Leadership and the Employee Experience

Last year, employee engagement in the US fell to its lowest level, with only 31% of employees reporting being engaged at work. As engagement directly affects employee satisfaction, productivity, and overall company success, it’s essential that leaders learn how to best support their workers.

Karen Guziciki, HCI faculty member, reminds leaders that it’s okay to fumble, so long as you are dedicated to cultivating an open, communicative workplace. In this week’s HR Query, Karen Guzicki, shares her perspective on the employee experience and her journey in HR.

What sparks your passion for HR?

There’s a lot of things that contribute to my passion, but I think the biggest thing is I love to see and get highly energized when I can walk alongside HR professionals and help them solve a problem. And it’s typically a problem that has a pretty meaningful impact. I like equipping them with the tools, the insights, and the strategies. I’m just a naturally curious person, and my work at HCI revolves around talent strategy and consulting and research. I love being able to take my natural curiosity in those areas and then really see those tangible differences that we are able to give to our members and our clients.

How has your lived experience inspired your leadership? Obviously, your drive for curiosity is a huge factor, but what else has influenced you?

I think I’ve had an experience that a lot of people can relate to. Throughout my career, I’ve seen firsthand how leadership looks both when it’s done well and when it’s done really poorly and how that impacts workplace culture and even the success of individuals.

Early in my career, I experienced environments where leadership felt really transactional, and it wasn’t transformative. It led me to seek out and later develop different approaches that emphasize being authentic, being curious, and of course, continuous learning. That’s really driven me to be the kind of leader who is asking the right questions, who’s fostering consultation and collaboration. And I think more importantly, making space for growth.

What other passions do you have, and how does that inform your approach to the employee experience?

One of my other passions is really about helping organizations bridge the gap between intention and action when it comes to the employee experience. Because I think a lot of times companies have their values—they might be on paper; they might be on a big plaque on the wall—but sometimes they struggle to really live those in the way they work. It doesn’t end up inspiring or helping support their people. And so, I like to really focus on things that are practical, things like helping leaders understand what your employees actually need and how to embed those insights into your everyday interactions. Maybe it’s leadership development, maybe it’s knowledge transfer, or maybe it’s just being a lot more conscious about building and taking care of the kind of culture that’s going to help your organization thrive.

I really do believe that a good employee experience, in fact, I’d say a great employee experience, absolutely starts with leaders. And it has to be leaders who are willing to listen, leaders who are willing to adapt, and leaders who are willing to invest in their people.

Do you have any advice for leaders trying to build trust and communication in order to learn what’s needed to enhance the employee experience?

I think there’s a number of things leaders can do, and it’s a combination of behaviors they demonstrate as well as other things they practice. I think to begin to build the trust, leaders have to demonstrate degrees of vulnerability. They have to make it safe for people to speak up.

I had a great leader once at an organization who was very intentional about sharing with us: where she was successful, where she had failed, what she had learned from that. She made it really safe to approach her with questions and conversations. When that trust was built, she did an excellent job doing what I call “going on a listening tour.” She didn’t interact with people to try to problem solve or push an agenda. She was authentically curious. She wanted to seek to understand, and when people felt like she was genuine, that opened the gateway for her to begin cultivating the culture in a way that was healthy for everyone. And I’ll add, because I think it’s important, a culture that also positioned the business to be successful, because it has to be both. It can’t be a culture that everybody loves, but it doesn’t allow the business to achieve its objectives. It’s a culture designed to propel that business forward. And I think that’s the advice I would offer leaders to start thinking about.

I’ve loved learning about how you’ve been so positively influenced by leaders in your life. In that regard, what can other people learn from your story and experiences that you’ve lived from? How do you think others can relate to your story?

I think my story resonates with a lot of different people, both in HR and even other areas of business, because much like them, I’ve had to navigate a lot of uncertainty and change in my roles. I’ve had to be a steward of the business, but at the same time, make sure we’re meeting the needs of our workforce.

You know, the interesting thing is I never set out to be an expert in leadership development or talent strategy. I just organically moved into this space in part because I started asking a lot of questions. I was seeking different perspectives, and I stayed committed to learning. I think my journey through leadership really highlights that you don’t have to have everything figured out to make a difference. If you focus on trying to understand people, understanding that evolving is a normal part of these interactions, and you stay open to new ideas, you can drive a lot of real change in organizations. It’s okay that leaders don’t have all the right answers. It’s more important for us to learn how to ask the right questions and allow other people to bring information into the discussion.

Karen is one of many experts that will speak at HRDA’s and HCI’s SPARK HR 2025 conference. From April 30 to May 2, join your peers and HR leaders to discuss what’s driving real engagement and loyalty right now. Discover how new technologies can simplify your life and create customized employee experiences. Learn the different combinations of rewards, benefits, and recognition that work for your organization, and most importantly get the proven strategies you can use immediately to elevate your managers into better team leaders.
 

This article is presented in partnership with HR Daily Advisor. HR Query is a Q&A series by HR Daily Advisor that focuses on HR professionals' insights on current HR trends and dives into their personal stories, helping HR peers connect with challenges and opportunities.