to own it — and when IT, HR, Communications, and all other parts of a business align under a common governance structure — companies can finally move from talking about employee experience to actually delivering one that drives trust, engagement, and business success.
Editor's Note: What else is happening in employee experience?
- The New Playbook of Employee Experience — Organizations that treat engagement as an outcome of good design, not a program to fix, will build meaningful employee connections.
- The Silent Exit of Employee Experience: A CIO's Call to Action — An open letter to CIOs on the role they play in protecting EX as a strategic priority — and why it matters for the long-term of their own functions.
- Why More Technology Doesn't Mean Better Employee Experience — Technology can help employees work better, smarter and more efficiently. But layering on yet even more tech doesn't lead to exponential returns.
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