The value of lived experience engagement
Workforces hold valuable insight into the challenges organisations face — but this insight is only accessible when people feel safe enough to share it - without fear of consequence or judgement.
Traditional feedback mechanisms often fail to capture the full picture because employees may not feel safe enough to speak openly.
Stacey believes lived experience voices are essential to meaningful and sustainable change. When combined with leadership commitment and organisational strategy, they reveal insights that policies alone cannot, helping organisations identify systemic gaps and respond in ways that are practical and person-centred.
Stacey is highly skilled at engaging and interacting with lived experience groups and facilitating conversations that drive positive workplace change.
Harnessing your lived experience WORKFORCE
Workforces hold valuable insight into how policies, systems and leadership behaviours are experienced in practice. Employees often know where organisational systems work well — and where they unintentionally create barriers, risk or harm.
However, many employees do not feel safe providing honest feedback through traditional mechanisms such as engagement surveys or internal reporting processes. Concerns about anonymity, team size, career impact or leadership response can prevent people from sharing their full experience.
By creating "safe enough" environments for people to contribute insight and experience, organisations can better understand the real barriers affecting their workforce. This enables more effective solutions and stronger organisational outcomes.
I work with organisations to create safe enough, confidential and structured ways for workforce lived experience to inform organisational change. This includes engaging employees with lived experience across many areas, including:
- domestic, family and sexual violence
- caring responsibilities
- cultural and gender diversity
- disability
- mental health
- workplace harassment and discrimination
- life circumstances that affect attendance, productivity and performance
Executive teams encourage their workforce to bring their "whole self" to work, but often they do not feel safe enough to do so, especially if they look or behave different to most of their peers, or have different needs.