Qualtrics Tool Ties Technology Use to Employee Experience

Qualtrics, the SAP-owned experience management solutions provider, launched a flavor of EmployeeXM that targets IT executives who want to measure their employees’ technology experiences, then use the data to close gaps and understand where to invest in the future.

Qualtrics said it stress-tested the product, called EmployeeXM for IT, by working with Microsoft on a project to understand the impact technology experiences have on employee engagement. The initial results showed that employee experience—which Qualtrics defines as engagement, productivity and sentiment—are directly affected by the technology used in the workplace.  

For example, the project found that faster boot times, longer battery life and fewer crashes had a notable effect on employee sentiment. Workers noticed such improvements, were 38 percent more likely to believe their PC experience would help them best serve customers, and 121 percent more likely to feel valued by their company. 

Qualtrics points out that as “experience” has spread throughout the organizations, the roles  of CIOs and other IT decision makers have evolved “to include responsibility over the employee experience.” We think HR leaders would disagree, but there’s little question IT departments must now pay closer attention to user experience and support. Workers expect to have the same kind of technology experience on the job as they do at home.

Surprise: An Executive-Employee Disconnect

But, notably, only half of employees—compared to 90 percent of C-suite leaders—agree that executives pay attention to worker needs when new technology is introduced. That’s a pretty wide disconnect. To close it, Qualtrics says, decision makers need to measure and quantify the impact of their technology investments on engagement and productivity.

Of course, Qualtrics sees EmployeeXM for IT as the solution. According to the company, the product:

• Provides IT and HR leaders with a holistic understanding of their workers’ everyday technology experiences. An annual or quarterly study examines their relationship and experiences with existing technology, tools and services, then generates feedback IT and HR teams can use to identify gaps and areas in need of improvement.
• Improves IT support processes by using the Qualtrics XM platform to surfaces real-time insights about employee experiences with the organization’s help desk.
• Helps monitor new vendor implementations and project rollouts to make sure they meet employee needs. This involves gathering feedback from teams responsible for the rollout and the employees impacted to understand pre- and post-implementation sentiment.
• Provides employee insights for executives to consider as they make investment and operational decisions. For example, employee feedback can be gathered through needs assessments to inform future RFP processes.

EmployeeXM for IT can be integrated with several Qualtrics partners, including Freshdesk, JIRA, Salesforce, SAP, ServiceNow, Slack and Zendesk.

Earlier this year, Qualtrics added a Guided Action Planning feature and several experience-management solutions EmployeeXM. The new tools were meant to strengthen XM’s ability to help managers close feedback loops by taking action on issues that concern employees the most.

Separately, the company said it will double the size its co-headquarters in Provo, Utah. It plans to add 1,000 new jobs there over the next five years. Qualtrics is also adding 200 technology positions in Chicago.

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Image: Qualtrics