In another survey of IT leaders, as reported in “Do You See What I See?\u00a0Removing Obstacles to Greater Visibility Across the <\/i>IT Estate for a Better Digital Employee Experience,”\u00a0<\/i><\/a>45% of IT leaders surveyed ranked “delivering a better digital employee experience to improve productivity” as their #2 priority for the next twelve months.<\/p>\n One way to gauge the employee experience with their digital work tools is to use quantitative data from endpoints. Hard metrics paint a clear picture about whether an employee’s laptop, desktop, or other endpoint device is meeting their expectations. It makes sense, too, to gather qualitative data. Leveraging subjective employee feedback is such a popular way for IT to understand the end-user environment. Firstly, the motivations behind asking end users about their perceptions around workplace technologies are simple:<\/p>\n Secondly, users are generally responsive and more than willing to discuss their feelings about technology. The tricky part about relying on feedback as an indicator, however, is that humans can never be fully objective, even when judging machines (we all remember that scene from Office Space<\/i>). On top of that, even the most truthful of responses may lack the technical details needed for IT to actually go in and solve user issues.<\/p>\n The primary filter for most employee feedback on technology is the IT help desk. Users call in or file tickets to report on any number of problems they may be experiencing, whether it\u2019s a forgotten password, slow system, or more complex performance issues. While these \u00a0interactions can indicate the effectiveness of new technologies,\u00a0the help desk should not be relied upon as the sole indicator of the success of digital initiatives.<\/p>\n The problem with using help desk feedback as a guide is that doing so provides a narrow and heavily skewed picture of the environment. For example, a user who consistently calls the help desk to report issues may consume a disproportionate amount of help desk resources over users with objectively worse experience. Decisions based on feedback from the loudest voices are unlikely to result in solutions that benefit the average user.<\/p>\n That\u2019s not to imply that users have nothing valuable to say. On the contrary, the true value of qualitative data, apart from the ease of obtaining it, is that user sentiment can be equally as valuable as analytical insights. The key is to seek more representative feedback and tailor it to IT initiatives\u2014an approach that can be achieved through end-user feedback surveys that are appropriately presented and analyzed.<\/p>\n In a B2C context, surveys are widely used to assess consumer opinions on products or services. This trend seems to be increasing. Across industries, businesses are recognizing that there is value in gathering sentiment data straight from the consumer.<\/p>\n But the relationship between IT and employees is slightly different from businesses and customers. For one\u00a0(excluding cases of outsourced tech support), IT and employees are batting for the same team. Both groups want the business to succeed and see technology as integral to that goal, but their top priorities can differ. Users tend to value mobility and ease of access while IT must factor in security and cost control. Despite their differences, both groups want technology to perform well and users to be satisfied. How can they work together to make that happen?<\/p>\n Just like in the consumer sector, IT teams can use surveys to connect with users and learn about their experiences. One advantage IT has over B2C survey makers is that they don\u2019t need to wait for a purchase to be made or a service interaction to initiate contact. IT is a continuous service and teams can use surveys in creative ways to come out ahead of issues, enabling proactive fixes. Surveys can also be tailored to return information that aligns with a specific IT objective, such as a widespread Windows 11 deployment <\/a>or the tech impact of a merger & acquisition<\/a>.<\/p>\n Like help desk calls, however, surveys alone aren\u2019t enough to meaningfully inform IT strategy. They still present issues of bias, returning users\u2019 perceptions rather than data-driven accounts of what is happening on their systems. How can IT avoid this pitfall? By examining end-user feedback alongside real, user-level endpoint performance and usage data.<\/p>\n On their own, qualitative and quantitative data tell only one side of the story: the employee\u2019s or the computer\u2019s. Quantitative analytics can show a wide range of performance details about a system; such data can even be rolled up into a score based on key metrics that trends the stat of a user’s experience. But we know from conversations with our customers that there are cases where the data on a user\u2019s system may look great, but the user still reports a poor experience.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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Incorporating surveys into your IT strategy<\/h2>\n
Value of combining qualitative and quantitative data<\/h2>\n