Measuring Employee Experience: Tools & Metrics for Human-Centered Insights

Chapters:

• Introduction: Why employee experience matters
• What do we mean by human-centered tools and metrics, and how can we use them?
• Human and digital tools for managing and measuring employee experience
• Final thoughts on building and human-centered feedback loop

Introduction: Why employee experience matters

Employee experience is the perception the employee has of your organization, from the moment they apply, to the time when they seek pastures new. It's what they see, hear, experience, and become aware of during their time with you. How good or bad this employee experience is directly impacts engagement, retention, and productivity (Gallup).

Employee experience is more than just professional and social interactions the employee has with managers and colleagues; it captures the tools they use, their physical environment, work-life balance, and opportunities for growth and development.

Research has shown that a thoughtful and positive employee experience can greatly improve employee efficiency and significantly reduce employee turnover. However, only 51% of employees feel their organization delivers the experience they were promised (AIHR).

Suppose you picture your organization as a row of dominoes, with employee experience being the first domino. In that case, you might visualize how one good or bad event can lead to the next.

It's essential to monitor the stability of the employee experience to ensure a productive, cost-effective, and harmonious ecosystem to keep all the other parts in place.

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The importance of measuring employee experience with human-centered tools and metrics

While traditional HR metrics like turnover rates or time-to-hire offer some insights, they often come too late, when the damage is already done. Along with quantitative metrics, we need to take a deeper, more proactive approach; this means using human-centered tools and metrics to uncover how employees feel about the overall experience you are providing.

Human-centered measurement prioritizes listening over counting. They will help you surface what's working, what's missing, and what's silently causing friction. You might know the saying 'prevention is better than the cure', well, by understanding what tools to use and how to integrate them into daily workflows, you can capture real-time insight into the health of your organization and act before problems start to spiral.

What do we mean by human-centered tools and metrics, and how can we use them?

When we talk about human-centered tools and metrics, we mean measuring employee experience from the employee’s perspective. They’re human-centered because they consider the whole person, not just the job role. 

American psychologist Abraham Maslow developed an insightful theory titled ‘Maslow’s hierarchy of needs’ to explain human motivation. Each level represents a different category of need, building on the one before it:

1. Physiological needs - Basic survival essentials like food, water, shelter, and rest.
   
   
2. Safety needs - Security, stability, and protection from harm (including job security and safe environments).
   
   
3. Love and belonging - Social connections such as friendships, family, and a sense of community.
   
   
4. Esteem needs - Recognition, respect, achievement, and feelings of self-worth.
   
   
5. Self-actualization - Fulfilling personal potential, creativity, and growth.
   
   

Maslow suggested that people must generally satisfy lower-tier needs before fulfilling the next. To effectively implement and measure employee experience with a human-centered approach, we can study this model to help us focus on a few key areas that have the biggest impact on how people feel, work, and grow within your organization. These areas form the foundation for a more thoughtful, actionable measurement strategy:

Onboarding and first impressions

The application process, time-to-hire, preboarding, first day, and ongoing onboarding are your chance to make the best first impression. First impressions can shape long-term perception and engagement with your organization, so getting this right is essential. A disorganized, clunky, or overwhelming start can leave employees feeling lost and undervalued.

A human-centered approach focuses on how safe, supported, connected, and confident new hires feel as they step into their role, not just whether their equipment arrived on time or forms were completed.

📊 What to measure

#1 Use emotional check-ins, not just progress updates
Instead of just tracking whether the employee has completed tasks, engage with the employee and ask a mixture of open and closed questions to gauge their experience, if they understand their role, and how they fit in.

#2 Capture learning effectiveness
Providing onboarding learning materials is great, but measuring whether the content is valuable and effective is where you can make a difference.

#3 Measure the experience
Consider a brief, open-question survey or one-to-one chat after the first week or month that asks questions such as ‘What’s been your biggest challenge so far?’ or ‘What one thing could have made your onboarding experience better?’.

Day-to-day work experience

When onboarding comes to a natural end, checking in with your employees doesn't need to end. A human-centered approach to measuring the day-to-day experience looks at how easy it is to get things done, how supported people feel, and how enjoyable or frustrating their everyday environment is.

📊 What to measure

#1 Measure ease, not just output
Work tools, equipment, and platforms will no doubt be in place, but it’s essential to understand how easy these tools are to use and navigate for your employees.

#2 Capture focus and engagement
Employees can look busy and active, but it doesn’t necessarily mean they’re engaged. Constant distractions, unclear priorities, or too many meetings can quietly destroy performance and wellbeing.

#3 Check for support and accessibility
You may already have a support system in place, but employees need to know where they are and feel comfortable using them. This includes IT help, HR queries, and manager availability.

#4 Listen for tone and feedback
Employees won’t always feel comfortable verbalising their frustrations, but their tone and feedback will tell you. A human-centered approach includes space for open comments and ongoing listening.

#5 Evaluate autonomy and trust
Employees who feel trusted and empowered tend to be more engaged. If employees feel micromanaged, left out of decisions, or stuck in rigid processes, this could negatively affect their experience.

#6 Manager relationships and team dynamics
Strong relationships with managers and teammates are the foundation of a great employee experience. A human-centered approach here means focusing on trust, communication, and a sense of psychological safety.

Growth, development, and recognition

Employees want more than a paycheck; they want to finish work at the end of the day or week feeling like they’ve contributed to something meaningful. They want to grow and be seen. Measuring employee experience here means focusing on whether employees feel they’re learning, progressing, and appreciated.

📊 What to measure

#1 Measure perceived growth
Learning systems and course completions only go so far. Engage with employees and ask them whether development feels real, relevant, and achievable. Questions you could ask may include ‘Do you have opportunities to grow in your role?’ or ‘Do you feel supported in your career goals?’

#2 Measure perceived recognition
Recognition is more of a feeling than a quantity; it should feel authentic, fair, and timely. You might ask if they feel recognised for their contributions, or if they receive praise in a way that feels meaningful to them.

Wellbeing and work-life balance

Wellbeing and work-life balance are about how employees feel day to day. It’s less about perks and more about focusing on stress levels, balance, flexibility, and how sustainable work feels. 

📊 What to measure

#1 Track energy and sustainability
When employees have a good balance, they bring energy to their work and are less likely to burn out. You might ask how manageable their current workload is, or if they can switch off after work.

#2 Measure flexibility
Human-centered workplaces offer flexibility and trust people to manage their own time. Questions may include ‘Do you have enough control over how and when you work?’ or ‘Does your working pattern support your wellbeing?’.

Organizational alignment and purpose

Employees want to feel that what they do matters. Measuring this area means focusing on how well the company’s vision connects to the individual and whether employees feel proud to be part of it.

📊 What to measure

#1 Measure meaning, not just awareness
Sharing mission statements and values with employees is important, but what you’re really looking for is whether they see themselves as part of that mission. You might ask if the employee feels like their work contributes to something bigger, or if they feel proud to be part of your organization.


#2 Measure clarity and consistency of communication
When employees know where the company is going and trust the leadership to achieve its goals, it boosts motivation and loyalty. Questions to ask in this case may be ‘What’s your understanding of the company’s goals and how your work fits in?’ and ‘Do leaders communicate with honesty and clarity?’.

Human and digital tools for managing and measuring employee experience

Listening and feedback loops

📋 Pulse surveys

Short, regular check-ins that go beyond satisfaction scores. Use tools like this to ask thoughtful questions, e.g., ‘How would you rate your onboarding experience?’ With follow-up questions like ‘Would you like to tell us more?’

Metrics to track:
- Response rate
- Sentiment trends over time
- Themes (from open-text responses
- Satisfaction scores

🗣️ Stay interviews

Exit interviews are common in the workplace, but these are designed to focus on why the employee is leaving, when the damage is already done. Stay interviews, on the other hand, offer an opportunity for organizations to assess what improvements can be made in real-time to avoid further employee turnover. (CIPD HR-inform)

These are simple, human conversations that ask questions like ‘What’s going well for you here?’ ‘What might tempt you to leave?’. A valuable way to surface issues before they become exit interviews.

Metrics to track:
- Retention risk themes
- Number of stay interviews completed
- Most common drivers of satisfaction/dissatisfaction
- Actions taken as a result  

📝 Employee Net Promoter Score (eNPS)

eNPS is a simple yet powerful tool that asks one key question: ‘On a scale of 0-10, how likely are you to recommend this company as a place to work?’.

Based on their score, employees are grouped as:
Promoters (9–10) – Highly engaged and likely to advocate for your organisation
Passives (7–8) – Generally satisfied, but not particularly enthusiastic
Detractors (0–6) – Unhappy or disengaged, potentially affecting morale or culture

On its own, the eNPS question is just a metric, but combine it with optional follow-up questions like “Why did you choose that score?” or “What would make your experience better?”, and it becomes a conversation starter.

Read more about eNPS.

Metrics to track:
- Overall eNPS score
- eNPS by department, location, or tenure
- Trends over time
- Common reasons for low scores (via follow-up comments)

Relationship and culture tools

🔁 360° feedback

360° feedback is a method of gathering feedback about an employee from the wider team rather than just their manager.

Feedback could come from their direct manager, peers and colleagues, direct reports, and occasionally even customers or external stakeholders. It helps people see where they shine and where they can grow, in a way that feels supportive rather than judgmental.

Metrics to track:
- Participation rate
- Top strengths vs. development areas
- Feedback quality (e.g., depth of comments)
- Manager/peer satisfaction with the process

✔️ Manager check-in templates

Check-in templates are simple conversation guides that help managers ask more thoughtful questions, such as: ‘What’s one thing I could do better to support you?’ rather than ‘How’s it going?’.

Metrics to track:
- Frequency of manager check-ins
- Follow-up actions taken
- Team engagement before/after regular check-ins

Workflow and experience monitoring

📈 Digital experience analytics

Employee experience tools like Applaud have powerful analytics built in that can monitor how employees interact with systems.

Digital experience solutions should enable you to track usage, engagement, what employees are searching for, popular and unpopular content, chatbot metrics, and more.

Metrics to track:
- System usage rates
- Search success/failure rates
- Content engagement (Views, time on page, relevance)
- Chatbot resolution rate and satisfaction

🔎 Journey trackers

Journey creation tools like Applaud’s Journeys should enable you to track the effectiveness of any journey from preboarding to offboarding.

Example metrics might include journeys created and completed by country, task completion rates by journey, etc. Journeys may also be paired with tools like Applaud’s Knowledge Management, where you can track content engagement and sentiment.

Metrics to track:
- Journey completion rate
- Drop-off points
- Task completion time
- Engagement with embedded content/tools

🤖 AI assistant and knowledge hubs

Like Applaud’s AskHR and Knowledge Management, these tools empower employees to self-serve quickly, reducing the frustration of delayed responses.

Tools like these should have built-in analytics that allow you to see insights and trends that help you identify gaps and engagement, and ultimately help you build and improve helpful content over time.

Metrics to track:
- Volume of queries handled
- Top topics searched
- Knowledge gaps
- Deflection rate (cases avoided)
- Feedback on helpfulness of answers)

Recognition and development insights

💡 Recognition platforms

Recognition features are often delivered through standalone platforms, but tools like Applaud have them built in, allowing employees to give peer feedback and managers to award achievement badges.

Employee experience tools should make it easy to celebrate everyday wins in real-time, not just during annual reviews.

Metrics to track:
- Frequency of recognition
- Peer-to-peer vs. manager-led recognition
- Recognition by team/location
- Employee perception of fairness and visibility

🎓 Learning experience platforms

Learning and development are key parts of the employee experience, but they need to feel relevant and easy to access.

Learning experience platforms are a more personalized alternative to traditional LMS tools, in that they can curate content based on role, interests, and goals. Solutions like Applaud can enable you to integrate such tools and embed learning into journeys.

Metrics to track:
- Learning completion rates
- Content engagement
- Learning hours per employee
- Skills developed (self-reported or assessed)

👥 Internal mobility tracking

Build journeys for internal mobility using tools like Applaud’s journeys. Use these to track whether employees are progressing or stagnating, and pair these with pulse surveys to uncover what’s going well and what isn’t.

Metrics to track:
- Number of internal moves/promotions
- Average time in role
- Sentiment from those who moved vs. those who didn’t

Final thoughts on building a human-centered feedback loop

Digital employee experience management and measuring is more than collecting metrics for the sake of it; it’s about understanding your employees and building the right environment for them to thrive.

Human-centered tools and metrics give you honest, timely insights into what it feels like to work at your organization from the employees' perspective, something that traditional stats can’t capture on their own.

By focusing on emotional check-ins, perceived growth, recognition, and the usability of digital tools, you can create a culture of continuous listening and improvement. This directly boosts efficiency, engagement, and reduces employee turnover.

The right combination of human empathy and smart technology can transform your workplace into one where people feel heard, supported, and empowered. When employees thrive, your organization will too.

See how Applaud can bring employee experience measurement to life 

Give your most important customers the experience they deserve. Request a demo to see how our platform can help you capture human-centered insights across every stage of the employee experience. From onboarding to wellbeing, we’ll show you how to turn feedback and behaviour into action, automate the moments that matter, and enable HR to deliver more meaningful, measurable impact.

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About the Author

Michelle Donnelly is a technical writing manager with nearly twenty years of experience in design, communication, training, and enablement. She brings a unique blend of creativity and clarity to technical writing, product enablement, and customer education, ensuring that complex information is both accessible and engaging.