Measuring the Impact of Employee Experience

🏃♀️ Imagine a study on marathon performance that doesn't mention some runners are carrying 50-pound backpacks. That's the 2025 Women in the Workplace report from Mckinsey and LeanIn 60 pages on why women "want promotions less." Zero mentions of childcare, eldercare, or the invisible second shift. Their own data shows women and men are equally committed to their careers, over 90% on every measure. Young women under 30 has even more ambitious than young men. Latinas are the most ambitious group in the entire study. 🤔 So where does this "ambition gap" come from? Buried on page 10, in a small box, they note that women who decline promotion cite "personal obligations" at nearly double the rate of men. Then they move on. No follow-up. No analysis. No asking the obvious question: What are these "personal obligations"? 💔 I'll tell you what they are. 👉 They're the 2am feeding before your 8am presentation. 👉 The school pickup that can't be rescheduled. 👉 The elderly parent who needs a doctor's appointment during your board meeting. 👉 The mental load of remembering everyone's everything while being told you "lack ambition." The report measured ambition without measuring the invisible infrastructure women are running at home. 👉 Here's what the report should have asked: ⁉️ Do women with equal childcare support want promotions at the same rate as men? ⁉️ Do women with flexible work arrangements show the same career drive? ⁉️ Does the "ambition gap" exist in countries with subsidized childcare? (Spoiler: Research says no, no, and no.) Instead, they concluded women are less ambitious and moved on to solutions that don't address the actual problem. This isn't just a missed opportunity. It's a misdirection! ❌ Because when you diagnose "ambition gap" instead of "care gap," you get solutions like "women need more confidence" instead of "workplaces need to stop penalizing caregiving." You get women blamed for systemic failures. 📊 Here's what an honest report would say: ✅ Women aren't less ambitious. They're doing two jobs while being evaluated as if they're doing one. ✅ The workplace wasn't designed for people with caregiving responsibilities. It was designed for people with wives. ✅ Until we redesign the system, we'll keep "discovering" that women don't want what men want, when really, women just can't afford what men take for granted. That's exactly why we built "From Hidden Talent to Visible Leader", because the women I work with aren't lacking ambition. They're lacking a system that sees their full contribution. Next cohort starts end of Jan 2026. 👉 Join the waitlist: https://lnkd.in/gx7CpGGR 👊 Because women don't have an ambition problem. The workplace has a measurement problem, and it starts with reports that count everything except what actually matters.

According to new research from Elevance Health, workplace wellness programs, when thoughtfully designed, do more than shift behavior - they may improve real health outcomes. 📊 Individuals with complex health and social needs participated in our Smart Rewards wellness program at higher rates than other populations. 📈 Participants were more likely to maintain blood pressure and blood sugar control, as measured by HEDIS metrics, which are important signals of chronic condition management.   This matters because people who face the barriers to care are often those least likely to be reached by traditional interventions. This study makes a powerful case for how aligning incentives with engagement, plus giving people tools to act on their health, can drive measurable improvement. With the right design, workplace wellness programs can deliver meaningful health value especially for those who stand to gain the most. #WorkplaceWellness https://lnkd.in/gn92p5cp

Are you measuring what matters in your organization? A comprehensive measure of organizational effectiveness includes much more than profit margins and growth rates. The market and media often celebrate companies that show rapid financial growth or high profitability, leading to a cultural bias towards these metrics as signs of success BUT the tide is slowly turning- more businesses are recognizing the long-term value of a holistic approach to effectiveness and success. Many more businesses are embracing the concept of the "Triple Bottom Line," which measures success not just by financial profit ("Profit"), but also by the company's impact on people ("People") and the planet ("Planet"). HOWEVER 🚨 There is more work to be done! The prioritization of non-financial elements of organizational success can get pushed aside when financial pressures hit or quick results are valued. You have probably heard the phrase "What gets measured gets managed". This is generally true. Quantifying and measuring non-financial aspects of effectiveness, such as employee well-being, social impact, and workplace culture, is hugely important but remains challenging. 💡 Here's some straightforward steps to move you towards a more holistic approach to measuring success: 𝐒𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐭 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐜𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐫 𝐠𝐨𝐚𝐥𝐬: Define what holistic success means for your organization. This could include specific targets related to employee well-being, social impact, and environmental sustainability. 𝐄𝐧𝐠𝐚𝐠𝐞 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐤𝐞𝐡𝐨𝐥𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐬: Talk to employees, customers, and community members to understand what aspects of your business matter most to them. Their insights can help shape your holistic success framework. 𝐂𝐡𝐨𝐨𝐬𝐞 𝐫𝐞𝐥𝐞𝐯𝐚𝐧𝐭 𝐦𝐞𝐭𝐫𝐢𝐜𝐬: Based on your goals and stakeholder feedback, pick metrics that are meaningful and manageable. For example, employee satisfaction can be measured through regular surveys, while environmental impact can be tracked through energy consumption or waste reduction metrics. 𝐔𝐬𝐞 𝐞𝐱𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐟𝐫𝐚𝐦𝐞𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐤𝐬: Look into established frameworks (like GRI or B Corp standards for sustainability; Gallups Q12 Engagement Survey for employee engagement or the Denison Organizational Culture Model to measure workplace culture). There are existing frameworks for most known elements of organizational effectiveness so it's just a matter of looking into them. 𝐈𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐠𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐨 𝐝𝐞𝐜𝐢𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧-𝐦𝐚𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠: Ensure that these holistic metrics are part of regular business reviews and decision-making processes, not just side projects. 𝐑𝐞𝐩𝐨𝐫𝐭 𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐬𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐥𝐲: Share your progress openly, including both successes and areas for improvement. Transparency builds trust and credibility. 𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐮𝐨𝐮𝐬 𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠: Be prepared to adapt and refine your approach as you learn what works and what doesn't. This is a journey, not a one-time task. #organizationaleffectiveness #measurewhatmatters #leaders

One of the most common client questions when I run #wellbeing interventions—whether #coaching, team-building, or #leadership development—is: “How do we measure the impact?” There are, of course, several tools for this—360 feedback, personality tests, engagement surveys—but while these offer useful data, they don’t always capture the most critical factor: how people actually feel. Impact isn’t just about numbers; it’s about whether individuals experience positive change in their connection to others, their #umindset, and their sense of purpose. This is where one of my favorite frameworks comes in, CHIME. Originally developed in #mentalhealth recovery, CHIME provides a meaningful way to assess whether interventions foster authentic engagement, resilience, and transformation. CHIME stands for: ✅ Connectedness – Do people feel a stronger sense of belonging and support in the workplace? ✅ Hope & Optimism – Has their outlook improved? Do they feel that growth and progress are possible? ✅ Identity – Have they gained greater self-awareness and alignment with their values? ✅ Meaning – Does their work feel more connected to a greater purpose? ✅ Empowerment – Do they feel more autonomous, confident, and in control of their growth? Why Does This Matter? Many corporate well-being programs focus on surface-level engagement like team bonding activities, wellness perks, or short-term morale boosters. While these have their place, their impact fades quickly if they don’t address deeper psychological needs. By integrating CHIME as part of the evaluation of results, organizations can assess effectiveness by asking: ✔️ Are workplace relationships improving? (Connectedness) ✔️ Are employees feeling more hopeful and resilient? (Hope & Optimism) ✔️ Do they have greater clarity about who they are and what they want? (Identity) ✔️ Are they more connected to the company’s mission? (Meaning) ✔️ Do they feel a greater sense of ownership over their careers? (Empowerment) Rather than relying solely on metrics, subjective human experience is a critical indicator of #success as well, because basically to quote Luigi Pirandello: “Right you are, if you think so”.

Are we measuring the success of workplace wellbeing programmes in the wrong way? 🤔 Take Employee Assistance Programmes (EAPs) as an example - these are generally used by people at the more severe end of the mental health spectrum and potentially in crisis. So trying to drive up utilisation of the EAP doesn’t make sense, you actually want to aim for a lower rate of usage which, in theory, should be less instances of severely poor mental health in your organisation. However, what feels absolutely tragic is that only 27% of employees know their business even has an EAP - if that's what's driving low utilisation, then that's a problem. This isn’t any one person’s or organisation’s fault - it’s notoriously hard to market wellbeing services and benefits internally. So are these perhaps better metrics to judge wellbeing services & programmes on?: ➡️ What % of employees know that a service exists within our business? ➡️ What % of employees would feel comfortable using that service, should they need to? ➡️ What’s our conversion % down our internal clinical pathways? (How many people find and use awareness-raising benefits, and then convert themselves down into signposting to other action-orientated benefits) ➡️ What % of managers have said that our internal wellbeing benefits are both A) easy-to-find and use, and B) supported them in being a better manager? ➡️ What % of employees reported a positive increase in their mental health as a direct result of our internal benefit offering? What do you think? Any measurements I’ve missed? 👇

The Unseen Work of Women: Leadership Bootcamp, shock, it’s Free & Unpaid The first time I chaired a crucial leadership meeting while simultaneously WhatsApping my childminder about a missing coat, I realised something: Motherhood is the ultimate leadership training program—except there’s no salary, no promotions, and definitely no annual leave. As a single mum to three while holding senior leadership roles, I’ve mastered the art of conflict resolution (siblings + remote controls), crisis management (last-minute school projects), and stakeholder engagement (convincing a toddler to wear shoes). These aren’t just ‘mum skills’—they’re executive skills. Yet, in the workplace, the unseen work that so many women do—both at home and in the office—often goes unnoticed. We’re the ones remembering birthdays, mentoring juniors, smoothing tensions in teams, and somehow keeping everything moving while also remembering that Friday is non-uniform day. And here’s the thing: This invisible labour doesn’t just make women great colleagues—it makes them great leaders. But let’s be real—it comes at a cost. Bandwidth, exhaustion, and the constant juggling act of being both ‘always on’ and ‘somehow never available.’ So, if we’re serious about accelerating action this IWD, here’s where leaders can start: ✅ Stop measuring commitment by “who stays latest”—some of us have nursery pickups and kids who think homework is optional. Judge performance by impact, not hours. ✅ Recognise the “office housework.” Women do a lot of the emotional labour—mentoring, organising socials, ‘just quickly’ sorting team issues. Start noticing. Start rewarding. ✅ Make flexibility the norm, not a favor. If the job gets done, does it matter if it happens at 6 AM before the school run or at 9 PM after bedtime? ✅ Call out bias in real time. If a dad leaves early for childcare, he’s a “great parent.” If a mum does, she’s “not committed.” If you hear it, challenge it. This International Women’s Day is about more than words—it’s about action. So, let’s do more than just celebrate women. Let’s create workplaces where they don’t have to run a second, unpaid shift. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to prepare for my next high-pressure negotiation: convincing a teenager that college is not ‘optional’ and no he can’t just rock up when he feels like it. What’s one thing you’ll do to accelerate action? Let’s start the conversation. #IWD2025 #AccelerateAction #UnseenWork #Leadership #WorkingMums #EquityInTheWorkplace

Not all soft skills training is created equal. A few months ago, I was working with a group of managers from a large manufacturing company. They had been through plenty of training programs before- the kind where you take notes and then go right back to doing things the old way. When I walked into the room, I could see it in their faces: Let’s see if this is any different. So instead of starting with slides or theory, I took them straight into a live simulation: - A crisis scenario that could actually happen in their business. - Conflicting priorities, tough personalities, and limited time to decide. - Every move they made in real time had visible consequences. To begin with, I saw a lot of resistance in experimentation, voices which were not too loud and over powering were ignored leading to loss of critical information- the room was tense. People hesitated. Some stuck to their usual patterns. But as it got deeper, they started communicating much more effectively, this led to them collaborating, noticing blind spots, and eventually testing new ways to lead. By the end, they weren’t asking- Will this work? They said that they wanted to cascade it to their teams. Weeks later, I got an email from one of the managers. He told me he used the exact process from our simulation to navigate a real customer crisis and not only avoided a major fallout, but actually strengthened the client relationship through this crisis. That’s the difference between training that’s forgotten by the time you’re back at your desk, and training that rewires how you think, act, and lead. The secret? Immersion. When participants practice real scenarios, solve actual challenges, and see the impact of their decisions in the room, learning sticks. Priya Arora #immersivelearning #trainingdesign #employeeengagement #learningthatsticks #corporatelearning #leadershipdevelopment #upskilling #skillbuilding #workplacetraining #experientiallearning #Learningdeisgn #corporatetrainer #softskillstrainer #simulation #experintialtraining

𝐀𝐥𝐭𝐫𝐮 𝐇𝐞𝐚𝐥𝐭𝐡 𝐒𝐲𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐦 𝐂𝐚𝐬𝐞 𝐒𝐭𝐮𝐝𝐲 𝑯𝒐𝒘 𝑶𝒏𝒆 𝑯𝒆𝒂𝒍𝒕𝒉𝒄𝒂𝒓𝒆 𝑺𝒚𝒔𝒕𝒆𝒎 𝑨𝒄𝒉𝒊𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒅 𝒂 26.4% 𝑹𝒆𝒅𝒖𝒄𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏 𝒊𝒏 𝑯𝒆𝒂𝒍𝒕𝒉𝒄𝒂𝒓𝒆 𝑪𝒐𝒔𝒕𝒔 𝒃𝒚 𝑷𝒓𝒊𝒐𝒓𝒊𝒕𝒊𝒛𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝑬𝒎𝒑𝒍𝒐𝒚𝒆𝒆 𝑾𝒆𝒍𝒍-𝑩𝒆𝒊𝒏𝒈 In an industry plagued by burnout and skyrocketing costs, Altru Health System in Grand Forks, ND, just proved there's a better way forward. Altru became North Dakota's first Certified Blue Zones Worksite® after a comprehensive, multi-year transformation that embedded well-being into its workplace culture. The results? A powerful case study for HR leaders everywhere. What They Did: ✅ Created environmental nudges - indoor/outdoor walking paths and healthier vending options ✅ Established "Downshift rooms" for staff to decompress, meditate, or pray ✅ Transformed their cafeteria into a Blue Zones Project Approved™ restaurant with plant-based options ✅ Engaged 115 leaders in specialized well-being workshops to drive culture change from the top down 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐑𝐞𝐬𝐮𝐥𝐭𝐬: 𝑭𝒐𝒓 𝑬𝒎𝒑𝒍𝒐𝒚𝒆𝒆𝒔: ▪️ Improved overall health and resilience in a high-stress environment ▪️ Reduced first-year turnover ▪️ Lower tobacco use ▪️ Access to purpose workshops, walking groups, and volunteer opportunities 𝑭𝒐𝒓 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝑶𝒓𝒈𝒂𝒏𝒊𝒛𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏: ▪️ 26.4% reduction in healthcare costs ▪️ Stronger retention and engagement ▪️ Enhanced ability to attract talent in a competitive market 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐱𝐭: While the average employer saw their health insurance costs go up, Altru saw them go down. About 50% of healthcare workers report burnout symptoms, costing the U.S. healthcare system $4.6B annually in physician turnover alone. Altru's blueprint wasn't a superficial wellness program; it was an evidence-based, organization-wide commitment to making healthy choices the easiest choices. 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐓𝐚𝐤𝐞𝐚𝐰𝐚𝐲 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐇𝐑: If you want different results, you need to try something different. When you invest in comprehensive, sustained well-being initiatives that transform your physical environment, leadership culture, and social connections, the ROI extends far beyond healthcare savings. You build a workforce that's healthier, more engaged, and more committed. Have you heard of Blue Zones? What are you doing differently to improve employee well-being and lower costs? #HumanResources #CHRO #lifestylemedicine

I am often asked HOW my team and I measure 'happiness' as a KPI for workplaces. This has formed the backbone of my Masters thesis in Positive Psychology and what I've found is that 'happiness' is multidimensional. So rather than measuring it directly, we measure the 5 pillars that happy workplaces are built upon: 🍏 1. Does your team have high overall WELLBEING? There are 7 types of workplace wellbeing (seen in the picture). Where most tools only help workplaces assess emotional and physical wellbeing we broaden the perspective to capture insights on all 7. 🏆 2. Is your team highly ENGAGED and performing at their best? When we assess this we consider 3 forms of engagement. Individually led engagement; aka does everyone feel confident and competent in their role. Team led; aka do different teams and departments collaborate well together. And growth led; aka does your team see opportunities for them to grow within your organisation? ⭐️ 3. Have you cultivated a world class CULTURE? This means having a clear vision, mission and values; being transparent with your organisation's strategic direction; nurturing an inclusive workplace; enabling your people to be self-driven; and most importantly maximising psychological safety. 👩🏽💼👨🏼💼 4. Are your LEADERS and MANAGERS exceptional? One of the biggest influences on your team's happiness is their direct managers and leaders. Unfortunately Australia has a crisis when it comes to developing exceptional leaders - we help workplaces diagnose where their leaders need upskilling and help them get there. 💪🏽 5. Is your team RESILIENT in the face of change and challenge? If there's one thing that is true in business it is that there is always another change and challenge on the horizon. Being adaptable, agile, and resilient in the face of these hurdles is what separates the great workplaces from the poor ones. We assess whether your team is clear on their role expectations, whether they have the skills and resources to navigate burnout, and how likely they are to jump ship if the workplace starts facing some tough chapters. We do all this with user-friendly, evidence-informed, anonymous surveys to ensure you gain the most comprehensive and cohesive insight into your employee experience and sentiment. Couple it with a recommended action plan and you've basically got your entire people & culture strategy on a plate. The best part is if you perform well and meet our benchmarks you'll gain recognition as an Accredited Happy Workplace. If you're a people-led organisation who wants to make sure you're doing the best for your team then send me a message mentioning this post. I'll reply with the exact steps we will take during your Workplace Happiness Diagnostic & Accreditation Process. We've got room to work with 5 more workplaces this quarter. #workplacehappiness #accreditedhappyworkplace #happinessatwork #employeebenefits #employeefeedback #employeeexperience

How many engagement surveys measure what it feels like to cry in the restroom after a meeting? How many ask about the lump in your throat when your ideas are dismissed, or the quiet exhaustion of pretending to be “fine” every day? Most surveys don’t capture these human truths. If you want to measure culture meaningfully, consider these practical tips: 1. Choose neutral timing. Avoid periods immediately after a trip, celebration or appraisal. Recent experiences can skew responses : the theory of recency matters. 2. Don’t rely only on surveys. Numbers rarely tell the full story; human emotions often live between the lines. 3. Measure holistically. Surveying only a subset of employees misses the corners where real culture lives. 4. Use NPS thoughtfully. Net Promoter Score is helpful only when combined with other metrics. 5. Have real conversations. Speak with people, listen to their stories, and understand their experiences beyond the charts. At Sarva Happiness, culture measurement goes beyond surveys. We don’t just collect data ; we talk, listen and understand. Because real culture is alive in emotions, stories and the unspoken truths that numbers alone can never reveal. #Culture #People #Life #India #Leadership