- 01Purpose & Meaning
- 02Trust & Psychological Safety
- 03Leadership Integrity
- 04Fairness & Equity
- 05Growth & Mastery
- 06Recognition & Value
- 07Wellbeing & Energy
- 08Work–Life Harmony
- 09Voice & Influence
- 10Culture & Belonging
- 11Digital EX & AI Impact
- 12Security, Stability & Future Confidence
Employee Experience Assessment
Employee experience, measured. Beyond the survey.
The independent global benchmark for employee experience maturity. One rating, 120 evidence-based judgements, and a clear route to certification and the Experience Excellence Awards.
Your People Are the Experience. Prove the Capability Behind Them.
Every organisation now says its people are its greatest asset. Far fewer can demonstrate that the experience they provide those people is designed, governed, and measured with the same rigour as any other strategic priority. That gap, between rhetoric and evidence, is where the best talent leaves, where engagement scores drift downwards, and where culture quietly fractures under commercial pressure.
The EX Employee Experience Excellence Assessment closes that gap. It is the independent, evidence-based diagnostic that tells you, and anyone you need to convince, exactly how mature your employee experience capability really is, where it is strongest, where it is fragile, and what the path to a genuinely world-class workplace looks like.
- 01An independent answer to the board’s question
“Is our investment actually producing capability?” Answered with evidence, not opinion, and against a credible external benchmark: ICXI operates in many countries, so your score is comparable, not cosmetic.
- 02A shared language, and a ready-made plan
Twelve strands and five maturity levels give every executive the same map. The platform turns your results into a prioritised, sequenced action plan and roadmap of the highest-leverage improvements.
- 03Recognition you can defend, progress you can prove
EEI Awards recognition is backed by an audit trail that matters to customers, employees and regulators. Re-assessment produces a like-for-like trajectory the organisation can stand behind: benchmarking in action.
Twelve Strands, Ten Criteria in Each.
Each strand is scored against published criteria with evidence requirements: 120 evidence-based judgements behind every rating, comparable across industries, geographies and time.
Purpose & Meaning
Whether organisational purpose is genuinely lived: understood by employees, reinforced by leaders, and visible in decisions rather than used as branding.
Trust & Psychological Safety
The conditions that allow employees to speak up, disagree, admit mistakes and ask for help, without fear of reputational or career cost.
Leadership Integrity
Consistency between what leaders say, what they do, and what employees experience: the single strongest signal of cultural truth.
Fairness & Equity
Fair treatment across recruitment, reward, progression, and decision-making, evidenced by data, policy, and employee perception, not intent.
Growth & Mastery
The quality of learning, development, career pathways, and skill-building that turns roles into journeys rather than destinations.
Recognition & Value
How meaningfully employees are recognised, compensated, and made to feel their contribution matters, beyond annual cycles and generic schemes.
Wellbeing & Energy
The design of work, load, and support such that mental, physical and emotional wellbeing are protected, not sacrificed to deliver results.
Work–Life Harmony
Flexibility, boundaries, and respect for time, enabling employees to contribute sustainably across the full arc of their lives.
Voice & Influence
How systematically employee voice is captured, heard, and translated into decisions, not just surveyed and filed.
Culture & Belonging
The lived, felt experience of inclusion, connection, and identity at work, across every team, level, and location.
Digital EX & AI Impact
How digital tools, data, and AI are designed to empower employees and protect their experience, rather than monitor, overload, or displace them.
Security, Stability & Future Confidence
The confidence employees have in the organisation’s direction, their role in it, and their long-term prospects, especially during change.
Five Levels, from Emerging to Exemplary.
Every organisation is placed on a five-point scale, from emerging foundations through to exemplary, systemic excellence.
Activity is fragmented, ownership is unclear, and the organisation responds to attrition, incidents or survey dips rather than designing the experience by intent.
EX is recognised as a priority and investment is being made, but capability is uneven across strands and not yet producing sustained cultural outcomes.
Capability is formally defined, governed and measured. Employee voice, fairness, growth and wellbeing practices are consistent, with clear ownership and year-on-year improvement.
Employee experience is well embedded and continuously improving, with strong governance and evidence of positive impact on people, culture and outcomes.
Leadership, innovation and sustained impact that make the organisation a role model and a recognised source of talent advantage.
Four Stages. Six Things You Keep.
The certificate is the recognition. Everything else is a working asset for the next two years.
- 01
Scoping & Readiness
A confidential working session with your executive sponsor (typically CHRO or CEO) to agree scope, stakeholders, evidence sources and timeline. Typically one to two weeks.
- 02
Evidence Gathering
Documentary evidence, structured interviews and focus groups across leadership, managers and employee populations, and a review of engagement, fairness and culture data.
- 03
Scoring & Calibration
Findings are scored against all 120 criteria. During the Awards cycle a second assessor calibrates the rating to protect objectivity and ensure global comparability.
- 04
Report, Rating & Roadmap
Your full maturity report, strand-by-strand scores, overall Maturity Rating (Emerging to Exemplary) and a prioritised AI insights and improvement roadmap.
Executive Summary
A board-ready narrative of your current maturity, strengths, vulnerabilities and strategic priorities.
Full Diagnostic Report
Findings across all 120 criteria, with evidence citations and assessor commentary, plus AI insights for every question, every section and overall: a clear action plan and roadmap.
Rating & Certificate
Your formal ICXI Maturity Rating (Emerging, Developing, Structured, Proactive or Exemplary), with an ICXI-issued certificate where the standard is met.
Improvement Roadmap
A sequenced 12 to 24 month, AI-driven roadmap of the highest-leverage interventions, owned by strand.
Executive Debrief
A debrief for your leadership team, including Q&A with the lead assessor where conducted externally.
Awards Eligibility
Where your rating qualifies, automatic eligibility to enter the Experience Excellence Awards at the appropriate tier. No separate submission required.
Your Evidence Is Your Entry.
The Assessment is the only route into the Experience Excellence Awards. Every organisation recognised on an EEI Awards stage has been independently assessed against the same international framework, not judged on the persuasiveness of an entry form. No submission writing.
Earn ICXI certification and the right to display the EX certification mark. Enter the Experience Excellence Awards at regional level.
Qualify for category awards, such as Best Employee Voice, Best Wellbeing Programme, Best Leadership Culture, or Best DE&I Practice.
Become a candidate for the flagship Employee Experience Organisation of the Year award and join ICXI’s global Council of Excellence.
Straight Answers, Before You Begin.
How long does an Assessment take?
What exactly is the Assessment?
A structured, independent evaluation of your employee experience capability.
Carried out either by an ICXI-certified assessor or by a suitably experienced resource within the organisation. It produces a Maturity Rating, a full diagnostic report including AI insights and recommendations and, where the bar is met, formal ICXI certification and eligibility to enter the Experience Excellence Awards.
Independent. Delivered by ICXI, a neutral global experience authority and the developer of the global Experience Excellence standards. No consultancy upsell. No vendor agenda.
Evidence-based. Every score is anchored to observable evidence (policies, behaviour, employee voice data, manager practice), scored by the ICXI assessment platform, which generates AI insights and recommendations. Opinion is not enough.
Developmental. Every organisation leaves with a complete maturity report and a prioritised roadmap. The certificate is the recognition; the diagnostic is the asset.
Who is the Assessment built for?
Executive teams, who need an independent, defensible read on whether their people investment is producing real capability and culture, not just activity and slogans.
HR, People & Culture leaders, who want a structured roadmap to prioritise improvement, secure budget, and demonstrate year-on-year progress against an external benchmark.
Boards & Investors, who require assurance that human capital risk is governed, measurable, and aligned with commercial, ESG, and regulatory obligations.
Do we need to be ready before we start?
Is it confidential? Will employee contributions be anonymous?
How does this relate to our existing engagement survey?
What does the Assessment replace?
It replaces:
- Annual engagement surveys that measure sentiment but not the capability producing it.
- Generic recognition lists and rankings based on submissions rather than independently verified evidence.
- Generic culture audits that cannot be independently verified or compared.
- Internal scorecards that grade the organisation against its own ambitions.
Who conducts the Assessment?
Know How Mature Your Employee Experience Really Is.
Request a confidential scoping conversation with an ICXI assessor. No commitment, no cost, no consultancy pitch: just an honest discussion of whether the Assessment is right for your organisation.