From Engagement to Experience: How Lockton is Shaping a People-First Future
Lee Smith
Minutes
26th September 2025
Employee Experience
People First
People First
Webinar
For our latest EX Space webinar we were joined by Lauren Hoare, EX lead at global insurance broker Lockton, where she shared her journey of shifting from an engagement-led approach to building a truly experience-based, people-first culture.
For many organisations, the story of employee engagement has been a familiar one: measure sentiment, design campaigns to lift scores, and report progress up the line. It’s a cycle that can generate activity, but not always the deep connection or cultural shift people are really looking for.
At Lockton, things are different. Under Lauren’s leadership, the company has been quietly re-framing what it means to create a great place to work. Rather than focusing on the mechanics of engagement, Lauren has been building something more ambitious and, ultimately, more human: an experience-based, people-first approach.
For many organisations, the story of employee engagement has been a familiar one: measure sentiment, design campaigns to lift scores, and report progress up the line. It’s a cycle that can generate activity, but not always the deep connection or cultural shift people are really looking for.
At Lockton, things are different. Under Lauren’s leadership, the company has been quietly re-framing what it means to create a great place to work. Rather than focusing on the mechanics of engagement, Lauren has been building something more ambitious and, ultimately, more human: an experience-based, people-first approach.
A journey shaped by community
When Lauren joined the EX Space community, she was one of its earliest Pro members. She describes it as a turning point:
“This is still such a new profession, and anything that can help cement your learning and shape your thinking is invaluable. For me, EX Space provided those foundations. It gave me the language, the confidence, and the inspiration to think differently about my role.”
This sense of community and shared exploration encouraged Lauren to step back from the tools of engagement and instead consider the design of experience: the everyday moments that shape how people feel about their work, their colleagues, and their organisation.
What does “experience-based” look like?
At Lockton, Lauren has translated this mindset into a series of practical shifts:
- Listening differently
Beyond surveys, Lauren has championed conversations, feedback loops, and informal check-ins. The aim isn’t to capture a data point, but to understand lived experience. - Designing moments that matter
From onboarding through to career transitions, she has focused on the critical touchpoints that make the biggest emotional impact. When people feel supported in these moments, their sense of belonging and trust grows exponentially. - Partnering across functions
Experience is never the sole responsibility of HR or communications. Lauren has worked to bring leaders, IT, operations, and managers together around a shared vision, ensuring that initiatives are joined-up rather than fragmented. - Creating with, not for
Perhaps most importantly, employees are no longer passive recipients. They are co-designers of the experience, shaping solutions that genuinely reflect their needs.
Why this matters
The shift Lauren has led at Lockton is more than a change of process. It’s a cultural reset. By asking “How does this feel for our people?” the organisation has moved from seeing employees as an audience to recognising them as active participants in shaping the workplace.
This has powerful ripple effects:
- Managers have richer conversations.
- Teams feel ownership of change.
- The organisation reflects its values not just in policy, but in daily experience.
Lessons for all of us
Lauren’s story is a reminder that employee experience is not a project. It’s a mindset — a way of thinking about work that prioritises feelings, relationships, and meaning just as much as processes and outputs.
For anyone working in this space, the challenge is to go beyond engagement mechanics and start asking deeper questions:
- What does it really feel like to work here?
- Which moments shape that feeling most powerfully?
- How can we design those moments with people, not for them?
At Lockton, Lauren has shown what’s possible when these questions are taken seriously. And while the details of every organisation will differ, the principle is universal: when you put people first, performance follows.
It’s a theme we’re exploring in much more depth in our upcoming book, People-First Internal Communication (Kogan Page, December 2025). The book shines a light on practitioners like Lauren who are redefining what great internal communication and employee experience really mean in today’s workplaces.
🎥 If you missed the live session, you can catch up anytime in the EX Space webinar library — available on demand whenever you’re ready to dive in (if you're not already a member, then just sign up as an essentials member now - for free!)
