Driving engagement with the employee experience

Purpose This paper aims to define the employee experience as a concept, give an overview of how employers are using it as an engagement approach and discuss two examples of how leading organizations are leveraging more advanced applications of the employee experience to drive better engagement outcomes. Design/methodology/approach In 2019, APQC surveyed 231 HR professionals responsible for the engagement strategy at organizations with more than 1,000 employees and greater than US$500m in revenue. The survey results represent employers from 30 industries and 34 headquarters countries. Findings Most employers have made the employee experience part of their employee engagement strategy. Employers reporting the best outcomes from their engagement strategy are significantly more likely to train leaders, managers and HR on the employee experience concept and leverage critical elements from the employee experience design methodology. Originality/value This paper explains the reasons for the growing popularity of the employee experience, discusses its potential as a method for employee engagement and concludes with an overview and examples of the steps involved in employee experience design.