Employee Sentiment and its Potential

With over 20 years in IT, primarily with an Irish MSP, I've repeatedly encountered the same issue: the disconnect between IT and end-users. Working with clients across industries - from banks to government departments - I've seen firsthand how IT teams can be oblivious to the frustrations of the very people they're meant to support.

A decade ago, IT departments relied on surveys, help desk interactions, and focus groups to gauge user sentiment. While these methods provided some insight, they often failed to capture the full picture. This led to situations where IT remained unaware of growing frustration over sluggish systems and inadequate tools.

Today, the landscape of user feedback has evolved dramatically. We now have in-app feedback tools, user analytics, sentiment analysis, and a range of technologies that offer a real-time, data-driven understanding of the user experience. These advancements have made IT more responsive and proactive, but they still don’t fully bridge the gap.

This is where Digital Employee Experience (DEX) solutions come in. Over the past three years, DEX has shown immense potential to connect IT with end-users more effectively. By linking digital experience data (hard metrics from devices and applications) with user experience insights (soft data from real-world interactions), IT teams gain comprehensive visibility. This holistic approach not only validates what the data suggests but also ensures IT decisions align with actual user needs finally closing the gap between IT and the people it serves.

Controlup offers a powerful feature called Employee Sentiment as part of its Edge DX platform, designed for physical endpoint management. Through the Edge DX agent, deployed directly on user devices, IT teams can access a range of remote interaction capabilities. One of the most valuable is the ability to send surveys via toast notifications, enabling real-time user feedback collection. This approach allows IT to proactively gauge employee sentiment, helping bridge the gap between digital experience metrics and actual user satisfaction.