Where Should HR Focus in 2025 to Improve the Employee Experience? Top 10 Largest Gaps in the Employee Experience

Most HR functions are struggling to identify exactly where organizations are falling short in the employee experience as they see retention and engagement drop at alarming rates.
To guide HR functions on where to focus improvements, APQC surveyed employees about the aspects of the employee experience that are most important to them and the extent to which they are receiving these at their current employers. For each aspect of the employee experience, we calculated the difference between the average rating for "importance" and the average rating for "received." This revealed a list of the top 10 largest employee experience gaps. HR functions can use this list to guide improvements to the overall employee experience.