Scarlettabbott’s World Changers 2025 Report – based on a survey of 750+ senior HR Decision Makers – has highlighted the impact great employee experience can have on business performance and the challenges that People leaders are facing to deliver it in the current climate.
The bottom line? Poor EX equals poor performance.
A staggering 79% of respondents agreed that poor employee experience directly harms business performance. In today’s climate, where employee experience is no longer a ‘nice-to-have’ but a strategic business imperative, this is a wake-up call.
The survey also highlighted key areas impacting the ability of People Leaders to deliver world-class employee experience including:
The Value of Values
While 94% of HR leaders believe company values are essential in shaping employee experience, only 1 in 3 felt those values were truly embedded in their organisation’s strategy. A clear signal that values can’t just live on the intranet– they need to live in practice.
Moreover, 64% said employee experience expectations aren’t aligned with the reality people face at work. That misalignment is eroding both trust and momentum.
Despite a more turbulent political landscape and massive 84% of respondents said that social ESG aspects have become more important to EX in the last five years – suggesting any rash decisions to change or dilute strategy risks an organisation quickly becoming out of step with its people.
Business Challenges
The biggest barrier to improving was a lack of leadership buy-in – cited by 43% of respondents. Add to that a misalignment between what employees’ need and what leadership is prioritising (27%), and you have a recipe for disconnection and disengagement.
Compensation, benefits and recognition also came under scrutiny, with respondents highlighting that reward strategies are often out of sync with what today’s workforce values. Whilst 1 in 5 respondents also found translating employee survey data into actionable insights difficult and 1 in 4 respondents believe employees don’t feel their feedback is valued or acted upon – highlighting the clear limitations of current practices.
Leadership Matters
The path to better EX starts at the top. 85% of People leaders said leadership buy-in is critical to a successful EX strategy. Encouragingly, only 7% said their senior leadership team wasn’t yet on board with EX – showing real momentum, yet only 40% said their senior leadership are strongly committed to their EX strategy – highlight a clear need to turn buy-in into priority action. But leadership doesn’t stop at the C-suite and increasingly battles for a positive employee experience are being fought in the minefield that is middle management. An EX strategy which puts leadership skills and training at its core can help businesses thaw that frozen middle and have a significant impact on both culture and performance.
Reframing the Return
The return-to-office (RTO) debate rages on, with 58% of those surveyed having a plan to increase mandated in-office days for employees. Yet 59% said these mandates are hurting both experience and morale. Whatever the right approach it’s time move beyond knee-jerk mandates and look at more nuanced, insight-led and people-focused approaches to where and how work gets done.
The Role of AI
AI is here to stay and is fast becoming part of everyday work life – but it’s not without anxiety. While 93% of respondents expect more AI integration in their roles within the next six months, 84% expressed concerns about what that means for employees. Key concerns included:
Privacy & data security concerns 34%
AI replacing jobs 31%
AI biasing decisions 27%
Erosion of trust 15%
Human-centred implementation is clearly key – how do organisations deal with the fear and harness the opportunities?
“In a tough market, investing in employee experience isn’t just the right thing to do – it’s the smartest,” said Rowan Manning, CEO at scarlettabbott. “Our World Changers 2025 survey shows that EX has climbed the agenda – but it’s still not landing where it should for businesses to thrive. Whether it’s unclear values, misaligned leadership, or blunt RTO mandates, people leaders need support and actionable insight to move from intent to impact. That’s why we created World Changers- to help our community share the blockers and find the opportunities that can unlock progress across the entire employee experience ecosystem.”
Scarlettabbott are the UK’s leading employee experience and internal communications consultancy, helping organisations enhance internal culture and improve employee engagement to drive business performance. For over two decades the team have specialised in understanding what drives human performance at work, developing a unique strategic model – the Employee Experience Ecosystem – that drives the most critical dynamics of business culture and performance.
The full World Changers 2025 Survey Report can be found here: https://scarlettabbott.co.uk/knowledge-hub/#wc-2025
