What is employee experience and why does it matter?

The CIPD defines employee experience as "the result of all the interactions an employee has with their employer". More broadly, it's the overall impression an employee forms of an organisation through the interactions, processes and environments they encounter throughout their employment.

It begins before someone joins the organisation and continues through onboarding, day-to-day work, development and performance, right through to their eventual exit. It can be influenced by factors such as leadership, workplace culture, relationships with colleagues, career opportunities, wellbeing, technology and the ease of completing everyday tasks.

A positive employee experience is determined by how consistently these different elements work together to help employees feel supported, equipped and able to do their best work. 

Employee experience vs engagement

Employee experience and employee engagement are closely related, but they aren't the same thing.

Employee experience describes what an employee encounters and how they perceive their entire journey with an organisation. Employee engagement describes the level of emotional commitment, motivation and connection an employee feels towards their work and employer.

If an employee has a positive experience with an organisation, they will be more likely to feel valued, motivated and committed to the organisation, resulting in engagement.

Learn more: What is employee engagement and how to improve it 

Employee experience matters because it can influence how people feel about their work, how effectively they perform and whether they choose to stay with an organisation.

Research shows that 86% of employees are likely to leave a job if it doesn't support their wellbeing, while 83% of chief HR officers are facing a significant talent retention problem, with stress and burnout the most common reason for employees leaving.  

The impact of employee experience extends beyond retention, too. A positive experience can support:

• Higher productivity: Clear processes, effective support and the right tools can remove unnecessary friction and help people work more effectively.
• Stronger wellbeing: Workload, workplace culture, flexibility and access to support can influence how sustainable and positive work feels.
• Greater engagement: Positive experiences can contribute to employees feeling more motivated, connected and committed to their work.
• A stronger employer brand: The experiences of current and former employees can influence how prospective employees perceive an organisation.

There's also a significant commercial impact. Gallup's State of the Global Workplace 2026 found that only 20% of employees globally were engaged in 2025 and estimates that low engagement cost the global economy approximately $10 trillion in lost productivity last year.

Creating an environment where people feel supported and empowered to do their best work can therefore contribute to better workforce outcomes and stronger organisational performance. 

Employee experience isn't shaped by a single moment. It develops through the interactions an employee has with an organisation over time. Looking at these interactions through the employee lifecycle provides a useful framework for understanding the whole experience, rather than focusing on one-off initiatives.

The lifecycle can be broken down into five key stages, each presenting different opportunities to create a positive employee experience: 

Recruit

Your employer brand, job adverts, application process, interviews and communication all contribute to a candidate's first impression of the organisation. A clear and consistent recruitment experience helps candidates understand what your organisation stands for and what they can expect if they join.

Onboard

Once an employee joins, onboarding is where those expectations start to become reality. New starters need clear goals, access to the right tools and information, introductions to colleagues and support from their manager. Effective onboarding can help employees feel welcomed, confident and equipped to contribute.

Engage

This stage encompasses much of the day-to-day employee experience, including the work people do, their relationships with colleagues and managers, communication, recognition and wellbeing. Regular check-ins and opportunities to provide feedback can help organisations understand what's working well and where the experience could be improved.

Develop

Employees need opportunities to learn, build skills and progress. Training, coaching, feedback and clear career opportunities can help people see a future within the organisation, while enabling employers to develop the skills and capabilities they need.

Exit

Employee experience continues when someone decides to leave. A respectful offboarding process, effective knowledge transfer and opportunities to provide honest feedback can leave a positive final impression. Exit feedback can also provide valuable insight into where the employee experience could be improved for others. 

You can't improve what you don't measure. No single metric will give you the complete picture, so organisations should use a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods to measure employee experience:  

Surveys

Surveys give employees a structured way to share how they feel about different aspects of their experience. Alongside larger employee surveys, shorter pulse surveys can help organisations monitor sentiment more regularly and identify changes over time.

However, employees need to feel comfortable providing honest feedback and understand how their responses will be used.

Our research shows that employee surveys achieve an average response rate of just 60%. It also found that 40% of organisations do not anonymise their surveys, while 30% are concerned that the feedback they receive is not truthful.

Interviews and focus groups

Interviews and focus groups can help you explore the reasons behind survey results in greater depth. One-to-one interviews or group discussions give employees an opportunity to explain their experiences in their own words, providing context that quantitative scores alone may miss.

For example, a survey might identify declining satisfaction with career development, while follow-up conversations could reveal whether employees are concerned about access to training, progression opportunities or support from managers.

Regular check ins

Regular check-ins between employees and managers provide another opportunity to understand employee experience.

They allow managers to discuss issues as they arise, including workload, wellbeing, development, performance and any barriers employees are experiencing. They can also help managers identify where additional support or action may be needed.

Tip: People First supports recurring check-ins between managers and employees, with AI generated talking points that help both sides prepare and make it easier to have meaningful discussions.

Workforce metrics

Employee feedback should be considered alongside workforce data such as:

• Employee turnover rate
• Absence rate
• Learning and development participation
• Performance trends
• Onboarding and probation outcomes

These measures shouldn't be treated as definitive measures of employee experience by themselves. For example, an increase in absence could have many causes. But when workforce data is considered alongside employee feedback, it can help organisations to identify patterns.

Exit interviews and online reviews

Exit interviews can provide valuable insight into why employees leave and highlight problems that people may have been reluctant to raise while employed.

Employer-review websites like Glassdoor can also provide a perspective on how current and former employees perceive the organisation. However, they should be treated as one source of evidence rather than a representative measure of the entire workforce. 

Improving employee experience isn't just the responsibility of HR. Managers, leaders and employees all influence the experience people have at work.

As Rebecca Carter, Head of Product at MHR, explains:

“Employee experience is everyone’s responsibility, but HR departments are best suited to map out the key touchpoints and standards of your employee experience.”

HR can provide the framework and identify areas for improvement, but creating a consistently positive experience requires action across the organisation. Some practical areas to focus on include:

1. Create a positive work environment

A positive working environment is built through everyday behaviours as much as formal policies. Encourage open communication and collaboration, recognise employees' contributions and create opportunities for people to build meaningful relationships with their colleagues.

Managers and leaders also need to demonstrate the behaviours and values the organisation expects from others. A positive experience is difficult to sustain when there is a disconnect between organisational values and employees' everyday experiences.

2. Prioritise work-life balance and wellbeing

Consider how workload, flexibility and working practices affect employees' wellbeing and their ability to balance work with their lives outside it. Encourage people to take appropriate breaks and time away from work, while providing flexibility where roles allow.

Crucially, wellbeing initiatives need to reflect what employees actually experience, rather than simply what an organisation says it offers. Research carried out by MHR found that 79% of employees don't believe their employer when they promote mental health initiatives.  

If you make a commitment to employee wellbeing and mental health, employees need to see that commitment reflected in your actions and their everyday experience. Otherwise, trust is eroded.

3. Invest in employee development

Give employees opportunities to develop skills and progress throughout their careers. Training, coaching, mentoring and clear progression pathways can all contribute to a more positive experience while helping the organisation build the capabilities it needs for the future.

Development should be an ongoing conversation rather than something discussed only during an annual performance review.

4. Improve efficiency and remove friction

Everyday frustrations can quickly add up. Repetitive administration, disconnected systems, difficult processes and a lack of access to information can make it harder for employees to get their work done.

Look for opportunities to simplify processes, automate repetitive tasks and provide employees with the tools and information they need. Removing unnecessary friction allows people to spend more time on valuable work and less time navigating internal processes.

5. Listen to employees and act on feedback

Regularly ask employees about their experiences, challenges and priorities through surveys, pulse surveys, check-ins and other feedback channels. Just as importantly, show employees what happens as a result.

Our research highlighted this as an area where many organisations could improve. 93% don't get instant access to employee survey results, while only 46% always communicate survey results back to the wider business.

Collecting feedback is only the first step. Share what you've learned with employees, explain what action you're taking and continue to measure whether those changes are having the intended effect. Closing the feedback loop builds trust and demonstrates that employee views are being taken seriously. 

Employee experience software can help organisations create a more connected and consistent experience by simplifying everyday interactions, giving employees greater control over routine tasks and helping HR teams and managers understand where improvements are needed.

Software can support the employee experience in several ways:

• Employee self-service: Give employees easy access to payslips, personal information, leave, HR documents and other services without always needing to contact HR.
• Check-ins and feedback: Support regular conversations between managers and employees and make it easier to capture feedback throughout the employee lifecycle.
• Performance and development: Bring goals, feedback, learning and development opportunities into a more consistent experience.
• Automation: Reduce repetitive administrative tasks, giving HR teams and managers more time to focus on supporting people.
• Workforce insights: Bring people data together to help identify trends and potential issues across areas such as absence, retention and development.
• Employee listening: Make it easier to gather, analyse and act on employee feedback, including through surveys and sentiment analysis.

Technology is already widely used to support employee experience. In a survey of 250 HR professionals, we found that 98% use software to support employee experience, including 67% for performance management and 60% for check-ins. However, 50% don't use software for wellbeing management and 45% don't have learning software in place.

This suggests that while most organisations have technology in place, it may not support every aspect of the employee experience equally. Taking a more connected approach can help organisations support employees across different stages of their journey, from onboarding and everyday HR interactions to performance, development and wellbeing. 

People First brings HR, payroll and employee experience tools together in one platform, helping organisations reduce friction across the employee lifecycle while giving employees, managers and HR teams easier access to the information and support they need.

For employees, that can mean simpler self-service, clearer development opportunities and more consistent interactions with HR and managers. For HR teams, it can mean less time spent on manual admin and more time focused on improving the employee experience itself.

How it works in practice

British Gymnastics wanted an HR and payroll system designed with the employee journey in mind. With 190 employees, the organisation chose People First for its focus on employee experience, accessible functionality and employee-centric features.

As Sarah Ashley-Ruff, Head of People and Shared Service at British Gymnastics, explained:

“We wanted a new system with the user experience and employee journey in mind. We chose People First.”

Since implementing People First, British Gymnastics has used employee self-service to give people real-time access to payroll information, brought learning into one place and supported its existing culture of employee recognition. Staff have also responded positively to the platform's “no-fuss” design and easy access to essential tools.

Watch or read the full case study here.

Want to see how People First could work for your organisation? Book a personalised demo to discover how People First can help you create a more connected employee experience across HR, payroll, learning and everyday interactions.