HR is more than job interviews and contracts. 

The future is… employee experience 

We were lucky to have a panel of prominent speakers from the tech and consulting landscape to take part in a panel discussion. 

They sat down with Talenza’s own Jane Ellis to talk about employee experience. 

It’s clear this is more than just a trending topic or passing fad. Our experts discussed: 

🙂What makes a great employee experience 

👋How companies can get to know their people 

🌧️Mitigating depression and burnout 

📊The importance of great people analytics 

🚦Getting buy-in for employee experience initiatives 

Introducing our panel of experts: 

Daniel Kloza - Director of HR Advisory | KPMG 

A seasoned HR Executive, Daniel has worked in Australia and overseas with some of the world’s most recognised companies. Daniel and his team help organisations get the most out of their people and build their capability, especially during times of disruption. 

Julie Capstaff - General Manager of People Experience | TLC 

Julie is an experienced leader, supporting businesses to achieve their goals through their people. Julie and her team create personalised people experiences that help attract and retain the best people, and that set TLC apart. 

Phil Bayne-Jardine - Enterprise Employee Experience Lead | Qualtrics 

Phil has dedicated his career to consulting on all things people, culture and talent. He currently works with HR teams to design, deploy and scale employee experience programs that deliver real-time insights. He helps companies make informed decisions with confidence. 

What makes a great employee experience? 

It’s a bit of a trending topic in the world of HR. 

But what does employee experience actually mean? And does it look the same for every organisation? 

As Julie explained, at TLC ‘employee experience’ is a combination of all touchpoints. 

It’s not just the big things, but the small moments. 

Having someone there to greet you when you walk in. And having a strategy to celebrate the wins, no matter how small.

Getting personal: how to shape experiences around your employees 

So, maybe you already know employee experience is central to your recruitment and retention strategy. 

But a ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach probably won’t cut it. After all, not everyone needs their favourite brand of oat milk in the kitchen… 

As Dan pointed out, employees’ expectations have changed. With hybrid working, most people need a reason to come into the office. In other words, you have to ‘earn the commute’. 

Another way to think about it: Phil pointed out that how you treat your people is how they will treat your customers. So giving them a great ‘customer’ experience will help your customers too. 

The main thing is to take a human-centered approach. As Julie explained, it’s about getting in the shoes of your employee. What’s valuable to them? For some, it’s maternity leave. For others, it might be having their favourite snacks available. 

To answer this, you need to know your people. So it’s worth taking the time to understand what is important to them. 

A shifting definition of safety: burnout and depression 

Shifts to how we work have come with new risks. Being able to send an email at any time can be handy, but it can also lead to overload, burnout and depression. 

It’s something every company has had to think about. And new laws mean that it’s now on companies to mitigate these psychosocial risks. 

For Julie, it wasn’t a big surprise - and her team already had a lot of strategies in place. But it did mean changing how they report on the data they collect.  

Can technology help HR teams mitigate these risks? 

Phil said that, when used well, technology means we can listen to employees better. It’s possible to predict or respond to certain behaviours, and offer support much earlier. 

Data on people: how to get started 

People analytics can be an underrated field. After all, people are what make an organisation thrive. 

So it makes sense to know your people well. 

When (and where) do people do their best work? Are people engaged, or showing signs of burnout? How can we support people to be at their best? 

For an organisation just starting to explore options for capturing this kind of data, Dan said it’s important to take a step back. 

Talk to your finance team. Make sure you understand hierarchy, cost centres and your definition of FTE. 

 
Then you can think about how sophisticated you want your people analytics needs to be. 

What is the value: how to measure success 

How do you measure the value of employee experiences or people analytics? 

It’s a tricky question. 

Getting buy-in from leadership teams often starts with a conversation. 

As Julie pointed out, it’s not just about systems. Think about the really crucial moments in an experience, and figure out how you can show money is being spent there effectively. 

But it might be easier to implement than you think. Phil said that it can start with a form or a scaled back survey. You just need to find a piece of data to action, and then track the impact. 

According to Dan, the tide is shifting. With positions like Chief Data Officer and Chief Experience Officer becoming more common, so are these ideas. 

It’s not just a nice-to-have - it’s essential for a strong commercial strategy. 

Whether you have an employee experience program or not, the most important part of retaining talent is investing in your people. 

This starts with listening, and knowing what really matters to them. 

At Talenza, we put people at the heart of what we do. This is how we help companies build exceptional teams. 



Interested in coming to a future panel hosted by Talenza? 

Jane Ellis would be happy to welcome you to one of our upcoming events. 

Get in touch. 

And a huge thank you to Julie, Dan and Phil for their contribution.