Employee Experience in India Soars Above Global Averages: Qualtrics Study Reveals

Qualtrics, the leader and creator of the experience management category, revealed in its 2024 Employee Experience Trends Report that workers in India report the highest levels of engagement, well-being, and openness to using AI in the workplace globally.

The study surveyed 37,000 employees from various sectors such as IT, construction, and retail, including 2,000 participants from India. The results reveal that key indicators of a positive employee experience in India, including engagement, intent to stay for 3+ years, experience exceeding expectations, inclusion, and well-being, are higher than the global average.

Among the standout findings, India’s results, reveal:

• A significant 89% of Indian employees reported feeling engaged at work, as compared to the global average of 68%.
• 60% of respondents felt their experience exceeded their expectations, outdoing the global average which stands at 38%.
• India’s inclusive work culture reflected an impressive 88%, compared to the global average of 73%.

Additionally, with the rise of hybrid work models and economic uncertainties, employees now highlight the importance of change management, values alignment, and trust in their managers as key factors driving positive employee experience. Despite the importance of these factors, current HR priorities seem to be falling short.

The experts at Qualtrics parsed through the results to identify emerging trends in India that will define the employee experience in 2024:

Some time in the office is better than none – unless it’s five days

• The debate over office days finds clarity: a mix of remote and office work leads to optimal satisfaction.
• Specifically, engagement is at its peak (91%) for employees in the office 2-4 days a week, overshadowing both full-time remote and office-only stats.
• Spending all five days in the office, however, seems to be less favorable.

Employees would rather AI assist them than evaluate them

• India, always at the forefront of technology, showcases 69% of its workforce welcoming AI assistance.
• Preference leans towards controlled AI roles, like writing tasks (82%) and as personal assistants (76%).
• More sensitive areas like hiring decisions (60%) and performance evaluations (65%) see more reservations.

Frontline employees are unhappy, poorly supported and least trusting

• Frontline workers, though crucial, express challenges: only 77% are content with pay & benefits.
• A mere 72% feel empowered to challenge conventional work methods, pointing to a need for improved support structures.

The new-job honeymoon phase is over

• The traditionally enthusiastic first-year experience for new hires seems to be fading.
• New hires now report lower engagement (83%), intent to stay (24%), and inclusion (73%).
• This shift calls for a reexamination of onboarding and initial engagement strategies.

Employees are comfortable sharing work emails and chats for an improved employee experience, but more ambivalent about social media posts being used

• An impressive 86% of Indian employees are open to employers accessing work emails for better EX.
• While there’s comfort with insights from work tools, only 62% are comfortable with data from non-anonymous social media posts.

Reflecting on the findings, Dr. Cecelia Herbert, Principal XM Catalyst at Qualtrics XM Institute, said, “As economies focus on improving productivity, employee experience is one of the most important levers to prioritise. There is a well established connection between employee engagement and organisational performance – from innovation and profitability, through to better customer service and employee health outcomes. Organisations that maintain their people-centric focus, and effectively enable their teams to do great work, will be the standout performers in years to come,” said Dr. Cecelia Herbert, Principal XM Catalyst, Qualtrics XM Institute.”

About Qualtrics

Qualtrics, the leader and creator of the experience management category, is a cloud-native software provider that empowers organizations to deliver exceptional experiences and build deep relationships with their customers and employees – so they can understand their greatest friction points, retain and engage top talent, and deliver the right products and services. Nearly 20,000 organizations around the world use Qualtrics’ advanced AI to listen, understand, and take action. Qualtrics uses its vast universe of experience data to form the largest database of human sentiment in the world. Qualtrics is co-headquartered in Provo, Utah and Seattle. To learn more, please visit qualtrics.com.