Diet Coke in Red Bull cans

Consultant: “Concept A is old-hat. Irrelevant. Bunkum. Concept B is where it’s at! [describes B in terms almost identical to A]”
That’s how I feel about the current Employee Experience talk. Plotted on a Venn with Employee Engagement there’s lots in the middle, toe-nails either side.
It’s putting Diet Coke in Red Bull cans. Nothing new to sell? Make it look new! Make it fit now. The fit now is the parallel to Customer Experience.
I’m not going to start evangelising employee experience over engagement. Why confuse people, why start all over, why use scepticism of one concept to sell the next?
BUT, there are some new ideas that – whatever you call it – interest me. (“Interest” in the sense of “correlates with ideas I have been whanging on about for ages”)
1) It’s truly about employee voice, their whole experience at work. That their personal objectives align with the corporate AND that employees input into strategy and culture. They create what they experience. 2) That your annual engagement survey, or monthly pulse – for its splits and benchmarks - ain't going to get you anywhere near this insight. It’s not designed to.
Want to improve employee experience? You can’t foist your questions onto people, you need to let them tell you what’s important to them.