What is the difference between employee experience and engagement?

The difference between employee experience and engagement is that employee experience is the input, and engagement is the output. The experience you create for your people directly impacts how engaged they feel, making engagement a reflection of your dedication to your teams.

Put simply, engagement is an outcome of experience. Your engagement levels act as a ‘canary in the coal mine’ – an early indicator of how your employee experience is being felt across the business.

Employee experience is: 

The environment you create for your people
Every interaction you have with your colleagues across the lifecycle
It can be designed and influenced by you and your management teams
It’s an ongoing and structural change
It is the changes you make for your team experience

Employee engagement is: 

The reaction your people have to that environment
Reflects how people feel about the interactions you have throughout the lifecycle
It cannot be controlled by you or your team
Can be measured at a point in time (e.g. surveys)
It is what you get from your commitment to your team

Why the distinction matters 

Understanding what makes the two different is essential. Often, organisations try to improve engagement directly, when engagement is a symptom of the underlying employee experience. Improving the experience is what drives real engagement.