SHRM26 Debrief · Modern Employee Experience · #1671

The EX - Moments That Matter: Designing Interactions That Drive Trust and Belonging

with David Cohen

▶ Watch on the SHRM portal ~63 min, distilled

employee experienceemployee engagement surveysorganizational culture

"Disengagement is not caused by employees who have stopped caring. They still care. They stop because of the way they're being treated."

What it was about

Employee engagement surveys are a flawed, manipulable snapshot in time. The real driver of retention is the accumulated experience of moments: hiring, onboarding, feedback, crises, exit. Measure that experience against a pyramid of hygiene, growth, meaning, connection, and trust/dignity, built on values that are lived, not aspirational.

By the numbers

$2 trillion

Gallup's estimate of the annual global cost of employee disengagement

18 months

Time for that automotive parts company to move from #4 to #2 in its industry after the cancer-coverage decision became known internally

45 days

Typical point at which employees make the internal decision to leave a company after a broken promise

Key notes

Replace annual employee engagement surveys with ongoing 'employee experience' measurement (anecdotal, values-focused) because engagement surveys are a manipulable one-day snapshot, not an accurate movie of the year.
Conduct stay interviews within the first 30 days of employment, before the 45-day point at which most people mentally decide to leave. Do it again at 30-90 days and again at one year, run by the recruiter or another manager, never the employee's direct manager.
Define organizational values behaviorally through 'corporate legends' (real stories of values-driven decisions during a crisis) rather than Hallmark-card definitions, and hold managers accountable to those specific behaviors.

The contrarian takeThere are no real generational differences in what employees want (e.g., Gen Z valuing culture over pay) — these are age/life-stage progression effects that every generation experiences, not a distinct cohort trait, and 'generational research' framing is largely 'smoke and mirrors.'

Take this back Monday

Do this for your team

Schedule a 30-day stay interview for your newest hire, run by a recruiter or peer manager — never their direct boss.

Say this in your next leadership meeting

Engagement surveys are a snapshot; retention is driven by moments of trust, so we're shifting to ongoing stay interviews instead.

Watch out for

Treating employee engagement survey results as reliable data, when they are a manipulable snapshot that can be skewed by union negotiations, manager self-interest, or timing.
Letting exit interviews be conducted by HR on the employee's last day, which produces only polite, non-actionable feedback because departing employees don't want to burn bridges.
Cutting learning and development budgets first during downturns, even though lack of growth/advancement is the number one reason employees say they leave.

Fun fact · David Cohen

David Cohen has been ranked among the Global Guru's Top 30 in Organizational Culture for five consecutive years.

If this landed, see these

↳ Go deeperPurpose-Driven Retention: Merging Human Motivation and Business StrategyGives you an actual audit tool to make purpose and trust measurable, not just anecdotal.⇄ The counterpointAchieving Results: Success Through Purposeful Future-Ready LeadershipPushes back with a measurable leadership formula instead of relying on anecdotal moments and stories.✦ The unexpected oneUnwell at Work: Addressing the Health Challenges No One Talks AboutWhat reads as a disengagement snapshot might actually be an undiagnosed health problem in disguise.