The last couple of years have served as a wake-up call for society and for business. In 2021, we saw discussions of a Great Resignation taking the working world by storm. A reflection of changing attitudes towards work, the resignation surge was a reminder that employers must invest in keeping employees engaged or risk losing them. In this article we take a look at the ROI of employee experience, outlining the multiple business benefits of keeping your people happy.

The ROI of employee experience

When we talk about return on investment (ROI), we’re referring to a performance measure that companies use to evaluate the efficiency of their investments. In the context of the employee experience, it means assessing how a business’s investment in their employees is paying off.

The ‘employee experience‘ can feel like an intangible concept— but it isn’t. It’s the collective name we give to all of the interactions that your employees have at work. This includes the people they work with, the environment they work in, management, and the technology they work.

By investing in understanding, tracking, and improving EX, you can expect to see higher engagement, better retention rates, and reduced staff turnover among other positive returns.


Try our ROI calculator to check out what disengagement could be currently costing your business.


The benefits of investing in the employee experience

Higher employee engagement

Engagement is a key component of the employee experience. You might say it’s the most important business outcome because so many of the other benefits stem from it. Globally, only 20% of employees are engaged. As we’ll see below, this is a problem because engagement is good for people and it’s good for business.

In his book The Employee Experience Advantage, Jacob Morgan explains that a good experience ‘creates engaged employees but focuses on the cultural, technological, and physical design of the organization to do that’. For companies, this means that achieving employee engagement relies on an investment in many other factors central to the employee experience.

Better employee retention

The employee experience has a significant impact on engagement, and engagement has a significant impact on retention. Low engagement teams see turnover rates that are 18% to 43% higher than highly engaged workforces.

From the cost of recruitment to lost productivity during the onboarding period, hiring new employees can be expensive. With these figures in mind, it makes sense that employers would want to hold on to the talent they already have. Investing in the employee experience at your company is one of— if not the— best ways to do this.


Read more about Netigate EX, the complete employee engagement tool.


Create a survey in minutes

  • Create surveys based on our templates
  • Send surveys via email, links, API or individual logins
  • Analyse responses with filters & AI

Try for free Trial ends automatically

Increased productivity

Research shows that engaged teams are up to 18% more productive. And productivity is good for business, leading to increased profitability, improved customer service, and higher employee morale. Furthermore, productivity is more sustainable when it’s linked to an investment in the overall employee experience, rather than ‘drawn out’ by employers for purely financial gain.

Increased customer satisfaction

Employee satisfaction has a habit of rubbing off on customers. Engaged employees will do more to deliver, and they can play an instrumental part in improving the customer experience. Studies show that over 7 years companies with highly engaged employees saw revenue grow 2.5x more than those with low engagement levels. Research from Gallup also shows that highly engaged teams can see up to 10% higher customer loyalty and engagement.

Outperforming competitors

Companies that invest in the employee experience outperform those that don’t. According to an analysis of 250 organisations, they are four times more profitable than their peers.

Furthermore, organisations investing in a good employee experience are likely to outperform their competitors when it comes to attracting talent. EX encompasses everything from company culture, work environment, training, and education. Sites like Glassdoor make it easier than ever for existing or past employees to share their experiences. Therefore, creating a positive employee experience pays off in terms of current employees and also those you want to attract.


Your next steps with Netigate

Now that we’ve taken a look at why providing a good employee experience is good for business, you can learn more about how to measure your employee experience ROI here.

Of course, a key component of being able to increase and measure your EX ROI is taking the initiative to listen to your employees. Click here to get free early access to Netigate EX, our brand new employee engagement tool.

Netigate EX will help you to measure how employees are feeling and pinpoint problem areas. But most exciting of all is the ability the tool has to actively help you improve employee engagement through targeted recommendations.