Great customer experiences often rely on engaged and empowered employees. In today’s competitive landscape, a positive employee experience (EX) isn’t just nice to have - it’s essential for attracting, retaining, and engaging your most valuable asset: your people.
When employees feel valued, supported, and connected to their work, they bring their best to every interaction - driving stronger productivity, customer relationships and better business outcomes.
With over a decade of experience helping clients improve their customer experience (CX), we apply that expertise to EX - helping organisations create more connected and employee-centric workplaces.
We offer a comprehensive suite of employee experience services to support you at every stage of your EX journey:
EX Research services provide an independent, objective view of any stage in the employee lifecycle to help uncover insights and opportunities that help you shape an employee experience that reflects what your people care about.
Change is inevitable, but it doesn’t have to be disruptive. Successful change and transformation require more than internal communications and staff training - they start with a deep understanding of employee needs, balanced with organisational and commercial realities. We partner with your teams to maximise employee engagement and minimise business risk during complex transitions.
Anchored in employee and organisational insight, our design services support clients through the end-to-end process - from digital tools to physical spaces and workflows. We specialise in enterprise solutions, including operational software and digital experiences that enhance staff and customer interactions.
Develop a clear roadmap for your employee experience initiatives with our EX Strategy development services. We facilitate interviews to understand your business and your people’s needs, creating practical EX frameworks that guide your EX roadmap. We help you define your future-state experience and prioritise initiatives for maximum impact.
"Purple Shirt’s expertise in human-centred design ensured our change process was truly employee-centric. Their insights were invaluable, directly shaping our solution, store engagement, and deployment strategy."
Foodstuffs North Island
Employee Experience, or EX for short, is every interaction an employee has with their employer, from the moment they engage in the recruitment process to the moment they leave the organisation. This includes everything the employee encounters, feels, and observes, such as workplace culture, the physical environment, tools and technology and relationships with team members and leaders. A positive Employee Experience is crucial as it significantly impacts employee satisfaction, engagement, retention, and overall productivity.
An Employee Experience Strategy is a framework designed to improve the overall experience for employees within an organisation. EX Strategy creation starts by understanding employee needs in both the near, and long term. These insights help create a compelling narrative for the future Employee Experience, providing those responsible for the experience of their people with a unified approach to fostering a supportive and engaging work environment. By leveraging data and feedback, the EX Strategy ensures continuous improvements can be made to the Employee Experience.
Business performance is directly influenced by human performance. Therefore, the Employee Experience is crucial for several reasons:
1. Attraction: Organisations known for great Employee Experiences attract high-quality candidates, giving them a competitive edge in the job market.
2. Employee Engagement: The more engaged an employee is, the stronger their sense of purpose, connection and productivity.
3. Retention: A well-crafted Employee Experience Strategy helps retain top talent by fostering a supportive and inclusive work environment.
4. Customer Satisfaction: Engaged and satisfied employees are more likely to provide better service, directly impacting customer satisfaction and loyalty.
5. Enhanced Creativity & Innovation: When employees feel valued and supported, they are more likely to contribute innovative ideas and solutions, driving business growth.
To improve your Employee Experience you should start by developing a robust EX Strategy. This should focus on understanding the needs and expectations of employees. By identifying key areas for improvement (such as workplace culture, physical environment, technology and leader relationships) organisations can create targeted initiatives to enhance these aspects. A well-crafted strategy will outline a clear vision for the desired Employee Experience, providing actionable steps and aligning efforts across the organisation. By continuously monitoring and updating the strategy based on employee feedback and changing needs, organisations can foster a more engaging and productive work environment.