Nearly 50 employee experience, culture, and engagement leaders from the world’s top organizations gathered in Chicago for the Employee Experience Practitioner Summit — two days packed with candid conversations, powerful takeaways, and peer insights.
Hosted by the Employee Experience Board, the Summit was exclusively for heads of EX, culture, and engagement at large enterprises where our members came together to share strategies, best practices, and solutions to today’s top challenges.
Here’s a look at the moments that mattered most and why our community continues to provide value for our members.
Confidential Case Studies
In this portion of the summit, Employee Experience Board members shared unfiltered, real-world successes and failures that aren’t shared publicly, helping you avoid costly mistakes and accelerate your success through candid peer experiences.
Employee Journey Surveys: Implementation and Maximizing Insights
Mallory Minham, Employee Experience Manager at NetJets, explained their approach to implementing employee journey surveys, including how they selected survey moments, the questions asked, and how they use the insights. She also shared key lessons learned during the process.
Taking Survey Results from Feedback to Action Using Cross-Functional Collaboration
Emily Bliss, Senior Organizational Engagement Consultant at Rocket, discussed how she united stakeholders — culture champions, listening teams, and talent departments — to leverage cross-functional collaboration and address opportunities from their engagement survey results.
Not Your Typical “Champion Program”: Amplifying the Voices of Your Most Engaged Employees
Angela LeBlanc, Global Employee Experience Manager at Liberty Mutual Insurance, showcased their Experience Engagement group – including over 1,700 employees who share their perspective on enterprise initiatives. She shared the agile structure they’ve set up that allows them to quickly and effectively amplify the voice of the employee and drive engagement across their company.
Fostering a Unified Culture Across the Enterprise
Kristin Horbinski, Senior Director of Culture, Engagement, and Belonging at Glanbia, highlighted their journey to establish “One Glanbia” by creating a unified set of global values. She explained how they aligned stakeholders and engaged employees at all levels, integrating these values into daily work practices.
Employee Personas: A Human-Centered Approach to Experience Design
Adam Perrow, Senior Director of Employee Experience at Ally, shared his process for designing employee personas and their impact on experience strategy. He recounted how they evolved from initial ineffective personas to updated versions that better align with the changing needs of the workforce.
Leadership Panels on Top Employee Experience Challenges
In this portion of the summit, members provided diverse perspectives on critical issues. Panel discussions invited questions, making it a collaborative and interactive session.
What is the role of employee experience?
Kendra Davis at Boston Scientific, Shelly Curran at Chubb, Kelly Willey at Fidelity Investments, and Liz Anzaldua at Rush Enterprises discussed how Employee Experience (EX) supports employees during transformations. They highlighted efforts to involve EX in major company decisions and their expectations for the next five years.
How do (and should) DEI and EX functions work together?
As corporate priorities change, how can Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) and Employee Experience (EX) collaborate to enhance the workplace? Moody’s Vanessa Youngs, Glanbia’s Kristin Horbinski explored how these functions can unite to drive lasting change.
Practitioner-Led Workshops
In this portion of the summit, Employee Experience Board members broke into small groups and hosted conversations on key topics. These are discussions, not lectures. This was an opportunity to explore tough questions, share experiences, and get help with specific challenges you’re facing.
Building Employee Connectivity in a Hybrid World
Edward Jones Employee Experience Architect Raychel McBride discussed fostering employee connectivity in a hybrid environment. We reviewed strategies for networking, resources for these efforts, and the technology we use to streamline the process.
Embedding Recognition into Your Company Culture
A successful rewards and recognition program depends on your company valuing recognition. In 2025, how can you integrate recognition into your culture for real results? Patricia Dasey, Sr. Employee Experience Program Manager at M&T Bank, discussed creating a recognition roadmap, educating leaders on its importance, and using data to show its value across the organization.
Closing the Gap in the Frontline Worker Experience
Our employee experience efforts have primarily focused on the corporate population, leading to a gap for our frontline, or deskless, workers. WM’s Senior Manager of Employee Experience, Alisha Toler, explored how to identify and address the concerns of frontline employees. We discussed our methods for collecting feedback, the data we analyze to understand their experience, and how to collaborate with frontline leadership to implement meaningful improvements.
Peer Advisory Roundtables
This part of the summit offered dynamic peer-to-peer discussions where participants suggest discussion topics, voted for their favorites, and joined the conversations that interested them most. Unlike pre-set agendas, this format allowed attendees to build the agenda “on the fly” — making the topics both uniquely timely and relevant.
Some of the topics employee experience leaders tackled included:
- Getting leadership buy-in for EX
- Passive listening strategies
- Increasing adoption of recognition
- Engaging employee champions
- Belonging + Inclusion: What is EX’s role?
- Digital experience: What is EX’s role?
- Defining the employee lifecycle
- Global EX governance
- Improving employee well-being
- Creating impactful onboarding journeys
- Improving action planning processes
- EX during mergers & acquisitions
Join Your Peers Leading Employee Experience, Culture, and Engagement Today
The Employee Experience Practitioner Summit demonstrated what happens when senior leaders solve problems together. In an environment free from vendors, media, and prescribed agendas, EX leaders gained honest answers from peers who understand the stakes.
For employee experience leaders seeking this level of strategic peer exchange, the Employee Experience Board offers year-round access to the same caliber of conversation and problem-solving.
This is your community — built to solve real-time challenges and provide strategies, frameworks, and solutions to your top challenges.
