Employee Experience
Understand what helps employees do their work, what gets in their way, and which experience improvements matter most.
People & Behavior
Understand what helps people do their work.
Employees experience your organization through its tools, processes, spaces and everyday interactions. We study how these work together, helping your team identify confusing steps, unnecessary effort and gaps in support. The focus is the experience of doing the work, not judging the people who do it.
What we look at
Daily workflows and system switching cost- Training burden and error-prone steps
- Frontline workarounds and shadow processes
- Morale and support friction points
How we study it
- Contextual inquiry with operators and staff
- Internal tool usability testing
- Workflow and task analysis
- Service mapping of employee and customer touchpoints
When to research
When employee experience research helps
Use this research when employees struggle with an internal platform, repeat the same information across systems, rely on workarounds or find it difficult to get help. It can also support onboarding improvements, new tool adoption, changes to workplace processes and the redesign of employee services.
A small business may need to investigate one recurring workflow. A larger organization may need to compare roles, locations or business units. We agree the scope around the decisions your team needs to make and the employees affected.
Research focus
What we can explore
Research can cover joining and onboarding, everyday task completion, collaboration and handovers, access to information, IT or HR support, learning resources and workplace navigation. We consider both digital and non-digital touchpoints where they affect the experience.
Typical questions include: Where does work stall? Which steps create avoidable errors or rework? How do employees find the right information? What makes a new tool difficult to adopt? Where do policy, permissions or responsibilities become unclear?
Our approach
Research grounded in evidence
We choose methods according to the decision your team needs to make, the people involved and the context of use.
Findings are linked to observations and participant accounts, with coverage and limits kept visible.
From context to opportunity
Our research process
Plan participation. Define relevant roles, experience levels, working arrangements and access needs, alongside confidentiality safeguards
Gather evidence. Explore realistic tasks and recent experiences without asking employees to disclose unnecessary sensitive information
Analyze the experience. Identify barriers, dependencies and differences between groups, separating observations from reported experiences
Prioritize improvements. Connect findings to changes in tools, content, processes or support, with evidence and practical constraints made clear
Plan validation. Agree which proposed changes need testing and how their effects could be assessed
The output
What your team receives
Depending on scope, outputs can include an employee journey map, workflow analysis, annotated tool findings, recurring barriers and a prioritized improvement plan. A findings workshop helps product, operations, HR and technology teams agree responsibilities and next steps.
Reports explain the study coverage and limitations. We distinguish reported concerns, observed task barriers and recommendations that require further investigation. Where relevant, we map connections to customer-facing processes without assuming employee findings prove a customer outcome.
Our approach
Study real work, not only opinions
Interviews help explain employees' recent experiences and the reasons they describe. Contextual observation and task analysis show how work happens in practice, including interruptions, handoffs and workarounds. Usability testing examines whether intended employees can complete tasks with an internal tool.
Diaries can capture experiences over time. Surveys can explore patterns across a defined employee population when participation and sampling support the question. Existing feedback or operational data may provide additional context where access is authorized. We select methods after defining the research question.
Research ethics
Create space for honest participation
Employees need to understand why the research is happening, what participation involves and how findings will be used. We agree participation, consent, recording, access and reporting arrangements before fieldwork, including how the study will avoid pressure from reporting relationships.
Where confidentiality is important, we agree whether sessions take place without managers present and how identifiable details will be handled. Small teams and rare roles can make people recognizable even without names, so reporting safeguards may include grouping findings or withholding specific quotations. We do not promise anonymity where the study design cannot support it.
This research is not an employee performance assessment, covert monitoring program or a substitute for formal grievance and safeguarding channels. If sensitive concerns arise, handling and escalation boundaries should follow the agreed study arrangements.
Global research
Different roles and markets need different contexts
Frontline employees, office teams, remote workers and managers may use the same process in different ways. Recruitment can include new starters, experienced staff and people with relevant access needs. Participation coverage and any gaps are documented.
For multi-market work, we consider language, local workflows, device access and working environments. We agree local participation and research arrangements for each market, rather than treating one location as representative of the whole organization.
Measurement
Measure changes responsibly
Useful measures may include task completion, time spent on selected workflows, recurring support requests and employee-reported effort. We help define a baseline and an appropriate follow-up approach where measurement is included.
Research can inform improvements, but it does not guarantee productivity, engagement or retention gains. Qualitative findings do not show how common a problem is across all employees. Survey results need to be interpreted in light of response coverage, and proving a change caused an outcome requires an appropriate evaluation design.
Before we begin
Frequently asked questions
No. A survey can be one method, but our focus is understanding specific experiences and why work becomes difficult. Interviews, observation and task testing can provide the context needed to act on survey findings.
Yes. We can evaluate a prototype or suitable test version with intended employees, using agreed tasks and safe test data. This helps identify usability issues before wider rollout.
Yes. We can support a focused study or collaborate on an existing program. We agree responsibilities, employee communication and data access before research begins.
Share the employee groups involved, the tools or workflows causing concern and the decision you need to make. Include existing feedback if available. We will discuss research scope, deliverables, participation safeguards, timing and budget.
Human Experience
Immersive, high-empathy qualitative research to understand how humans think, live, and interact with the world.
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People & Interaction Experience
Detailed interaction metrics, shadowing, and lab usability programs. We observe the subtle frictions that compound into larger experience failures.
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Customer Experience
End-to-end multi-channel mapping from first discovery to loyalty. Align your business objectives with real, st.
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Decision & Behavior
Behavioural interviews, choice modelling, and decision journey research that separate stated preference from real behaviour.
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Let us help shape the next step
Your employee experience has a UX problem.
Let’s find and fix it.
Next research service Decision & Behavior Your employee experience has a UX problem. Let’s find and fix it. Contact Us Tell us where work gets difficult.