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← Back to the home page The framework

Nine dimensions of what makes work work.

Every Emersen conversation is read against the NICH Employee Experience Framework. Eight dimensions describe how work is actually lived. A ninth, added for the most consequential workforce shift in modern memory, describes how ready people are for it.

The framework

Nine dimensions of what makes work work.

Eight dimensions of employee experience, refined over more than a decade of in-person work with Fortune-recognized organizations. Plus a ninth, AI readiness, for the most consequential workforce shift in modern memory: not an IT question, but an employee-experience one.

Emersen also surfaces what most assessments miss, the employees who could become champions of AI adoption, the curious and adaptable people who can model new behaviors and bring their peers along.

  • Meaningful Work
    Sense of purpose & contribution
  • Positive Workplace
    Relationships & belonging
  • Fundamental Needs
    Pay, security, the basics
  • Leadership
    Direction & decision-making
  • Trust in Organization
    Confidence in leadership intent
  • Recognition & Appreciation
    Being seen for the work
  • Health & Wellbeing
    Sustainability of work
  • Development & Growth
    Where this role can lead
  • AI Readiness
    Trust, willingness, leadership signal & 5 more
Why a ninth dimension

AI readiness is not an IT question.

The first eight dimensions were refined over more than a decade of in-person work, and they hold. What changed is that leaders started asking a question the framework had no place for: whether their people were ready for what AI was about to do to their work.

Most organizations answer it by measuring proficiency, who has been trained, who has access, who can use the tools. That is the easier question. It is also the wrong one, because the people who aren't adapting are rarely the people who can't.

The ninth dimension measures the conditions that decide whether capability is ever used: trust in AI intent, willingness, leadership signal, vision for AI role, permission clarity, capability confidence, peer dynamics, and access. Only one of those eight is about skill.

It also surfaces what most assessments miss, the employees who could become champions of AI adoption, the curious and adaptable people who can model new behaviors and bring their peers along.

See the AI Readiness Assessment →

Where this goes next

See your company through your people's eyes.

Forty-five minutes is enough to see whether Emersen fits, and what it would tell you about the organization you're leading.

Request a Demo