Success through Employees: Aspire to be an Employer of Choice

ID: WMA2026_616

Track:

Museums often face the challenge of attracting and retaining talented staff in a field where compensation lags behind other industries. This session examines how museums can become employers of choice by strengthening the employee experience beyond wages. Using various initiatives and case studies as a foundation, the session will highlight approaches to recognition, growth, and culture, followed by a facilitated discussion to surface practical, adaptable strategies across diverse museum contexts.

Session Information

Format: Regular session/panel (roundtable, single speaker, etc.)

Uniqueness: This session shifts the focus from collections and visitor experience to employee experience, positioning workforce strategy as core to museum success.

Objectives:

1. Apply and analyze employee-experience strategies within museum settings: participants will apply ideas from the case studies to their own institutions by identifying where employee experience can be strengthened through recognition, manager practices, career development, communication, or culture. They will then analyze how those levers function differently across museum structures, staffing models, and resource constraints, distinguishing between root causes and symptoms in their own workplace challenges.
2. Evaluate the effectiveness and relevance of employer-of-choice practices: participants will evaluate presented approaches to improving the employee experience, considering factors such as feasibility, equity, sustainability, and organizational fit. Through a facilitated discussion, they will assess which practices are most likely to improve engagement, retention, and day-to-day staff experience in their own museums.
3. Create an actionable framework for improving employee experience: participants will create a preliminary set of ideas, priorities, or next-step actions for making their institution a stronger employer of choice, even in environments where compensation flexibility is limited. By the end of the session, attendees should be able to leave with at least one concrete, adaptable strategy they can test or advance within their own organization.

Engagement: After establishing a shared baseline, a facilitated discussion invites participants to compare contexts, challenge assumptions, and extend ideas. This balance of presentation and dialogue ensures both practical takeaways and cross-institutional learning relevant to diverse museum environments.

Relationship to Theme:

Audience

Audiences: Other 

Professional Level: All levels 

Scalability: The session focuses on universal drivers of employee experience like recognition, growth, management practices, and culture, rather than resource-intensive solutions, making insights adaptable across institutions of varying size, budget, and discipline. Case studies and discussion will include perspectives from different organizational contexts. Attendees will leave with scalable approaches that can be implemented incrementally, whether in small teams or large, complex organizations.

Participants