Find Out What Your Engineers Say in Private, and Act on It
The things engineers raise in private rarely appear on a standard survey: meetings that break the day into pieces, unclear purpose, decisions that arrive fully formed, and learning time promised then withdrawn. We help you ask better questions, state your working arrangements, recognise a wider range of work, support managers in regular check-ins and close the loop on results. You decide what to change; we make sure you hear what matters.
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Share your requirementsThe starting point
Is Your Survey Asking About What Engineers Care About?
People in software leave for more interesting work and weak managers, and rarely say either in an exit interview. A standard template measures satisfaction and benefits, and misses what shapes a working day.
We help you hear what matters and show people that it was heard.
You may be experiencing:
- Survey questions about benefits and communication, with none about meeting load or uninterrupted time.
- Remote and hybrid arrangements negotiated team by team, so colleagues compare notes and feel unfairly treated.
- Recognition that goes to visible launches and misses the quiet work that kept systems running.
- One-to-ones held often by some managers and rarely by others.
- Survey results shared late, and acted upon rarely, which teaches people not to answer.
- Decisions about product or team direction arriving without any explanation.
- Distributed staff who rarely meet anyone outside their own team.
What we can help with
Our Employee Engagement and Experience Services for Software Companies
Listening Plan
Design how you listen across the year: short pulse questions, team conversations, stay interviews and an annual survey, with a clear owner for each and a rule for confidentiality.
Survey Design for Knowledge Work
Write questions that cover purpose, meeting load, interruptions, learning time, decision visibility, manager support and remote arrangements, and set how results are cut so teams and managers can use them.
Working Arrangement Standards
Write down what is expected about office days, core hours, time-zone overlap, meeting norms and response times, so colleagues are not comparing private deals.
Internal Communication
Set the rhythm of updates from leadership, product and delivery: what is shared, how often, in which channel, and how decisions are explained and questions answered.
Recognition Design
Define a recognition approach that covers launches, reliability work, mentoring and support, with a simple route for peers and managers to nominate and a record of who is recognised.
Manager Check-in Support
Equip managers with a short check-in guide and a way to record themes, and review whether regular conversations are happening across teams.
Wellbeing Provisions
Review and organise the support you offer, such as counselling access, ergonomic support, leave practice and on-call recovery, and make it easy to find and use.
Results and Action Planning
Turn survey and conversation results into a short list of changes with owners and dates, report back to staff on what will and will not be done, and review progress.
The deliverables
What You Receive
Depending on the agreed scope, your engagement can include:
- A listening plan across the year.
- A survey tailored to knowledge work, with reporting cuts.
- A written working-arrangement standard.
- A communication rhythm for leadership and teams.
- A recognition approach and nomination route.
- A manager check-in guide and a way to track it.
- A directory of wellbeing support.
- An action plan format and a report-back note for staff.
Step by step
How We Work
Review How You Listen Now
We read your last survey, exit interviews and any feedback channels, and speak with a few engineers and managers.
Design the Listening Plan
We choose the methods, questions and cadence, agree who sees results and set the confidentiality rules.
Run the First Round
We help you run a survey or pulse and group the answers by theme, without revealing individuals.
Agree Actions
With your leaders we choose a few changes, assign owners and dates, and prepare what will be told to staff.
Report Back and Review
Before work starts we record where you stand. We then review progress with you, and check what changed since the baseline.
The difference
Respond to What People Actually Experience
A working engagement approach helps your company:
We do not promise outcomes. We record a baseline before work starts, covering survey response, how many teams have a stated working arrangement and the share of managers holding regular check-ins, and report against it, so you can see what changed and what did not.
- Ask about meeting load, focus time and decisions, not only benefits.
- State working arrangements so teams are treated alike.
- Recognise reliability and support work along with launches.
- Hold manager check-ins more evenly across teams.
- Show staff what was done after a survey.
- Notice warning signs earlier in particular teams.
Find your fit
Who This Service Is For
Product Companies with Distributed Teams
Build common ground across locations and time zones.
IT Services Firms with Client-site Staff
Keep people engaged with the company when they work at a client.
Companies Losing People to Better Work or Managers
Look at the causes behind the exit reasons.
Startups Growing Past Familiarity
Replace the founder's feel for the mood with a listening routine.
HR Teams Running an Annual Survey
Make the results lead to action.
How it usually shows up in information technology and software
Engagement in software companies is typically measured by an annual survey with a standard template and a few team events. The template asks about satisfaction, benefits and communication, and says little about the things engineers raise in private: meetings that fragment the day, unclear purpose for the work, decisions that appear fully formed and learning time that is promised and then withdrawn. Remote and hybrid arrangements are negotiated team by team, so colleagues compare notes and feel unfairly treated. Recognition tends to go to visible launches rather than to the quiet work that kept systems up. Managers hold one-to-ones unevenly. Survey results are shared late and acted upon rarely, which teaches people that answering is pointless.
Common challenges
Where it goes wrong in information technology and software
Surveys miss the real issues
Standard questions leave out meeting load, interruption and decision visibility.
Remote rules differ by team
People compare arrangements and lose trust in fairness.
Recognition favours launches
Quiet maintenance and on-call effort go unseen.
Results do not lead to action
Survey findings are shared late and forgotten, so people stop answering.
A better process
What a working version looks like
- 01
Ask better questions
Add items on meeting load, focus time, clarity of purpose and visibility of decisions to the survey. The engagement approach covers design.
- 02
State the working arrangement
Write down hybrid and remote eligibility and expectations, so that they are the same for the same roles.
- 03
Recognise a wider range of work
Include reliability, support, mentoring and documentation in recognition, not only launches.
- 04
Check in regularly
Managers hold short, recorded one-to-ones and are asked about them. See engagement and employee relations tools.
- 05
Close the loop
Share the findings within a few weeks with three actions, owners and a date for a progress update.
What to check this week
- Read the last survey and see whether meeting load was asked about.
- Compare the remote arrangements of two teams doing similar work.
- List the last recognitions given and whom they went to.
- Ask two engineers how many hours of uninterrupted work they get.
- Find what changed after the last survey.
What this looks like in information technology and software
The parts of employee engagement and experience that are specific to this sector, rather than general.
Engagement in Knowledge Work
Where the best people have options and know it.
What this coversHide
Engagement in Knowledge Work
Where the best people have options and know it.
What this coversHideEngagement in software has a specific shape: people leave for interesting work and poor managers, and rarely cite either in an exit interview.
- Manager capability, which predicts attrition more than any other factor
- Clarity about what the work is for, not just what it is
- Technical progression that does not require becoming a manager
- Meeting load and interruption protection as a real engagement issue
- Visible decision-making rather than decisions appearing fully formed
- Learning time that survives delivery pressure
- Remote and hybrid arrangements stated rather than negotiated case by case
Interruption protection is under-recognised. Engineers consistently report fragmentation as a primary frustration, and it rarely appears in engagement surveys because no standard template asks about it.
Questions on this, in information technology and software
Standard templates ask about satisfaction, benefits and communication. Engineers more often raise fragmented days, unclear purpose, hidden decisions and withdrawn learning time. We write questions around those, so the result describes the work and not only the mood.
Yes. A short pulse, a handful of stay interviews and a clear action list can suit a small company. We scale the plan to your size, and add depth as you grow.
We set a minimum group size for reporting, restrict who sees raw responses and explain this to staff beforehand. People answer honestly only when they believe the answers cannot be traced back.
Leadership should own the actions, with HR coordinating. We help you choose a few changes, name owners and dates, and report back, since unanswered surveys teach people not to respond again.
By writing the arrangement down, by role and team, and applying it consistently. Exceptions are recorded with a reason. We help you draft the standard, and the decisions on office days and hours remain yours.
We help organise and communicate what you provide, such as counselling access, ergonomic support and on-call recovery, and we look at how load is shared. We do not provide clinical services.
Standard surveys miss the causes engineers name in private: poor management, uninteresting work and fragmented time. Adding those questions changes what you learn.
State them by role and apply them consistently. Case-by-case negotiation produces comparison and resentment.
Specific, timely and covering all kinds of contribution, including reliability and mentoring. Generic awards are quickly ignored.
A full survey once a year, with a few short pulse questions between. Frequency matters less than whether results lead to visible action.
Listen Better, and Show That You Did
If surveys come back with nothing new and people still leave, change what you ask and what you do with the answers.
Prefer to talk first? Call +91 80958 58589 or write to hello@gullyhr.com.
The general method — what employee engagement and experience covers, the questions it answers and what an engagement produces — is the same whatever the sector, and is set out on the employee engagement and culture page. What is above is the part that differs for information technology and software.
To run this in a system rather than on paper, see engagement and employee relations software.
Other HR topics for information technology and software
Where to start
Most engagements begin with a review of how this runs in your business today, then a written process and the sequence to implement it.
See all HR topics for information technology and software, or another industry.