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Listening to employees is only the first step. Joey Wan, HR Manager, Easmed Asia shares how acting on feedback, strengthening leadership connections, and creating opportunities for employees to connect have helped build a stronger employee experience.
Employee experience starts with listening, but acting on what employees say is what makes the difference. For Easmed Asia, asking employees what they wanted and following through on their feedback has shaped its approach to creating a workplace where people feel heard, valued, and connected.
The organisation responded to employee feedback by creating more opportunities for employees to interact with management, while also building its own company intranet from scratch to make company updates, product information, HR information, policies, and resources more accessible. Joey Wan, HR Manager, Easmed Asia, tells Human Resources Online that these efforts showed employees that their voices matter, while further initiatives helped strengthen connections and trust beyond the workplace.
The approach saw Easmed Asia earning Finalist spots for 'Best Employee Feedback and Listening Strategy' as well as 'Best Employee Advocacy Programme' at the Employee Experience Awards 2026, Singapore.
In this interview, Wan talks about how the regional HR team has turned employee feedback into action, why employee experience does not always require big programmes or large budgets, and why listening and follow-through will remain key as employee expectations evolve.
Read full interview below.
Q Tell us about the biggest insight or lesson that influenced your EX approach this past year.
One of the biggest lessons we learned is that employee experience is about listening and taking action. Instead of guessing what employees wanted, we asked them and acted on their feedback.
For example, many employees shared that they wanted more opportunities to interact with our management team. In response, we created more informal sessions and activities where employees and leaders could connect naturally. We also heard that communication could be improved, so we built our own company intranet from scratch. It became a central place where employees can easily find company updates, product information, marketing materials, HR information, policies, and resources.
These may seem like small changes, but they showed our employees that their voices matter. We learned that listening, communicating openly, and following through are what truly create a better employee experience.
Q How did you bring leaders, managers, and employees together to support the execution and success of the initiative?
We knew from the start that HR could not do this alone. Creating a great employee experience takes everyone working together.
Our leaders made a conscious effort to spend more time with employees, not only at work but outside of work too. During our monthly mini town halls, they shared business updates, answered questions openly, and encouraged employees to speak up. They also joined employees for adventure trips and continued our yearly company family trip to Kukup, creating opportunities to build genuine relationships beyond the workplace.
One memorable example was our participation in the Singapore SEA Regatta dragon boat competition. Many of our senior leaders trained alongside employees for two months and competed as rowers. By leading through action rather than words, they showed their commitment to teamwork and being present with our people. Together with initiatives like our cross-functional Employee Awards, where employees could nominate and vote for colleagues across different offices, these experiences helped strengthen connections, build trust, and create a more united culture across the region.
Q What challenge behind the scenes tested your team the most, and what did it teach you about building stronger employee experience programmes?
One of our biggest challenges was finding the time to make employee experience a priority while managing our day-to-day work. As a regional HR team, we support different countries and business needs, so our schedules can be very busy. It would have been easy to focus only on operational tasks, but we knew that taking care of our people was just as important.
We learnt that building a great employee experience does not always require big programmes or a large budget. It starts with making time to listen, have meaningful conversations, and follow through on employee feedback.
Even small actions, when done consistently, help employees feel valued. This journey taught us that employee experience is not a one-time project but something we need to invest in every day.
Q As you reflect on the journey, what this recognition at the Employee Experience Awards 2026 mean to you and your team?
Being named a finalist at the Employee Experience Awards 2026 means a lot to us. It is our first time reaching the finals, and we are incredibly proud of this achievement. Although we did not take home the award, being recognised alongside many respected organisations is already an honour and a meaningful milestone for our team.
More importantly, this recognition reminds us that the effort we put into improving our employees' experience is making a difference. It belongs not only to the HR team, but also to our leaders, managers, and employees who supported the journey. It encourages us to keep listening, learning, and finding better ways to care for our people because we know the journey of creating a great employee experience never truly ends.
Q Finally, as employee expectations continue to evolve, what is one area of EX you believe HR teams will need to rethink in the year ahead?
We need to spend more time listening to employees and acting on their feedback. Employees today want more than just good pay and benefits. They want to feel heard, valued, and connected to their leaders and the organisation.
At Easmed, we learned that even small changes can make a big difference. Whether it was creating more opportunities for employees to interact with management or building our own intranet to improve communication, these ideas came from listening to our people.
When employees know their feedback leads to real action, trust grows, engagement improves, and the workplace becomes stronger for everyone.
Read more interviews on why organisations have won trophies for their HR practices - head over to our Winning Secrets section!
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