By Tengku Murni, COO, CXL Group
Say what, Sir Richard Branson?
While the advantages of a strong employee experience I shared in the previous part of this blog are clear, many organisations encounter significant barriers in their journey to grow it. From my experience, these often include a leadership mindset that resists investing in employees due to concerns about potential exploitation.
Additionally, an overriding focus on delivering the “numbers” can overshadow employee engagement initiatives, especially during periods of economic challenges. The internal culture itself too can present a barrier, with some employees preferring a purely work-focused environment without social interaction.
Addressing these challenges means we need strategies that can integrate employee experience into our corporate culture. To do this, the emphasis should be to ensure there is leadership buy-in so that the programmes can be driven by the leadership team. Hence, the importance of strong leadership alignment.
Lead & Listen
As the new Chief Operating Officer of CXL Group, I am excited to share that we are on track to rolling out a comprehensive employee experience programme after having our top leadership team acknowledging the reasons why we need to do so.
The next step after alignment is to roll out the Leadership Development Programme (LDP), designed to coach and mentor competency and value creation sessions for both our senior leaders and mid-level managers. This is where 21 of our leaders have been identified to attend and understand their roles as leaders of the company.
In the third and more elaborated step is the People Development Programme, catering to the broader aspects of employee growth. Amongst the things we’ll be doing here are a quarterly employee survey, town hall sessions and “random” activities injected during formal meetings. These activities will form the pillars of our “continuous listening” initiative, which I feel is crucial if we are going to build the experiential factor in the office.
For example, our “listening” initiatives will see us sharing results transparently, informing data-driven decisions and addressing feedback directly at the town halls. At the formal meetings, we are looking at boosting morale and energising staff through things like CSR activities, sports clubs topics and even brief and fun “treasure hunts”.
But may say, “Sure, these are all nice to have but how are we to know if it’s on the right track?”
To do that, we’ll be validating measurable indicators that can link experience and office culture to business outcomes. These include:
- Employee Survey – provide direct feedback on satisfaction and needs.
- Customer Testimonials & Experience – reflect the impact of content employees.
- Lower Employee Attrition – demonstrate improved retention.
- Improved Competencies – indicate successful development.
- Positive KPI Results – Show performance alignment.
- Year-on-Year Financial Performance & Growth – the ultimate business indicator
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Looking back to when I was preparing this programme, I was told that the whole objective of trying to elevate the company by firstly prioritising the people seems to resemble the character that drove Virgin to success, led by none other than the inspirational and flamboyant Sir Richard Branson.
I was startled at first but humbled thereafter because if what we set out to achieve from here could truly translate to growth and success, it will inform us that prioritising our people and empowering them with autonomy as part of our main agenda is not wrong after all.
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About Murni
Tengku Murni serves as the Chief Operating Officer (COO) of CXL Group, focusing on strengthening systems, streamlining processes, and fostering a culture of trust to support efficiency and sustainable growth. As CXL Group continues to deliver end-to-end HR solutions, including Contingent Workforce Management, Payroll & HR Outsourcing, and Learning, Development & Consulting services. Murni plays a key role in ensuring the company’s operations remain agile, effective, and aligned with its long-term vision.
