How We Accidentally Lowered the Bar in the Name of Employee Experience

January 7, 2026: Nearly a decade ago, I wrote The Employee Experience Advantage to challenge organizations to move beyond perks, surveys, and surface-level engagement. Since then, employee experience has become a top priority—but in many cases, we've lost sight of what it actually means. In this episode, I share why post-pandemic workplace strategies focused on "giving everything to everyone" were unsustainable, how accountability and performance quietly disappeared, and why great employee experience isn't about making work easy—it's about enabling people to grow, contribute, and do meaningful work. I also explain why employee experience is a leadership responsibility, not an HR program, and introduce a futurist framework built from conversations with over 100 CHROs around the world to help organizations design workplaces that are human, challenging, and future-ready. If you're trying to cut through the noise and rethink what employee experience should look like for the next decade, this episode will help reset your perspective.