Did the “Employee Experience” become just a speech?

Brazilian companies have increasingly invested in initiatives aimed at employee well-being. However, a survey by Diversitera IO specialized in research for management, with emphasis on Diversity and Inclusion DO reveals a worrying misalignment between the institutional discourse and the power structure in organizations.

Conducted between june 2022 and march 2025, the study analyzed more than 70 companies from 17 segments. The cut shows that the high leadership in the formal labor market remains homogeneous and still far from the Brazilian plurality, often diverging from the expected proportionality regarding the demographics of the country, as shown in the data below:

• Only 1.5% of the board and executive management positions are held by people with disabilities (IBGE: 8.9% of PcD in Brazil) ;
• Women hold 35% of these positions (IBGE: 51.5% of women in Brazil);
• Black people represent 9.7% of the top leaderships (IBGE: 55.5% of blacks in Brazil).

According to experts, this data is not only a warning about representation and representativeness, but also an indication of structural risk that can compromise the very ability of companies to listen, innovate and retain talent.

“There is no employee experience without real representation in the decision making”, states Jaime Almeida's, DEI Director of ABRH-SP. “Homogeneous leaders may not understand the extent of pain and challenges faced by minority groups. This directly affects the organizational climate, mental health indexes and, consequently, the performance of the” business.

Mental health worries

The finding comes at a time when emotional exhaustion and burnout they have become common phenomena in the corporate environment, especially among underrepresented professionals. Other studies indicate that structural exclusion is directly related to loss of engagement, high turnover and difficulty in developing psychologically safe environments.

Despite increased investments in mental health programs, experts stress that there is no sustainable well-being without a profound transformation in leadership structures.

“A Employee Experience needs to be redesigned with the lens of diversity, equity and inclusion. Otherwise, it will remain a privilege of a few”, complements Jaime Almeida's. “If people in leadership do not develop repertoire through listening, do not represent and do not recognize different trajectories, they will hardly be able to build a culture of real belonging”.

For Diversitera, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) cannot be peripheral and cosmetic initiatives to business strategy, when in reality they are values that contaminate management tools applied in everyday life. In an increasingly demanding market (DEI) with consumers, investors, suppliers and talents charging consistency and commitment & companies that do not rethink their leadership are at risk of becoming irrelevant.