David wasn’t just good at his job. He was exceptional.
For five years, he was the go-to person for every major initiative. He delivered projects ahead of schedule, mentored new hires, and consistently ranked among the top 1% of performers at his 8,000-employee company. Most importantly, he was engaged in his work.
After a private equity acquisition in late 2023, the company reorganized and David spent his days duplicating colleagues’ work. Meetings multiplied to “ensure alignment.” Decisions slowed as everyone waited for “input from another team.” He wasn’t sure what he owned anymore and no longer felt invested in the company’s success.
Months later, David was laid off. But a top performer didn’t suddenly underperform; the work experience around him did.
This is a real example, but it’s just one variation of the same tune: The way we work now isn’t working anymore. U.S. companies will spend roughly $1.1 billion on employee engagement programs in 2025, and yet research shows that worker productivity, trust and engagement are at their lowest levels.
That’s because most engagement programs still measure pride, loyalty and intent to stay, which don’t explain how work actually gets done or why performance suffers. And it usually only tracks full-time employees when contractors and now AI tools are crucial contributors.
Piecemeal experience programs often fail, because addressing one area without the others leads to more challenges. As workplace strategist Phil Kirschner notes, “We need to be willing to spend more time defining what the thing is and be more transparent with specifying the end result.”
This article, which draws on our experience leading and advising hundreds of global organizations on CX, EX, workplace design and organizational transformation, proposes a work experience model that unites employee experience, customer experience and workplace experience.
With a more intentional design, work can happen for workers, not to them.
Responding to a new workforce
Just a few years ago, organizations championed flexibility, DEI and employee-centered design. Today, many are reversing course by enforcing rigid return-to-office mandates, de-prioritizing inclusion and using AI to justify workforce reduction. The most common question we get from CEOs is: “How many of these roles can AI replace?”
Rather than aggressively cost-cutting or swapping humans with bots, companies should think of their employees, contractors, consultants, fractional workers and AI tools as a single work cohort. We call it “workforce blending.”
“Design systems that work for everyone who contributes value, not just the people on payroll,” says Kirschner.
We spoke with the head of workplace operations at a global organization who has figured out how to integrate multiple worker cohorts into high-performing teams. “At the end of the day, it’s about how you treat people and what you expect from them,” she says. “Contractor or FTE, they are an extension of your brand.”
If David’s company had designed for this blended environment post-acquisition—acknowledging ownership, integrating systems, and capturing knowledge—his story might have had a different outcome. This is where the five pillars of work experience come in, with clear steps to implement and measure that they’re actually working.
Build a clear culture that is micro, not macro
Most organizations still manage culture as broad slogans and corporate values. But real
performance is shaped at the micro level: team norms, handoffs, documentation habits and shared expectations.
- Write it down: Make the invisible visible, including how we collaborate, how decisions get made, and what “good work” looks like.
- Map the downstream impact: The head of workplace operations we spoke to noted: Culture is your workplace’s internal supply chain: It includes recruiting, onboarding, training, communication, workplace environments and even vendor relationships. Define what culture means for employees, contractors and AI systems.
- Reinforce through systems and processes: Provide team-level playbooks that bring behavioral expectations to life.
Success signal: Every team can clearly describe “how we work here” and see proof via the daily behaviors that match the description.
Establish clear lines of accountability
In distributed, multi-status environments, traditional hierarchical accountability breaks down. When no one knows who owns what, performance suffers and psychological safety collapses.
- Assign one single-threaded owner per outcome: Not a committee. Not a team. A human name, including contractors, must be associated with every business-critical output.
- Create decision cards: Define who decides, what information they need, who should be consulted and who should be kept informed to eliminate ambiguity and promote speed.
- Define AI’s accountability role:
- Assist: Human owns outcome
- Advise: Human decides with AI input
- Automate: Algorithm owner accountable
Success signal: Everyone knows who decides, what they decide, and when.
Enable people through systems alignment
This approach requires systems that support work, not complicate it. The most meaningful productivity gains come from unblocking friction, not adding tools.
- Run a friction scan: Identify the 5–10 workflow steps that waste time, including duplicated data entry, redundant approvals and unclear handoffs.
- Establish a single source of truth: Not to standardize everything, but to eliminate “Where do I find that?” confusion.
- Avoid “AI the entire org” syndrome: Classify AI by function and deploy deliberately.
Success signal: Work moves through the organization with minimal confusion, rework, or
bottlenecks.
Redefine collaboration for the modern workforce
Legacy collaboration models were built for FTEs sitting together on-site. Today’s teams are
distributed, blended and asynchronous. Collaboration must evolve accordingly.
- Match communication mode to purpose:
- Decisions: Write down decisions so they are available to everyone impacted without requiring people to be in the room.
- Brainstorming: Create synchronous events so people can partner (virtually or in person) and contribute.
- Updates: Leverage tools that reinforce asynchronous updates. Reduce meetings and missed updates by making everything accessible in one place.
- Explicitly include every contributor: Access is equity. Contractors should have the same visibility into project hubs and communication channels as employees.
- Normalize “working out loud”: Move drafts, decisions and updates into shared spaces. Visibility accelerates speed and reduces misunderstandings.
Success signal: Collaboration is visible, inclusive and independent of role or location.
Accelerate integration and onboarding
With frequent team changes and a growing mix of contributors, onboarding must become a sprint—not a singular, months-long process.
- For employees: Provide minimum viable context upfront: the team’s mission, in-flight work and where to go for help.
- For contractors: They’re high-cost contributors. Treat onboarding as a performance accelerator, not an administrative formality.
- For AI systems: Define mode (i.e., assist/advise/automate) before deployment to prevent misaligned expectations.
Success signal: New contributors—human and digital—reach effectiveness within weeks.
A true competitive advantage
The future of work won’t be won by slogans, engagement scores, or more technology, but by organizations that intentionally design how work happens. When teams have clarity, aligned systems, equitable access and purpose built into the flow of work, performance isn’t something leaders must force—it becomes the natural output of a well-designed environment. Companies that embrace this approach will not only prevent the next “David story,” they will build workplaces where every contributor (employee, contractor, or AI) can do the best work together.
In an era defined by distributed work, AI integration and shifting expectations, organizations must redesign how work happens—not simply optimize old models. Looking at the whole work ecosystem provides the right optics and opportunities for all team members to achieve critical business and operational goals driven by clarity of purpose aligned to the mission of the organization. Companies that embrace this strategy will be better equipped to attract and retain top talent who actually want to be there and who feel invested in their—and the company’s—success.
Source – https://hrexecutive.com/when-great-employees-fail-its-usually-the-workplace-design/