Hey, it's Rachel Cook, your modern mentor. I'm the founder of Lead Above Noise, a firm specializing in helping companies to retain, engage, and develop talent through crafting employee experiences and delivering leadership development programs.

And today, I want to talk to you about your employee experience. And I don't mean the kind with the capital ease that we think

we need anonymous surveys to measure and analyze, but I mean the kind with the little ease,

as in if you're an employee, then you are having an experience. And even if the economy is feeling

just a little bit recessiony, and no, I am not an economist, so I can say that.

That is not permission granted to lose our focus here.

I'm seeing companies and leaders leaning on a false sense of security.

Like with the threat of layoffs or hiring freezes looming,

hey, no one's going to leave in this economy, right?

But this is not so right. And here's where I get really unapologetic. Because in recession-e-times, the employee

experience matters more than ever. Because in seasons of recession, anxiety and worry and stress

are draining our energy stores and our creative sources.

We feel pressure to get more done with fewer resources.

We need to be serving customers whose expectations are higher than ever,

because their dollars need to stretch further.

And all of this means that we're starting to feel the creep of burnout,

which is good for no one's health or well-being.

It means we need to be working more collaboratively, more efficiently, creatively.

And it means our talent may be sticking around out of fear, but doing so from a place of

disengagement, and disengaged talent can be really expensive.

Now, for those who still believe the employee experience is code for team yoga sessions and free lunch Fridays, you'd be right to wonder

how the employee experience is relevant here. But my definition of the employee experience is the

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