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No matter the time of year, it’s never too late to start thinking about how to improve employee experience. That’s why we here at Bonfyre have assembled a handy reading list of employee experience books & articles to help out.
Below you’ll find a list of the best employee experience books, articles, and miscellanea that should be on your radar as you build out your strategy for 2019 and beyond.
Employee Experience Books
The Employee Experience: How to Attract Talent, Retain Top Performers, and Drive Results
“Every important business outcome lies downstream from the experience and engagement of the people who make the organization go,” writes authors Tracy Maylett and Matthew Wride. Their book stands as one of the first substantive explorations into the growing phenomenon that is “employee experience.” As far as employee experience books go, it’s essential reading for anyone just starting to learn about EX, but it’s also great for engagement and culture pros looking to brush up on their knowledge.
–Matthew Stolpe, Editor, Bonfyre
The Employee Experience Advantage
If you’re looking for the fundamentals, this is one of those employee experience books you won’t want to do without. Author Jacob Morgan explores an EX framework that’s equal parts accessible and indispensable. Morgan breaks down EX into three easy-to-understand environments (physical, cultural, and technological), and dives deep to show us what we can learn from companies that are “doing it right.”
–Matthew Stolpe, Editor, Bonfyre
The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable
Relationships are the core of EX and this book does a great job of illuminating through easy to understand and powerful stories some of the common pitfalls teams face that directly relate back to relationships.
– Mark Sawyier, CEO and Co-founder, Bonfyre
Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking
This was a good read to better understand the talented introverts we work with every day.
–Jordan Wyner, Director of Client Success, Bonfyre
The Connected Company
Companies must adapt to new technology to survive and The Connected Company paints a strong vision with actionable advice for a company that not just survives but thrives in a connected world.
–Josh Barnickol, Director of Engineering, Bonfyre
It Doesn’t Have to Be Crazy at Work
On my list to read in 2019. I’m always interested in fresh ways of thinking about workplace culture, especially in the tech/creative space, and I’m drawn to the idea of questioning the status quo.
–Susanne LeBlanc, Head of Design, Bonfyre
Everybody Matters: The Extraordinary Power of Caring for Your People Like Family
Barry-Wehmiller, a global manufacturing supplier, managed to avoid laying off a single employee during the Great Recession by embracing a bold philosophy called Truly Human Leadership (also known as servant leadership in some circles). In this book, CEO Bob Chapman explains how leadership styles couched in empathy, trust, and compassion have markedly improved the experiences of Barry-Wehmiller’s employees.
–Matthew Stolpe, Editor, Bonfyre
Gamestorming: A Playbook for Innovators, Rulemakers, and Changemakers
The Client Success Team is always looking for new and innovative ways to engage with our clients for strategy sessions, training, demos, and more. This book is full of ideas to creatively problem solve and brainstorm through games.
–Jordan Wyner, Director of Client Success, Bonfyre
Building a Magnetic Culture
Internationally recognized engagement and culture authority Kevin Sheridan outlines the fundamentals for building a company culture that engages and inspires employees. Not to humble brag, but we’ve got a signed copy of this one lying around the office.
–Matthew Stolpe, Editor, Bonfyre
Manager’s Guide to Employee Engagement
Research consistently demonstrates that the employee experience suffers when managers have poor leadership techniques. As the expression goes, people leave managers, not companies. Scott Carbonara’s handy guide for teaching managers engagement strategies has been expressly recommended to us by other thought leaders in the past. We thought it’d only be fair to pay the recommendation forward for our collection of employee experience books.
–Matthew Stolpe, Editor, Bonfyre
Daily Rituals: How Artists Work
An interesting collection of information about how artists work (like the subtitle says), including how writers, philosophers, painters, and more make the time to create. A good reminder that we all work in different ways and can learn from each other’s processes.
–Susanne LeBlanc, Head of Design, Bonfyre
Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind
Considering this an EX recommendation might be a stretch, but I found it fascinating connect our human history with our modern cultures and behaviors, including the ways they show up in the workplace.
–Jordan Wyner, Director of Client Success, Bonfyre
Employee Experience Articles & Miscellanea
3 Things to Know About Employee Experience | SHRM
Why the Millions We Spend on Employee Engagement Buy Us So Little | Harvard Business Review
These articles are for those of you that don’t quite have the time to read the employee experience books listed above but still want to know what it’s all about. In this handy collection of articles, Jacob Morgan distills the core tenets of his EX philosophy, first detailed in “The Employee Experience Advantage,” into these light and easy reads.
–Matthew Stolpe, Content Creator, Bonfyre
Should Employee Experience Replace Employee Engagement | People Lab
2018 Will Be the Year of Employee Experience | Forbes
Employee Engagement vs. Experience: What’s the Difference? | Gallup
I feel all of these articles help to articulate the importance of examining our workplace and employees holistically. Too often in the past, an HR trend would only highlight an aspect of the employee’s experience like retention, development, recruitment, etc. To me, employee experience is the sum of all of these aspects.
–Rob Seay, Director of Employee Experience, Bonfyre
To Survive a Digital Future, Guide Employees to Own Their Learning | HR Dive
No One Works There Because You Have a Foosball Table | TLNT
Our working lives are changing quickly, and are showing no signs of slowing down. While it may seem counterintuitive to some, allowing employees the time and space (at work) to learn new skills–in whatever method works best for them–is key to keeping people engaged, happy, and productive. By encouraging a culture of continuous learning, employees will have a better, more well-rounded experience and will find new ways to grow their careers and contribute to the organization.
–Kelly Travis, Director of Marketing and Sales Operations, Bonfyre
The Ambition Interviews | The Atlantic
Engaging collection of interviews that focus on the challenges a select group of women face at work and the different choices they made. The specific and personal nature of these articles attracted my attention. As a mom with two young kids at home, I’m interested in the challenges women face in their relationships with work. How women make a better work environment for themselves and for others, both personally and professionally, is of particular interest to me. It’s always good to know you’re not alone.
– Susanne LeBlanc, Head of Design, Bonfyre
HBR Management Tip of the Day | Harvard Business Review
I love these little tips that pop into my inbox. I find myself putting many of them into practice in my day-to-day work.
–Jordan Wyner, Director of Client Success, Bonfyre
Got a great suggestion to add to our reading list of employee experience books and articles? Let us know at editor@bonfyreapp.com.
