What does a Head of Employee Experience and Culture Transformation actually do?

KNOWN ALIASES / DISGUISES:

MARKET AVERAGE

$180,000

* National average for Head of Employee Experience/Culture roles in mid-to-large enterprises, based on combined Glassdoor and LinkedIn data.

"This compensation package ensures a comfortable existence for the individual tasked with sugarcoating the corporate grind, far removed from the actual employee experience they purport to 'transform'."

[DIAGNOSIS]This role is often deemed a luxury in times of economic uncertainty; easily cut when 'culture' takes a backseat to 'cost efficiency' or when a new CEO wants a fresh narrative.

"Lead the development and execution of a holistic employee experience strategy to foster a vibrant, inclusive, and high-performance culture."

OTIOSE TRANSLATION

Design and roll out performative initiatives to distract employees from systemic issues, while ensuring compliance with leadership's latest 'values' mandate.

"Drive culture transformation initiatives, leveraging data and insights to identify opportunities for improvement and enhance employee engagement."

OTIOSE TRANSLATION

Administer mandatory surveys, then cherry-pick data points that support pre-determined corporate narratives, ignoring critical feedback that challenges the status quo.

"Champion diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts, ensuring a workplace where all employees feel valued, respected, and empowered."

OTIOSE TRANSLATION

Implement surface-level DEI programs that provide good optics for external marketing, while quietly enabling or ignoring the underlying 'boys club' dynamics and micro-aggressions.

[09:30 - 10:30]

Strategic Alignment Synthesis

Synthesize the latest leadership talking points into a new internal communication plan, ensuring all messaging aligns with the current quarter's 'strategic imperatives' (and avoids any mention of recent layoffs).

[11:00 - 12:00]

Engagement Survey Deep Dive

Review the latest employee engagement survey results, identifying positive outliers to highlight in the executive summary, while preparing boilerplate responses for common complaints like 'lack of career growth' or 'unrealistic workloads'.

[14:00 - 15:00]

Culture Committee Brainstorm

Facilitate a 'brainstorming' session with the cross-functional Culture Committee to plan the next 'innovative' employee appreciation event, likely involving themed snacks and forced participation in a virtual trivia game.

"HR, from my personal experience, tries to do good, most get into it for the right reasons, but over time it tends to be performative, allows sexism, nepotism, racism, homophobia, and more hateful undertones and micro-aggressions in the workplace. This is a horrific irony when the message is the opposite, ‘bring yourself to work’ ‘women empowerment’. The business first, now again boys club, wins out again and again. The policies and leniency too easily change with the whims of leadership."

— r/linkedin

"They make them do the dirty work, like putting employees on PIPs and scolding them for “bad behavior,” and then also refuse to listen to them about work culture issues."

— r/humanresources

"Nobody pretends like their job defines themselves and their lives either, which is great! I used to think Europe and Canada were more civilized when it comes to work, but they parrot the same corporate capitalist garbage they do here."

— r/AskMenOver30