Goldman Sachs + Qualtrics

When Goldman asked employees what benefits they valued most, they expected them to focus on more traditional benefits, particularly around financial wellness and retirement.

But Goldman’s partnership with Qualtrics EmployeeXM revealed that what employees wanted most was more support for their families and life outside of work.

Using a research method normally reserved for consumer marketing strategies, the team deployed a conjoint study to employees. This presented side-by-side benefit options to determine how employees valued different possible combinations.

The recommendations directly led to launching or expanding four new benefits:

1. Time off for elder and family care
2. Stipends for adoption
3. Fertility treatments: including financial help for egg retrieval, egg donation, adoption,
   and surrogacy
4. A new paternity leave policy: which was lauded in the press as “the most generous parental leave policy on Wall Street.”

Optimizing manager effectiveness

Goldman also recognizes that managers have a big role to play in employee engagement
and well-being.

As such, they worked with Qualtrics to conduct an impact/driver analysis to identify which management behaviors correlated with higher employee engagement. This meant management gained a deeper understanding of which positive leadership traits make the biggest difference in employee experience. It also helped management to know areas to focus on when it came to designing and improving leadership training.

Through a global study, they were able to gain a better understanding of employees’ relationship with their managers, and how it impacted their overall experience at work.