If we truly believe that our people are our most valuable asset, then we already have all the reason we need to care about the employee experience. But taking care of employees isn’t just about perks or benefits. Instead, promoting their success must become our most fundamental job. In a struggle for talent that promises to remain fierce, investing in EX transformation is also a matter of building our strategic competitive advantage. This Field Manual walks us through the context in which our EX transformation must take place.

For many, the pandemic has prompted deep reflection on the fundamental role of work in their lives. Perhaps more than ever, people feel single-minded in their desire for a renegotiation of their work-life boundaries—and emboldened to ask for support from their organizations in that effort. Instrumental to this movement is a renewed focus on what makes work feel meaningful. This Field Manual explores what meaningful work looks like, how it leads to a host of positive outcomes—and how we in HR can foster it at our organizations.

When we think about our experience at work, it’s hard to come up with a more important factor in this experience than our relationship with our manager. For better or worse, managers are the personal, front-line embodiment of the company for their reports. This means they are also in a unique position to support, guide, and coach employees, all the while deeply impacting their day-to-day work experience. This Field Manual digs into the essential role that managers play in EX transformation and how they can enable their teams to thrive.

For knowledge workers, the pandemic brought a swift pause to co-located work. In the months since, we’ve had to build new processes and systems on the fly. Many of these efforts have been remarkably successful, but we’ve also had to reckon with the fact that much of our work simply isn’t place-neutral. Whether digital or physical, our work environments matter. Paying attention to how we can create a positive workplace and culture, across both remote workers and co-located workers, is integral to great EX. This Field Manual tackles the characteristics of positive workplaces where people are treated with respect and feel included.

Employee wellbeing is about more than reimbursing a gym membership or a meditation app. The pandemic has brought sustained focus to the ways in which many organizations have failed to truly support the holistic wellbeing of their employees—and failed to even imagine what that might look like. Now, leading EX companies are going back to the drawing board, building a more complete picture of employee wellness. This Field Manual highlights the tight connection between employee health and wellbeing and the irresistible organization.

How many people leave an organization because they just can’t envision the next step for their career there? The best EX depends on facilitating career growth for employees in ways that both accommodate and build on employees’ individual strengths. Job and role mobility, creative or unconventional paths, and a culture that values continued learning: these are some of the surest signs of an employee experience that enables growth. This Field Manual covers the intersection of growth and learning opportunities, plus the strategic role that they play in retaining talent and creating high-quality EX.

At the core of EX lies the foundation of any good relationship: trust. Trust is what knits organizations together and fuels our best work and collaboration. For great EX, people at every level of our organizations must feel a sense of trust—in each other and the organization as a whole—as well as a responsibility to earn that trust from others. This Field Manual describes the foundational role of trust in great EX and practical tips on how to build an organizational culture anchored by that trust.