More than 20 senior employee experience leaders gathered at Chicago’s Navy Pier for the inaugural Employee Experience Board Meeting, where they participated in honest, behind-the-scenes chats about running EX at the nation’s largest brands.  

The two-day event included small-group discussions, case studies, and four rounds of unconferences — where members get to choose the most pressing topics and challenges they’re facing in real time and benchmark with their employee experience peers.

The only thing missing from the Board Meeting was vendors, consultants, or agencies influencing the conversations. 

Kay Clark, Vice President of Culture and Associate Experience at Raymond James Financial said on LinkedIn that she took at least one nugget of wisdom from every leader in attendance, from advice on onboarding and recognition platforms to employee listening strategies and using data to drive measurable change.  

Here’s a look at what we covered:

EX Strategy Case Studies:

• Building a cross-functional steering committee to guide EX programming — led by Beth Kardong at Boston Scientific
• Using focus groups to close the generational feedback gap — led by Jenae O’Neil at Zurich North America
• From siloed to centralized: Unifying global employee recognition strategies — led by Kelly Willey at Fidelity Investments 
• Empowering your internal champion network to shape employee experience — led by Rob Julson at Voya Financial 
• Tackling frontline employee engagement with continuous listening strategies — led by Alexis Dirkmaat at Marriott Vacations Worldwide 

Member-Led Small-Group Discussions: 

• Optimizing employee onboarding for consistent EX — led by Julia Santone at M&T Bank
• Developing a feedback-rich culture that drives action — led by Pierce Breneman at Rocket Companies 
• Return-to-office mandates: Maintaining employee engagement — led by Kay Clark at Raymond James
• Measuring employee experience beyond engagement — led by Julie Pendell at Discover Financial Services 

Unconferences to Explore the Top Challenges EX Leaders Are Facing:

On day two, Employee Experience Board members set the meeting’s agenda themselves through our Unconferences, fast-paced, peer-to-peer discussions where members suggest discussion topics, vote for their favorites, and join the conversations that interest them most.

It means members are spending the entire time talking about the topics that are most important to them.

Here’s a look at some of the most pressing challenges employee experience leaders are facing:

• Making the case of EX: More resources, showcasing value, and building a business case
• Building employee personas to guide design of programs
• EX structure: Areas we own, team structure, and maturing the function
• Driving EX/CX alignment
• Scorecards: Key metrics, format, and sharing with leadership
• Action planning
• Using AI to make our jobs easier
• Socializing EX – getting other teams to understand our role
• 2025 trends
• Listening during changes

The best on-site discussions will grow as full community conversations in the coming weeks and months as we dig deeper together.