
Talent Retention. It’s at the top of every business leader’s mind.
When budgets are tight and raises aren’t possible, leading companies are instead focusing on improving the employee experience.
But what is the employee experience? And how is the employee experience different in a world where teams are dispersed?
Employee experience is a sum of all interactions an employee has with a company throughout their relationship. It includes everything from what happens the first time a candidate applies for a job and meets with a hiring manager, through the entire hiring process and the first few days of work, all the way through to the end of the employment.
The employee experience is important because an employee who has a positive experience and attitude toward their employer is more likely to be engaged with the company, do their best work, provide positive customer transactions, speak highly about their employer, and refer their friends.
It is crucial that the C-suite understands that not all employees approach their professional journey with the same priorities. While financial compensation is a major factor in workplace decisions, there are actually two additional work values that motivate employees.
Research from Gartner suggests that employees fall primarily into one of three main ways employees are motivated by work:
It’s also important to note that these values are not static, and will often change throughout an employee's time with a company.
In order to create a more engaging and productive workplace in the digital era, Employee Experience stakeholders must adjust their strategy by correctly identifying and delivering journeys that match these values.
| Type of Employee | What motivates them | What they need |
|---|---|---|
| Work as a Transaction | Compensation and benefits | Wellness programs and benefits packages; requires more money and concrete incentives |
| Work as a World | Social responsibility and community | Connection with peers, face-to-face time |
| Work as an Identity | See work as part of their core identity | Professional growth; new opportunities that better align with their goals |
At LumApps, we believe that employee experience is not one person’s job – it’s everyone’s responsibility. The most successful enterprise employee experience teams consist of internal comms, IT, and HR departments working together to create a People Operations (PPO) task force.
These departments often work independently of each other, but in order to make the necessary improvements at the individual level, C-suite and managerial stakeholders must change how they interact with each other.
People Ops refers to the strategic business function that focuses on creating and implementing policies and strategies to support the well-being and productivity of a company's employees. People Operations differs from traditional HR in that it places a greater emphasis on data-driven decision making and uses technology and automation to streamline processes and reduce administrative burdens.
The task force should focus key initiatives such as:
Now let’s look at who should be on the task force…internal comms, IT, and HR.
Internal Communications (IC) leaders play a critical role in driving employee engagement in hybrid organizations. They are the narrators of the organizational journey, ensuring that employees are informed about the company's goals, achievements, and challenges.
In a hybrid work environment, IC leaders are responsible for creating the virtual and physical spaces that enterprise employees need to share information, build relationships, and improve their skills.
Common tasks performed by IC leaders that impact employee experience:
As part of the integrated task force, IC leaders need to ensure that communications strategies are prioritized during digital transformations. Cross-functional communication and alignment with other EX stakeholders helps strengthen the case for an expanded IC role within the enterprise.
IT teams are the architects, engineers, and builders of the digital enterprise.
They oversee the infrastructure that connects distributed workforces, providing avenues for employees to collaborate, connect, and contribute. This is particularly important in hybrid work environments and companies with a large percentage of frontline workers, where employees from across the globe require a seamless user experience across core applications.
Key responsibilities for IT leaders that have a direct impact on the employee experience:
Human resources is the department most commonly tied to the challenge of improving employee experience.
Common HR tasks that directly impact employee experience include:
As part of the integrated task force, HR leaders must develop a human-centric enterprise environment that provides employees with the experience they need based on their motivation track.

A modern intranet will be designed as a cloud software tool to make employees more collaborative, better at communication, and connected to the company mission via regular communication updates. A modern intranet combines collaboration, productivity, engagement, company culture, and communication tools. It is accessible, easy to use, and designed to meet the needs of all employees.
Why do you need a modern intranet?
The original intranets were only used for top-down communication and were “locked down” to employees who were accessing the site via the company internet. Obviously that solution won’t work anymore since so many employees work remote, from dispersed locations, and via from the frontline in deskless positions like healthcare workers, restaurant employees, construction workers, retail employees, and more.
Today, the intranet has evolved because it does more than only top-down communication. An integral feature is social networking – employees can create posts and interact with posts by liking or commenting.
The modern intranet acts as a single platform for internal communication, knowledge management, employee engagement, and productivity tools. This central hub brings together all the information, applications, and peer-support that employees need to do their jobs, in a way that is intuitive, user-friendly, and personalized to each individual's needs.
To meet the pressing needs of IC, IT, and HR leaders and help them adopt a unified People Ops approach, your intranet should integrate with the most important enterprise applications, from Microsoft Office 365 and Google Workspace to Salesforce and Slack.
| Employee Motivation | What they want | How an intranet meets their needs |
|---|---|---|
| Work as a Transaction | Compensation and benefits | Wellness programs and non-compensation recognitions |
| Work as a World | Social responsibility and community | Social networking, instant messaging, community groups |
| Work as an Identity | See work as part of their core identity | Knowledge hubs, mentorship programs, professional development sessions |
On the stakeholder side, modern intranets also include tools for managing projects, tracking goals, and conducting surveys and polls, as well as analytics tools to help organizations track engagement and measure the effectiveness of their communication and collaboration efforts.
A modern intranet helps HR, IT, and Internal Comms teams achieve their goals by providing a centralized platform to:
Successful implementation of the new employee intranet involves change management – the process of planning, implementing, and managing changes to an organization's processes in a way that minimizes disruption and maximizes benefits. It involves a structured approach to transitioning individuals, teams, and the organization as a whole from a current state to a desired future state.
Task force goals during this process:
If you choose LumApps for your intranet solution, our account managers can help you create a governance plan for your intranet and guide the implementation process.
When talent is a top priority, a one-size-fits-all approach to employee experience is no longer effective. Understanding that employees are motivated differently—whether by compensation, community, or personal identity—is the first step.
To truly retain top talent in this digital era, leaders must create personalized and meaningful experiences that cater to these diverse values. By doing so, companies can foster a more engaged, productive, and loyal workforce that thrives in any environment.