Experience Management: Do You Know What Your Employees Are Thinking?

Since SAP’s acquisition of Qualtrics almost three years ago, experience management (XM) and employee experience have been the talk of the town. However, managers still do not have a sufficient understanding of what their employees expect from their workplace. This is the conclusion of a recent survey by Unisys.

66 percent of companies in the EMEA region are planning to adopt a different operating model in the future than they had before the COVID-19 pandemic. However, views on the new way of work differ between executives and employees.

New way of work

The majority of companies surveyed (61 percent) say they want to ensure employee safety and achieve higher productivity (47 percent) through new work models. For almost two-thirds (64 percent), an overall improved employee experience is the most important reason for a new way of work. In practice, however, there are some discrepancies: For 66 percent of employees, family-friendly working conditions are important, but only 49 percent of employers consider them significant. The discrepancy is even greater when it comes to employee and team development: 51 percent of employees consider these issues to be crucial to a good employee experience, compared to only 31 percent of managers. This difference is much smaller in North America, with 63 percent of employees and 51 percent of companies agreeing.

Managers also have many more concerns about the practical implementation of a remote work model than their employees. For example, 38 percent of managers, but only 24 percent of employees, fear problems with communication and collaboration when teams work from home. 38 percent of managers believe they have too little insight into their teams’ work because of remote work; only 7 percent of employees say the same. Furthermore, 38 percent of managers see difficulty accessing data and information; only 11 percent of employees share this concern. Dealing with unfamiliar and new technologies due to remote work is seen as a challenge by 41 percent of business leaders, but only 10 percent of employees.

Despite all these concerns, two-thirds (66 percent) of EMEA leaders say working from home is just as productive – or even more productive – than in a face-to-face environment. Consequently, 42 percent of companies are planning targeted investments for more growth in this area.

How Qualtrics is solving the problem

Closing the gap between the experience perceived by managers and the actual experience of employees requires innovative solutions to measure employee experience from the very first touchpoint with the company. A new Qualtrics solution, for example, helps attract skilled workers by optimizing the experience of recruiting, applying, interviewing, and offering jobs. With Qualtrics Candidate Experience, companies can optimize their posting, recruiting, and hiring process by gathering and directly acting on candidate feedback at multiple touchpoints. After all, a positive employee experience starts before the first day at work and during the hiring process.

The new solution enables companies to act quickly to attract the best candidates. Candidate Experience automatically solicits feedback throughout the process. Consequently, HR managers learn what applicants think, what they like and what they don’t like. This allows them to take action right away to optimize conditions for all candidates, regardless of the outcome of the application.

Experience data obtained with Qualtrics, such as applicant feedback in the recruiting and hiring process, can be combined with operational data from applicant tracking systems, such as acceptance and rejection rates. Aggregated analyses or forecast models, for example, then become possible. This not only optimizes the pool of applicants, it can also continuously improve recruitment efficiency, the quality of the hiring process, and employee retention. A good experience during the hiring process also ensures that job candidates pass on a positive image of the company, regardless of whether they are hired or not.