Employee Experience

The hidden stories running your organisations – and how to change them 

In many organisations, change initiatives fail long before implementation: they get derailed by the stories people tell about the organisation and the strategy.  These stories are rarely visible on any org chart or strategy deck, yet during periods of rapid growth,...

Microsoft’s AI Chief Says AI Will Replace White-Collar Workers in 18 Months

Mustafa Suleyman, chief executive of Microsoft AI, told the Financial Times in February that most white-collar work would be fully automated within 12 to 18 months, which generated the usual cycle of alarm and counter-argument. Now, the headlines are circulating once again,...

Job Market Optimism Is Rising in Europe, Gallup Finds. So Why Is Employee Engagement So Low?

Every day, news of another mass layoff hits the headlines. You might expect workers to feel increasingly insecure about the current labour market, given what’s reported on. But, depending on the region you’re looking at, that’s not necessarily the case. In...

Your Employee Experience Roundup: The Manager Crisis, Falling Worker Confidence, and Persistent Perception Gaps

Are leaders and their employees actually working in the same organisation? That’s the question that springs to mind when looking at the key events and research findings of this week. Decision-makers think engagement is rising; employees disagree by 21 percentage points....

Employee Feedback Isn’t the Same as Listening. Four EX Experts Explain the Difference

Nearly three-quarters of leaders believe feedback is acted on in their workplace, yet fewer than half of frontline workers agree. What actually breaks the link between listening and action? And what does closing that gap look like in practice? We...

Cultural Intelligence at Work: What It Is and How It Drives Customer Outcomes 

If your customers are diverse, how confident are you that the people serving them have the tools to meet these customers where they are? For most organisations, the honest answer is: not very. The gap between what your customers are expecting...

Worker Confidence Fell for the First Time in Three Years – and Organisations Are Not Tracking It

Worker confidence is falling – both in AI and in organisations’ long-term outlook. But fewer organisations are tracking employee belief, leaving leaders in the dark about how their people actually feel about the future of work. ManpowerGroup’s 2026 Global Talent Barometer,...

Oracle Rejects Laid-Off Workers’ Petition – Some Lost Hundreds of Thousands in Unvested Stock

Oracle has reportedly rejected attempts by former employees to improve their redundancy terms, following a significant workforce reduction earlier this year. The failed public petition – signed by over 90 laid-off staff – has left those affected without the severance improvements...

AI Coaching for CX Teams: The Benefits of Always-On Guidance

Development is consistently ranked in employee experience surveys as one of the most important factors in whether employees accept roles, thrive in them, and stay with employers, and it is equally critical in determining whether your team members will be...

TTEC Pauses 401(k) Match to Fund AI, as Corporate Benefits Rollbacks Spread

TTEC is the latest company to come under scrutiny for rolling back employee benefits – and this time it is retirement savings taking the hit. The global customer experience services provider has paused its 401(k) match for its 16,000 US...

The Role Nobody Wants: 85% of Employees Have No Interest in Becoming a Manager

The progression from individual contributor to manager used to be the dominant career aspiration. Not anymore. New research from Ipsos Karian and Box, published today, finds only 15% of non-managers think the people manager role looks appealing, raising concerns about the...

What Google DeepMind’s Union Vote Tells Us About Leadership in the Age of AI

Google DeepMind’s union vote was not about pay or working conditions. Last week, 98% of employees at the company’s London office voted in favour of unionisation over the ethics of what their AI is being used for — and over...