Disruptions in social care due to environmental dynamics, such as legislative reforms, have increased the prevalence of negative frontline employee experiences, including customer and staff incivility and deteriorating work conditions. Addressing the urgency of the situation, we set to explore the multi-dimensional nature of negative employee experiences in the social care sector and the role of human resource function in managing it. Through qualitative exploration, we demonstrate that negative employee experience in social care can be conceptualised along the five dimensions prescribed by employee experience management (EMX) framework: cognitive, sensory, conative, affective, and relational. Furthermore, we draw from the theoretical lens of high-involvement work systems – the PIRK Model to elucidate the requirement of employees for HRM support along the five dimensions of negative experience. We then validate these requirements from HR professionals to outline the availability of state-of-the-art HR practices and the gaps in the same. We contribute to the extant HRM literature by outlining a novel approach of conceptualising employee experience along five dimensions, and presenting an integrated multi-level HR framework to extend support along these five dimensions to manage negative employee experiences.
