Driving Real Engagement Outcomes: Quess’s Transformation with AI-Driven Continuous Listening
How Quess Achieved a 40% Reduction in Early Attrition and Ranked #19 on Great Place to Work
About Quess Corp
Quess Corp is India's leading business services provider, leveraging extensive domain knowledge and future-ready digital platforms to drive client productivity through outsourced solutions.
As the largest employer in India's private sector with over 500,000 employees across 37 Group Companies in 9 countries, Quess provides technology-enabled staffing and managed outsourcing services at unprecedented scale.
The Leadership Challenge
For over three years, Quess had consistently achieved Great Place to Work® certification. However, the leadership team set a far more ambitious goal — to move beyond certification and earn a place among India’s Top 100 Great Places to Work®.
They realized that traditional engagement methods were no longer enough to drive the depth, consistency, and scale of impact required. To make the leap into the Top 100, Quess needed a fundamentally different approach — one that could:
- • Continuously listen to employees, rather than relying on annual feedback cycles
- • Surface and act on engagement issues in real time, before they escalated
- • Build a truly proactive, people-first culture at scale across a large, distributed workforce
- • Reduce early attrition (0-180 days) that was affecting workforce stability and business continuity
This shift marked a move from measuring engagement to actively managing and improving it.
The Leadership Strategy
Under the guidance of Ruchi Ahluwalia, Group Chief People Officer, Quess Onboardad Nikki - AI Chief Listening Officer to transform from reactive to proactive employee experience management. This wasn't just a technology decision—it was a leadership commitment to building culture through continuous connection.
Continuous Touch Points
Nikki connected with employees at 7, 30, 60, and 90 days, plus bi-annual check-ins for all staff creating consistent dialogue throughout the employee lifecycle.
Manager Empowerment
HR Partners received real-time alerts and actionable insights, enabling them to support managers in addressing concerns before they escalated.
Data-Driven Action
Leadership made decisions based on live sentiment data, not outdated annual survey results allowing rapid response to emerging issues.
Before vs After: Measurable Impact at Quess
| Metric | Before Umwelt.AI | After Umwelt.AI | Business Impact |
|---|---|---|---|
| Great Place to Work® Status | Certified (Non-Top 100) | Ranked #19 / Top 100 | Strong employer brand & leadership credibility |
| Employee Listening Model | Annual, static surveys | Continuous AI-led conversations | Always-on visibility into workforce sentiment |
| Employee Response Rate | ~50–60% | 91% | Representative, reliable insights at scale |
| Time to Identify Issues | 2-3 months post survey | Real-time insights | Faster intervention, fewer escalations |
| Early Attrition (0–180 days) | No change since 2 years | Reduced by 40% | Fast growth of top line and lower hiring costs |
| Employee Engagement Score | Fragmented / Inconsistent | 89% engaged workforce | Higher productivity & morale |
| Action Closure Visibility | Manual & delayed | Real-time action tracking | Accountability across leaders & managers |
| ROI on Engagement Initiatives | Not measurable | 30X ROI | Clear business justification for HR investment |
Transformational Results
Reduction in early attrition
Engaged employees
Response rate
ROI achieved
Great Place to Work Certified 2025
Achieved Top 100 ranking after 5 years of pursuit
Hear From The Leader
Reaching out to over 500,000 employees across 9 countries was nearly impossible. Nikki helped us reduce attrition by over 30%, a feat we couldn't achieve in the last 4-5 years. She also improved key employee experience metrics—Engagement, ENPS, and Happiness Index—and increased HR partner productivity by 3X.
Key Leadership Lessons for CHROs
Commitment Trumps Technology
Success required executive sponsorship and cultural commitment, not just implementing a platform.
Continuous Over Annual
Regular touchpoints built trust and enabled action; annual surveys would never have achieved these results.
Manager Enablement Is Critical
Equipping HR partners and managers with real-time insights was key to translating data into action.
Measure What Matters
Focus shifted from survey completion rates to actual business outcomes—attrition reduction and engagement improvement.