Why Employee Experience Matters—And How Boards Can Take Meaningful Action

State Street Global Advisors, Ford Foundation, and Russell Reynolds Associates conducted interviews with public board directors in the US and UK, who bring a wide range of boardroom perspectives on employee voice.

These conversations informed the development of a board-employee voice maturity model and guidance around how to integrate employee voice into board oversight. This research provides a view on how to strengthen boardroom discussions of human capital management, and offers insights into how companies can solicit greater insights from the workforce to improve organizational health.

Our interviews focused on three aspects:

• The impact of employee voice and how board members use it as a strategic input for decision-making
• Key mechanisms for capturing employee voice and the frequency with which it is leveraged at the board level
• How board oversight of employee voice can be structured

We define “employee voice” as the perspectives, interests, and needs of the workforce, encompassing a wide range of employees, such as full-time, part-time, and contract.

Employees are among an organization’s most strategic assets. Monica Lozano, a current board member at Apple, Bank of America, and Target, voiced that “investing in human capital is a strategic decision, similar to investments in technology or infrastructure, and employee voice is key to maintaining the organization as a workplace of choice. Employee voice is a mechanism for innovation and customer intelligence.”

In order to incorporate employee voice into strategic oversight, boards need to deepen their understanding of the employee experience.

Although the majority of directors say they are frequently reviewing data on employee turnover and engagement, notably fewer say they have a strong understanding of the day-to-day experience of the employee base, and less than half have direct exposure to front-line and junior employees. When asked about which functions their board needs more exposure to, directors’ number one response was human resources.

Key Findings

Where does your organization sit on our board and employee engagement maturity model?

Based on insights from the directors interviewed, and supplemented by existing research, we have developed a board and employee engagement maturity model that demonstrates the varied sophistication with which boards engage with employee voice. It also provides key considerations for boards as they integrate employee voice into board oversight.

How we help you make the right decisions for your employees

Employee experience matters. Every day, we help leadership teams gain an honest, accurate understanding of the employee experience, and work strategically with businesses to deliver actionable plans to make lasting changes in the most crucial areas.

Learn more about our board and CEO advisory services here.

Authors

Joy Tan and Tom Handcock of RRA’s Center for Leadership Insight conducted the research and authored this report.

Rusty O’Kelley III co-leads Russell Reynolds Associates’ Board and CEO Advisory Partners in the Americas. He is based in New York.

Learn more about the authors and the Center for Leadership Insight