Improving Employee Experiences and IT Service Quality at VA 

Case Study - Change Readiness and Management - CX/EX/UX/UI - Data and Analytics - Experience - Generative AI - Human Centered Design - Human Experience - Research and Evaluation

Improving Employee Experiences and IT Service Quality at VA 

Posted on 01.25.25
Challenge

OPS leaders faced complex challenges that affected both internal operations and the VA workforce it supports. These included:

  • Understanding employee needs: OPS needed timely and actionable insights into the experiences of OIT employees and VA staff relying on IT services to identify high-impact improvement opportunities. 
  • Efficiently leveraging feedback: The People Analytics (PA) directorate collected extensive feedback on IT services, including equipment performance, service desk responsiveness and customer support. With contract support ending, PA would soon lack the ability to analyze qualitative data and distribute customer feedback to corresponding area managers. They required new, efficient tools that they could manage directly. 
  • Gaps in workforce planning and development: The Organization Development & Engagement (ODE) directorate required robust employee experience data analysis and a unified EX framework to assess OIT’s workforce needs, address skill gaps and strengthen organizational health to meet strategic goals. 

These challenges highlighted the need for a unified, insight-driven approach to improve the employee lifecycle and IT service delivery. 

Solutions

Aptive adopted a tailored, two-pronged approach, working closely with PA and ODE to deliver actionable solutions that addressed their unique missions. 

Empowering people analytics with real-time IT service insights

Aptive enhanced PA’s customer service improvement program by streamlining feedback collection, analysis and action. Key efforts included: 

  • Capturing the customer voice: Monthly IT customer experience surveys captured quantitative and qualitative data on IT services. Aptive conducted focus groups and site visits to add context to the data already being collected by exploring employee emotions, needs and stories. 
  • Using AI to automate feedback analysis and distribution: A Python-based text analysis tool was developed to systematically process open-ended feedback. This tool categorized responses into actionable themes and trends, enabling more efficient and accurate insights for OIT leadership. Additional scripts were created to route feedback and NPS scores directly to corresponding area managers and to identify customer support requests within feedback for immediate follow-up from support staff. 
  • Building capacity for sustainability: Aptive trained PA staff to use these tools, equipping them to independently manage the customer service improvement feedback program and sustain near real-time insights for IT service metrics. 

These efforts allowed OIT to respond proactively to employee feedback, improving IT service quality across VA.  

Transforming employee experience with ODE

Aptive partnered with ODE to develop human-centered insights and frameworks for strategic employee experience management and improvement initiatives: 

  • Mapping the employee lifecycle: Aptive analyzed key employee lifecycle surveys and facilitated the creation of an Employee Experience Journey Map. This tool provided a comprehensive, year-in-review perspective on workforce challenges and successes, building the foundation to guide future improvement initiatives. 
  • Facilitating workshops to define EX governance and strategy tools: Aptive led workshops with program coordinators to prioritize EX initiatives based on feasibility, value and impact. These sessions culminated in a quarterly “information radiator,” visually tracking pain points and progress of prioritized improvement efforts. 

The employee lifecycle map and workshops fostered a proactive culture within ODE, enabling it to address employee challenges with greater precision and alignment. 

 

Results

Aptive’s partnership with OIT delivered significant improvements in employee experience and IT service delivery

  • Improved IT service responsiveness: With near real-time insights from automated feedback analysis, OIT regional managers can now quickly address service issues, enhancing the quality and timeliness of IT support for VA employees nationwide.
  • Data-informed employee experience strategy: Insights and data from employee surveys, aligned with the employee lifecycle framework, provided leadership with a clearer understanding of workforce experiences and priorities for improvement efforts.
  • Sustainable innovation: By training staff and creating scalable tools, Aptive ensured OIT could independently sustain its ability to automate analysis and distribution of real-time customer feedback.
  • Strengthened OIT’s culture of customer and employee experience: Engaging staff in service design activities and building internal capacity to collect, analyze, prioritize and act on feedback fostered a customer and employee-focused mindset that sets the organization up for greater impact.
CONCLUSION

The impact of PA’s customer service improvement work

Highlighted in a VA digital transformation blog, PA’s Customer Service Improvement program has positioned OIT as a leader in IT service excellence. Key achievements include: 

  • Localized impact and increased customer satisfaction: By distributing region-specific feedback to local managers, PA enabled targeted interventions that promptly address employee needs, fostering higher satisfaction with IT services at the ground level. 
  • National leadership in customer service: The insights and processes developed by PA have positioned OIT as a leader in customer service improvement. By leveraging real-time data and actionable insights, OIT has become a model for how federal agencies can prioritize employee experience. 
  • Measurable service delivery improvements: Feedback from surveys and analysis directly informed enhancements in equipment provisioning, Enterprise Service Desk timeliness and customer support quality. These improvements streamlined operations and elevated trust in OIT’s ability to deliver dependable and responsive IT services.

Aptive’s partnership with VA OIT demonstrates the transformative power of human-centered design and data-driven CX and EX strategies in government operations. By addressing immediate challenges and fostering sustainable innovation, Aptive positioned OIT to deliver exceptional IT services while strengthening its workforce. 

Key takeaways

  • Data drives impact: Combining qualitative and quantitative insights reveals hidden pain points and informs effective solutions. 
  • Advanced technology drives efficiency: AI automation tools streamline real-time feedback analysis and improve decision-making. 
  • Tailored solutions yield results: Aligning frameworks, methods and tools to agency-specific needs ensures meaningful and measurable outcomes. 
  • Collaboration fosters innovation: Engaging employees and leaders in co-creating solutions builds trust, improves alignment and empowers organizations to tackle future challenges proactively. 
  • Sustainability matters: Training staff and building scalable tools ensure that improvements continue beyond initial implementation, creating a culture of continuous improvement. 

Let us help you create an employee experience that attracts, develops and retains the talent your organization needs to succeed.

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