Employee survey resulting in hybrid tech company return-to-office plans

Qualtrics, one of Utah’s largest tech companies that offers experience management software, is rolling out a hybrid return-to-the-office for its employees. Based on the results of polling its own workforce — along with about 4,000 other workers worldwide — using its own survey software, the Provo company if offering a combined work-at-home, go-back-to-the office program for post-pandemic operations. Most employees will choose a plan based on their preferences, the company said in a Twitter post.

“Our goal is to create a work experience that combines the best of in-person collaboration with the best of virtual work,” said Qualtrics CEO Zig Serafin in the post. “We expect the majority of our employees will work from a Qualtrics office approximately three days a week and will spend the other days working wherever they’re happiest and most productive.”

Qualtrics conducted a survey of 4,000 employees across various industries in the United States, United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand, which found that the majority of employees wanted the flexibility the pandemic has offered their work lives to continue. However, employees also wanted to return to the office at least some days of the week. Whether or not they could live remotely from their next job would be an important consideration while applying, 80 percent of people said.

The results of Qualtrics’ internal polling was published in Serafin’s Twitter post. He said that 80 percent of high-performing women said they are more productive working remotely, as did 90 percent of managers and senior leaders. However, fewer than 5 percent of Qualtrics employees prefer staying at home entirely, compared to 7 percent of employees in polling of workers in other companies.

External research by Qualtrics also showed that while only 23 percent of people across various industries want to work full-time in the office, 73 percent want to work remotely at least once or twice per week.

“We’re here to get it right, not to be right,” Serafin said. “That’s why we’ll continue to listen and act on our employees’ feedback as part of our experience transformation. We’ll use our own technology regularly to understand how employees are thinking and feeling and make consistent data-driven decisions based on their evolving needs and the needs of the business.”

A number of other Utah companies have announced similar return-to-work options.