Employee experience is rarely “one platform.” In most organisations, it’s a stack: a digital home for communication and resources, a listening layer for employee experience management, a service layer for HR/IT support, a workplace layer for the office experience—and, for distributed teams, a workspace layer that makes it easy to meet and work well across locations.
This guide is written for People Ops/HR and Workplace leaders in the UK and Europe. It’s structured as a shortlist: the best employee experience platforms and employee experience software by domain, with practical “best for” guidance.
Top picks at a glance
If you’re short on time, start here:
- Best for distributed teams (workspace layer): Wezoo — book meeting rooms, hot desks, and day offices across locations
- Best EX hub for Microsoft-first organisations: Microsoft Viva
- Best EX hub for comms + community adoption (often used in Workplace migrations): Workvivo
- Best for employee experience management (listening + action): Culture Amp, Workday Peakon, Qualtrics, Viva Glint
- Best for employee service delivery (HR/IT support): ServiceNow, Jira Service Management, Zendesk, Freshservice
- Best for digital employee experience (DEX): Nexthink, Lakeside, Aternity
Employee experience platform vs employee experience software
Employee experience platform (EXP) usually means a central digital “front door”—where employees access communications, resources, communities, and entry points into other systems.
Employee experience software is broader. It includes the EXP hub, plus specialist tools for:
- Employee experience management (listening, analytics, action planning)
- Recognition and rewards
- Employee service delivery (HR/IT support portals and workflows)
- Workplace experience software (desk/room booking and office flows)
- Digital employee experience (DEX) tools (IT-led visibility into device/app experience)
For distributed and hybrid organisations, there’s another layer that strongly influences employee experience:
The workspace layer: the practical ability to access professional spaces—meeting rooms, hot desks, and day offices—when people need to collaborate or work productively outside HQ.
Domain 1: Workspace access for distributed teams (UK & Europe)
This is where Wezoo belongs. It is not an “all-in-one employee experience platform” in the classic digital-hub sense. Instead, it’s an employee experience solution for a high-friction reality that People Ops/HR and Workplace leaders routinely face:
Distributed teams need reliable, professional spaces for collaboration and focus across multiple cities—without making every in-person moment a sourcing and admin project.
Wezoo
What it is
A workspace layer for distributed and hybrid teams—used to book meeting rooms, hot desks, and day offices across locations.
Why it’s “category-defining” for this specific use case
Most employee experience stacks solve the digital layer (comms, listening, internal support). Teams still struggle with the physical reality of collaboration across cities.
A workspace layer is what makes “where we meet and work” repeatable, especially for:
- hiring loops and interview days
- onboarding sessions and new-hire weeks
- client workshops and working sessions
- planning days, leadership offsites, and team collaboration days
- multi-city project kick-offs and milestone workshops
Best for
People Ops/HR and Workplace teams supporting multi-city teams and repeatable in-person collaboration rhythms—especially when your organisation has a hybrid or distributed footprint across the UK and Europe.
These patterns show up consistently in distributed organisations:
High-repeatability use cases (practical playbook)
1) Collaboration days (monthly or quarterly)
- Meeting rooms for the main workshop / planning block
- Day offices for breakouts, prep, 1:1s, and follow-up work
- Hot desks for teammates who want a full working day around the core session
2) Hiring loops
- Meeting rooms for structured interview blocks
- Day offices for confidential debriefs, note consolidation, and sensitive discussions
3) Onboarding that feels human
- Hot desks or day offices for focused onboarding workdays
- Meeting rooms for buddy sessions, introductions, and early team alignment
4) Leadership roadshows (leaders meet teams where they are)
- Meeting rooms for leadership Q&A and planning
- Day offices for private follow-ups and parallel workstreams
5) Project kick-offs and milestone workshops
- Meeting rooms for alignment and decision-making
- Day offices for parallel working sessions, smaller group work, and wrap-up tasks
Useful internal reading (Wezoo)
Or talk to our team for more information:
Domain 2: Core employee experience platforms (EXP hubs)
These tools typically serve as the digital “front door” to work: internal communication, resources, communities, and access to key systems.
Microsoft Viva
What it is
An employee experience platform built around Microsoft 365 and Teams, designed to surface communication, knowledge, and employee resources within the flow of work.
Why it’s commonly shortlisted
For Microsoft-first organisations, Viva is often the most direct path to an EX hub that fits into existing workflows—without introducing a separate employee app ecosystem.
Workvivo (by Zoom)
What it is
An employee experience platform focused on internal communications, community, and engagement—often used to centralise updates, stories, and social-style interaction.
Why it’s commonly shortlisted
Workvivo is regularly evaluated by organisations that want a strong community layer, and it shows up often in “replace Workplace” conversations because it supports similar engagement patterns (groups, updates, social interaction).
LumApps
What it is
An employee experience platform/intranet layer with personalisation and integrations, typically used to deliver a central portal experience for employees.
Why it’s commonly shortlisted
Often evaluated in enterprise intranet modernisation programmes where the goal is a single portal employees actually use—especially when personalisation and integration breadth matter.
Unily
What it is
An enterprise intranet and employee experience platform, frequently implemented as a structured intranet layer that centralises internal content and access to resources.
Why it’s commonly shortlisted
A common shortlist candidate where governance, content structure, scale, and rollout requirements are significant.
Staffbase
What it is
An employee communications platform spanning intranet/app/email and related channels—typically used to plan and deliver comms with consistent reach.
Why it’s commonly shortlisted
Often chosen when Internal Comms needs multi-channel reach and orchestration across desk and frontline audiences (not just an intranet homepage).
Simpplr
What it is
An intranet-first employee experience platform with a strong emphasis on access to resources and findability (helping employees locate information quickly).
Why it’s commonly shortlisted
Frequently evaluated when “finding what I need” is the dominant friction—rather than a need for deeper HR workflows or service delivery tooling.
Domain 3: Frontline employee apps (mobile-first experience)
If your workforce is deskless or hybrid-heavy, adoption often depends on mobile-first access, simple journeys, and reliable reach.
Beekeeper
What it is
A frontline platform combining communication and engagement with operational workflows—often positioned as a single app for deskless teams.
Why it’s commonly shortlisted
Often evaluated as an “all-in-one frontline app” to reduce tool sprawl and improve reach, especially where teams don’t sit behind laptops all day.
Blink
What it is
A mobile-first employee app for communication and connecting employees to essentials (updates, resources, and access to tools).
Why it’s commonly shortlisted
Often shortlisted when the primary requirement is “one app employees actually use” to reach everyone quickly—particularly for frontline-heavy organisations.
Firstup
What it is
An employee communications platform that emphasises personalised communications and orchestration—often focused on getting the right message to the right audience.
Why it’s commonly shortlisted
A common choice for large organisations treating employee comms as a measurable, targeted channel (segmentation and orchestration), rather than a broadcast-only intranet.
Domain 4: Employee listening and employee experience management
This domain underpins employee experience management: measure what employees experience, identify drivers, and help leaders act.
Qualtrics Employee Experience
What it is
Enterprise employee experience management software spanning engagement, pulse, lifecycle, and analysis—typically used to run structured listening programmes.
Why it’s commonly shortlisted
Often evaluated where an organisation wants sophisticated survey design, segmentation, and a formal, governed EX management approach.
Culture Amp
What it is
Employee experience software focused on engagement and action—often used to link feedback to structured follow-up and manager enablement.
Why it’s commonly shortlisted
Frequently shortlisted for a manager-friendly “listen → understand → act” loop, where the goal is not just collecting feedback but improving outcomes.
Microsoft Viva Glint
What it is
Employee listening and engagement surveys within the Viva ecosystem—typically used for engagement measurement and feedback programmes.
Why it’s commonly shortlisted
A common choice for Microsoft-first organisations building a structured listening strategy alongside a Viva-led EX hub.
Workday Peakon Employee Voice
What it is
A continuous listening platform focused on engagement insights and ongoing feedback programmes.
Why it’s commonly shortlisted
Often shortlisted by Workday customers and teams that want an always-on listening cadence rather than only annual surveys.
Perceptyx
What it is
Employee experience software for listening and analytics, typically positioned around translating insights into action across the organisation.
Why it’s commonly shortlisted
Commonly evaluated in more advanced listening programmes where organisations want deeper analytics and structured insight-to-action workflows.
Domain 5: Recognition, rewards, perks, and culture reinforcement
This is where employee experience becomes visible and repeatable: recognition habits, tangible employee value, and culture reinforcement.
Reward Gateway
What it is
A platform combining recognition, rewards, benefits/discounts, and engagement features—often used as a central place for “value + appreciation” programmes.
Why it’s commonly shortlisted
A frequent UK shortlist candidate when organisations want one place to run recognition and offer tangible employee value via benefits-style features.
Perkbox
What it is
A UK-focused perks/discounts, wellbeing, and recognition-style platform, typically positioned as a straightforward employee value layer.
Why it’s commonly shortlisted
Often shortlisted when organisations want a bundle employees immediately understand and use (perks + recognition), with a simple rollout.
Workhuman
What it is
A social recognition platform oriented around structured recognition moments and organisation-wide recognition programmes.
Why it’s commonly shortlisted
Often evaluated by larger organisations formalising recognition at scale—where programme structure and consistent global use matter.
Achievers
What it is
A recognition and rewards platform positioned for structured programmes and enterprise deployment.
Why it’s commonly shortlisted
Commonly evaluated when organisations want recognition with programme governance, reporting, and scalability.
Bonusly
What it is
A lightweight peer-to-peer recognition tool, typically used to encourage frequent appreciation habits in teams.
Why it’s commonly shortlisted
Often selected for simple, frequent recognition behaviours—particularly in distributed teams where day-to-day visibility is harder.
Domain 6: Employee service delivery (HR/IT support experience)
Employee experience degrades quickly when getting help is slow. This domain focuses on self-service, portals, case management, and service workflows.
ServiceNow Employee Center
What it is
A unified employee portal approach for requesting services and accessing resources across functions (often spanning HR, IT, and workplace services).
Why it’s commonly shortlisted
Often the enterprise standard when HR, IT, and Workplace services converge on one operating model with strong governance and workflow depth.
Jira Service Management
What it is
A service desk and request portal model used for internal services, typically supporting workflows, SLAs, queues, and knowledge.
Why it’s commonly shortlisted
Commonly shortlisted where organisations already use Atlassian tools and want a structured service portal that fits existing ways of working.
Zendesk (employee service use cases)
What it is
A support and ticketing platform frequently used for internal service desks (HR/IT support) as well as customer support—often implemented as an employee help experience.
Why it’s commonly shortlisted
Often shortlisted for pragmatic deployment and familiar support operations, especially when speed-to-value and flexible workflows matter.
Freshservice
What it is
An ITSM/ESM platform used to deliver internal services and employee self-service, typically led by IT teams.
Why it’s commonly shortlisted
Often shortlisted by IT teams extending into enterprise service management with an approachable rollout path for internal services.
Moveworks
What it is
An AI assistant layer used to help employees get answers and complete support actions more quickly, typically sitting alongside existing service stacks.
Why it’s commonly shortlisted
Often evaluated in organisations with high support volume where deflection, faster resolution, and improved employee help experience are key outcomes.
Domain 7: Digital Employee Experience (DEX) tools
DEX tools focus on digital friction: device health, app performance, and experience signals IT can act on.
Nexthink
What it is
A DEX platform typically used to understand and improve employee experience across endpoints and applications, with visibility and prioritisation for remediation.
Why it’s commonly shortlisted
Often evaluated when IT wants a measurable “experience layer” across devices, apps, and user segments—so issues can be identified and addressed before they become widespread pain.
Lakeside (SysTrack)
What it is
A DEX platform built around always-on endpoint data collection and analytics, commonly used to diagnose and prevent performance issues across large device estates.
Why it’s commonly shortlisted
Often shortlisted where teams need deep endpoint visibility and want to run proactive IT operations based on experience signals, not only tickets.
Riverbed Aternity
What it is
A digital experience management platform used to measure what users experience across applications and devices, helping teams link performance to end-user experience.
Why it’s commonly shortlisted
Typically evaluated by organisations that want experience monitoring at scale and faster diagnosis—especially where hybrid work makes issues harder to pinpoint.
When DEX matters most: when digital performance issues are a persistent drag on productivity and employee sentiment, and you want IT to manage “experience” proactively.
How to choose the right stack (a practical employee experience strategy)
People Ops/HR and Workplace teams typically get best outcomes when they anchor tool choices to moments that matter, not categories.
Step 1: Define the moments you must improve
Examples that map cleanly to tooling decisions:
- onboarding and first 90 days
- manager cadence and team connection
- collaboration days (monthly/quarterly)
- hiring loops and internal mobility
- employee support (HR/IT/Workplace services)
- hybrid planning and space usage
Step 2: Pick a clear “front door”
Choose one EX hub experience where employees start:
- Microsoft Viva if you’re Microsoft-first
- Workvivo / intranet-led tools if you want a strong community and comms layer
- Intranet-first platforms if governance and findability are the critical pain points
Step 3: Build employee experience management as a system (not a survey)
Listening tools work best when you design the action loop:
- what gets measured
- who owns action planning
- how managers are supported
- how outcomes are communicated back to employees
Step 4: Fix the “getting help” experience
If employees don’t know where to go for answers, experience suffers quickly. Prioritise:
- a single place to request help
- clear routing/ownership
- knowledge that reduces repetitive questions
- consistent service expectations
Step 5: Treat hybrid as operational, not aspirational
If you have offices, workplace experience software reduces friction.
If your teams work across cities, add the workspace layer so collaboration is bookable and repeatable.
This is where Wezoo belongs—supporting the lived experience of distributed work:
Replacing Workplace from Meta
If your organisation is moving away from Workplace, treat the migration as a chance to reset governance and adoption:
- choose the new “front door” (EX hub)
- map communities and content to sustainable ownership
- align the platform to your employee experience strategy (not a feature checklist)
Workvivo and Microsoft-first approaches are both common directions—your best fit depends on ecosystem, adoption patterns, and governance needs.
Talk to our team
If your employee experience strategy includes distributed teams, the workspace layer is often the missing part.
- Contact our team
- Book meeting rooms, hot desks, and day offices
- Explore Wezoo for distributed teams
- Flexible workspace solutions guide
FAQ
What are employee experience platforms?
Employee experience platforms (EXPs) are typically digital hubs that bring together internal communication, resources, communities, and entry points into other systems—so employees can find what they need and stay connected without switching between many tools.
What is employee experience software?
Employee experience software is the broader set of tools that shape day-to-day employee experience. It can include an employee experience platform (EXP) plus employee listening (employee experience management), recognition and rewards, employee service delivery (HR/IT support portals), workplace experience software (desk and room booking), and digital employee experience (DEX) tools.
What is employee experience management?
Employee experience management is the practice of measuring and improving employee experiences over time—typically through listening programmes (surveys and feedback), analysis of experience drivers, and structured action planning so leaders and managers can make improvements.
What is EEM in WFM?
In workforce management (WFM)—especially contact-centre scheduling—EEM can refer to an employee engagement–related module used for staffing and schedule flexibility. In People/HR discussions, you may also see “EEM” used informally to mean employee experience management. If this term appears in your organisation, confirm the definition used in your WFM platform or internal documentation.
What is replacing Meta Workplace?
Many organisations replace Meta Workplace with modern employee experience platforms (EXPs) or intranets that support internal communication and community-style engagement. The best replacement depends on your ecosystem (for example, Microsoft-first vs standalone EX hubs), governance needs, and the employee behaviours you want to sustain.
What is EMS in HR?
EMS in HR is commonly used to mean an employee management system—software for managing employee records and core HR workflows. Many organisations use a core HRIS for employee management and layer employee experience software (communications, listening, recognition, service delivery, and workplace/workspace layers) on top.
