Qualtrics

Qualtrics is an employee survey platform that also explains why people leave. Its attrition analysis starts from survey answers joined to HR records. It prices by headcount and asks you to request pricing. Read its AI, data and exit terms before you read its charts.

By Ashish Manchanda Published 10 Nov 2026 Last updated 10 Nov 2026

Qualtrics explains why people leave by joining surveys to HR records

In one line

Qualtrics is a survey and listening platform for employees. Its people analytics joins survey answers to HR records to show what sits behind people leaving.

Buy it if

You want to know why people leave, and you run or plan to run employee surveys. Your HR system is one that Qualtrics connects to. You have time to negotiate a price and a contract.

Do not buy it if

You want attrition answers without surveying staff. Its Drivers of Attrition view needs an engagement survey as one input. You need a price before any sales call. Your legal team will not accept software that can take in staff email threads and chats.

Price

Qualtrics asks you to request pricing. It prices Employee Experience by the number of employees. Doncaster Council awarded Qualtrics £46,850 for one year of staff surveys. HMRC awarded it £482,473.64 for a year of engagement, lifecycle and other products.

How Qualtrics turns survey answers into a view of who leaves and why

Qualtrics’ people analytics starts from its employee surveys. Its Employee Experience products cover engagement and pulse surveys, 360 feedback and onboarding and exit surveys. They also cover candidate experience, retention analytics and continuous listening. Qualtrics joins employee experience data with operational data such as attrition and performance on one platform. Its lifecycle product measures key moments from candidate experience through onboarding and development to exit. So it answers best on why people feel and act as they do. HR records sit alongside the survey answers.

The part that matters most for people analytics is Employee Journey Analytics. It is a project type that combines data from your existing survey projects into one dataset. A custom project can combine up to 10 of them. Its projects can investigate how onboarding and other key moments relate to engagement, wellbeing and attrition risk. The attrition work sits in a ready-made view called Drivers of Attrition.

Drivers of Attrition counts how many employees left each month. It also gives an overall attrition rate. You pick the window at set-up, and it is 3, 6 or 12 months. It uses a standard statistical method to show how much each survey driver changes the odds that someone leaves. A simulation tool then lets you change a score on one survey item and see the estimated attrition rate move. You can enter your own estimated cost of one leaver. Ask Qualtrics how the tool uses that figure.

Qualtrics also talks about predicting who may leave. Its attrition page promises managers team level insight, with individual privacy protected. The same page promises flight risk scores that guide managers toward your most critical talent. Those two promises are easy to read differently, so ask whether a manager sees a named person’s score. Qualtrics advises leaders to use an alert to start a conversation, not to trigger an automated HR decision.

The HR data comes in through connectors. One task pulls employee data from about 50 HR systems through a third party called Merge. It also reaches SAP SuccessFactors, UKG Pro, BambooHR, Dayforce and Hibob. It runs on a schedule you choose or on demand, and Qualtrics needs only read access for the Workday connection. It connects one HR system at a time, so a company with two builds a separate task for each. A separate SuccessFactors task also brings in custom objects, which are extra fields a company has added to SuccessFactors. Qualtrics can also load data from Snowflake, a data warehouse.

Check how leavers get into Qualtrics. On the first run, the HR task pulls active employees only. Later runs pull changes to active employees and begin to pull inactive and terminated ones. An attrition view needs people who have left, so ask how your past leavers will arrive. An imported file is the other route. It needs an ID, an attrition status and an attrition date for each person.

Managers can ask questions about their own results through Qualtrics Assist. It works in English, Spanish, German, French and Japanese. It is available only on Qualtrics’ new simplified pricing plans, or to customers in its preview programme. It does not work on a data set with more than 100 open text fields or 2 million responses. It cannot answer questions about action plans.

Data also goes out. You can export from the Data and Analysis tab as CSV, TSV, XML, SPSS or Excel. Dashboards export as PDF, JPG, PPTX or DOCX when an admin allows it. Qualtrics also has APIs, which are links your IT team can use to read data. It offers a connection for your own AI assistant, called an MCP server, for most of its APIs. That lets the assistant query Qualtrics data. SAP customers have a further route. SAP Analytics Cloud lets business users read Qualtrics survey data next to SAP operational data, including SuccessFactors.

Our people analytics guide covers how the rest of this market handles the same question.

What you get for the money

These are the things Qualtrics does that a buyer can use. They matter most if your starting point is employee opinion rather than HR records.

A large benchmark set

Qualtrics holds more than 32 million responses to compare yours against. They cover 16 regions, 60 countries, 65 industries and 5 company sizes, and the set is updated every year. The benchmarks come from anonymised customer data. You can also upload your own benchmark data for any survey field. That lets you compare against peers you choose, not only against Qualtrics’ set.

Managers get their own view

Manager Assist gives people managers dashboards built for them. They can also use action planning and idea boards. A role can be limited to the results below a manager in your reporting lines. The tool can combine data from your existing HR systems, so managers see engagement trends next to HR records. Qualtrics aims to spare HR the one-to-one burden of helping each manager.

Price follows headcount

Qualtrics’ terms let you run unlimited engagement and pulse surveys. They also allow unlimited 360 feedback surveys. AI and technology come with every product, for an unlimited number of users. So a bigger survey programme does not by itself raise the bill. Your employee count does. The pulse question bank holds more than 290 questions.

Generative AI starts switched off

No generative AI feature runs until a Brand Administrator turns it on. That person can turn these features on or off for the whole organisation. Inside an engagement dashboard, each AI feature can also be switched on or off alone. Qualtrics Assist cannot use data that the person asking is not allowed to see. So you can start without generative AI and add it later. Features Qualtrics built itself that are not generative, such as Text iQ sentiment scoring, sit outside that switch.

Security paperwork is in place

Qualtrics holds ISO 27001 and a SOC 2 Type 2 report. It has also achieved FedRAMP High, a US government security level. Its platform is certified under ISO 42001, a standard for AI governance. For UK public-sector buyers, data is stored and processed in the United Kingdom on AWS London. The user controls the location. Qualtrics also offers AES 256 encryption and a 99.93% monthly availability promise.

Where Qualtrics stops, and what its own terms leave open

Every buyer takes on some risk. Here is what you take on with Qualtrics, and what its own terms leave for you to settle. Qualtrics has changed owners and size in the last three years. Silver Lake and CPP Investments completed their purchase of the company in June 2023. In October 2023 The Salt Lake Tribune reported about 780 job cuts, roughly 15% of the workforce. In May 2026 Qualtrics announced its purchase of Press Ganey Forsta for $6.75 billion. Ask who will run your account after that deal.

Two projects must be ready first

Drivers of Attrition needs an engagement survey project. It also needs a second project that holds exit data, which can be an imported file. You map an employee ID, an attrition status and an attrition date. The survey project must carry the same ID values. So matching the IDs is your job, and it decides whether a leaver can be linked to a survey answer.

How the journey tool combines data

It matches records from different projects on a shared ID. The shared ID is usually the employee ID, so it has to be the same in every project. The tool keeps every row from your main data and adds matches from the others. It is the only way the tool can combine data. Text analysis is not available inside a journey project, so you do that work in the source projects. Its guided flow is currently limited to onboarding and engagement. Ask which of your questions fit the guided flow and which need a custom set-up.

Small-group privacy has a known gap

Small groups are merged with the next smallest group. Qualtrics calls this enhanced confidentiality, and it applies when you break out or filter data. Qualtrics warns that it will not protect against every indirect calculation. It cannot predict every mix of hierarchies, filters and breakouts. So a manager who filters results in several ways may still work out a small group’s answers. A person with several roles gets the most lenient access, and a View All Data role removes the limits. By default, Employee Directory admins can view and change all personal information for every user in the licence.

Listening can reach staff messages

Continuous listening can take in internal email threads and chats. That matters for privacy law and for staff trust. Your legal team and any works council should read the terms before you switch it on. Qualtrics counts this data in a unit it calls an Interaction. An Interaction can be an email thread between internal employees over one month. It can be 15 chats. It can also be a written reply to an HR or IT service desk, or a voice call into one. You get 10 Interactions per employee you buy. The monthly load is capped at one sixth of the yearly total. Past the access limit in its terms, Qualtrics automatically begins deleting the oldest Interactions. Ask what that limit is for you. Under its terms, the listening service uses machine learning that gives probabilistic predictions. An authorised user should evaluate them, including by human review.

Outside AI companies handle some data

Several Qualtrics AI features run on models from other companies. Qualtrics Assist and comment summaries use OpenAI models, run through Microsoft Azure. Insights Explorer uses an Anthropic model, run through AWS. That matters because your staff comments may pass through those companies’ systems. Microsoft and OpenAI are optional companies on Qualtrics’ list of those that handle your data. Amazon Web Services is mandatory, for hosting, storage and backups. Its AI inference zones may process data at another data centre. That centre sits in your wider region, such as Europe. Generative features Qualtrics built itself do not process customer data anywhere other than Qualtrics. Ask which features you plan to use are built in house. Qualtrics tells customers to review AI output, because the output is not a substitute for human review.

Qualtrics’ documents differ on AI training

Qualtrics’ platform page promises that customer data never trains shared models. Under its UK public-sector terms, Qualtrics may build analyses from anonymised and combined customer data. “Training and developing machine learning algorithms” is among the permitted uses. Under its privacy policy, Qualtrics may process personal information with AI, including to train models. That policy does not apply to personal information it processes on behalf of customers. Ask which of these applies to your contract, and have the answer written in.

Some data updates all the time, some weekly

How fast data updates depends on how it is combined. Qualtrics’ publishing guide says models built only from simple matching, filtering, stacking and new fields update continuously. Models that total figures or use fuller joins refresh weekly. Its journey overview says dashboard data is not refreshed automatically. So ask which of these applies to your set-up, and who refreshes your dashboards.

Pulling data out through the API

An API is the link your IT team uses to pull data. It is a feature you buy. Calls are typically limited to up to 3,000 requests a minute across your whole account. Qualtrics’ UK listing gives two answers on whether there is a test copy of the API. Its text answers no, and its form field answers Yes. Ask before your IT team plans a build.

Which buyers Qualtrics has served, and what they report

Each card below matches a customer to a situation you may be in. Their results come from surveys. Ask Qualtrics for a customer that used Drivers of Attrition, and what changed for them.

A very large workforce

Kroger has nearly half a million employees. Its People Analytics team runs studies at scale with Qualtrics Employee Experience. If your workforce is of that size, this is the scale Qualtrics has been used at.

Staff surveys across a public employer

The State of Iowa uses Qualtrics Employee Experience. It reports trust in leadership up 20% within six months. Satisfaction with manager communication rose 14%. Participation in its 2025 pulse surveys reached 61%, up from 54% the year before. If your goal is a survey that more staff answer, this is the kind of result to ask about.

One topic put to staff

The City of Corona has over 500 municipal employees. After it surveyed employees about technology resources, it reports a 28% rise in satisfaction with IT. That fits an employer with one clear question for its staff.

A UK public body

Three UK public bodies awarded Qualtrics contracts. Doncaster Council awarded £46,850 for one year of staff surveys. Post Office Limited awarded £238,850 over two years from June 2022. HMRC awarded £482,473.64 for 18 December 2023 to 17 December 2024, covering engagement, lifecycle and other products. Qualtrics also has a G-Cloud 15 listing, the UK government’s catalogue for buying cloud services.

Price, contract terms and what happens when you leave

Here is what Qualtrics charges, what sits outside the quote and what the contract lets each side do. Qualtrics asks visitors to request pricing. Employee Experience is priced on the number of employees. Qualtrics counts employees, contractors and other personnel directly employed by your organisation. Candidate Experience is also priced on your number of employees, even when you survey outside candidates.

Qualtrics sells this under several titles, including XM for Employee Experience, XM for People Suite and Employee Experience Suite. Under its terms, the suite includes People Engage and People Lifecycle. Its UK price row for XM for People Suite covers Engagement, Pulses, Lifecycle, Candidate XM and People Analytics. Ask for a written list of what your quote includes.

Qualtrics’ UK price rows fall from the first band to the last. The suite row that includes People Analytics runs from 30.01 in the first band to 2.85 in the ninth. Engagement and Pulses alone run from 23.02 per employee to 1.97 over ten bands. Lifecycle and Candidate Experience run from 16.45 to 1.90. An EX 360 add-on runs from 64.24 to 23.12 over five bands. The suite row gives no currency and no band sizes. So you cannot work out your own rate until you know the bands. Ask for the currency, where each band starts and whether the rate is per month or per year.

The software fee is not the whole cost. Qualtrics’ UK price document gives three success packages. Core costs £25,000 or 10% of annual software spend. Guided costs £50,000 or 20%. Advanced costs £65,000 or 25%. Qualtrics scopes and prices implementation, bespoke training and premium features such as Data Isolation separately. Faster support response times or dedicated premium support may cost extra. The yearly subscription covers standard maintenance, security controls and round-the-clock technical support. Discounts rise with the yearly contract value, from 5% under £250,000 to 30% above £5,000,000. A free trial gives a free account with three active surveys and 500 responses.

Once you sign, the UK terms hold you to the order. Under Qualtrics’ UK public-sector terms, all order forms are non-cancellable. All fees are non-refundable, except as the agreement sets out. If something goes wrong, each side’s liability in 12 months is capped. The cap is the annual fees paid for the service concerned, with listed exceptions. Qualtrics promises 99.93% monthly availability. Missing it brings a fee reduction at set levels. Its 2026 service promise takes 5% off that month’s fee for 31 to 120 minutes of downtime. It takes 7.5% off for 121 to 240 minutes and 10% off for 241 minutes or more.

The terms can also change under you. Qualtrics may change its product definitions at any time by posting a revised version. Your continued use binds you to them. One protection helps. If a change materially degrades the service, the UK terms let you end the contract and get a refund. You must give written notice within 30 days of the notice about the change.

On exit, the UK listing gives customers a contractual window. In it they can export all their employee experience data as CSV, TSV or XML. After that Qualtrics deletes what is left and purges backups, typically within 90 to 180 days. Self-service extraction carries no extra fee. A manual export or return of personal data by Qualtrics may carry professional service fees. Data and credentials stored for your HR connection are deleted within 30 days of licence expiry. Merge, the third party in that connection, keeps extracted data and credentials for as long as the Merge account exists. Ask who closes it. If you set a retention policy, it deletes responses older than your chosen number of days. It runs every 24 hours, and deleted responses cannot be retrieved. That could remove data you meant to export.

You could also get these reports and answers from agents built on your own systems. We have mapped what that looks like. The HR Agent Map

Eight questions to put to Qualtrics

These questions settle the points that decide cost and risk before you sign. Each one has an answer that should make you comfortable, and an answer that should make you pause.

Which products in our quote include Drivers of Attrition, Journey Analytics and continuous listening? Good answer: A written list by product name, with the price of each.
Which pricing band does our employee count fall in, and is the rate per month or per year? Good answer: A named band with start and end headcounts and the period written in the quote.
Can a manager see a named person’s flight risk score, or only a team’s? Good answer: Team level only, set by a role that we control.
Will you confirm in the contract that our data is never used to train your AI or anyone else’s? Good answer: Yes, in the order form, with the permitted analyses limited to what we approve.
How does our history of leavers get into Qualtrics, and what do we pay if you do the import? Good answer: A named method and a fixed price, with our own ID field kept.
Which customer has used Drivers of Attrition, and what did they change as a result? Good answer: A named customer of our size who will take a call.
What are the success and support costs on top of the software fee, in the first year? Good answer: One figure for implementation, training and the success package, in writing.
When we leave, how long do we have to export our data, and who closes the Merge connection? Good answer: A fixed window, no fee for the export and a written confirmation that all connection data is deleted.

Alternatives to Qualtrics

The alternatives to Qualtrics are Culture Amp, Leapsome, Visier, One Model, Workday and SAP, or buying nothing. They split into three groups. Culture Amp and Leapsome sell surveys and analytics together. Visier and One Model build analytics on your HR systems. Workday and SAP offer analytics inside their own HR systems.

Culture Amp’s Multi-Signal Intelligence combines engagement, performance and HR data to flag where retention risk is building. It is a limited free trial for select accounts, with a planned end date of 30 April 2027. It does not convert to a paid subscription automatically. Leapsome connects HR system, performance, engagement, goals, learning and pay data in one platform. It sells Engagement Surveys at €4 per employee per month.

One Model connects headcount data from Workday or SAP SuccessFactors. It also connects labour costs from finance systems and recruiting data from Greenhouse or iCIMS. Visier maps the systems a customer runs into one workforce model. Choose them if your first question is about headcount, cost or hiring, and surveys are a later add-on.

Workday People Analytics analyses data from Workday’s own HR and talent records. SAP People Intelligence is an add-on licence to SAP Business Data Cloud and connects to SuccessFactors data and beyond. If you already run one of them, price that first. Qualtrics also partners with SAP, so SuccessFactors customers can contract Qualtrics Employee Experience through SAP.

Buying nothing is a fair answer if you only want one answer on why people leave. Qualtrics’ own set-up asks for three fields per leaver, which are an ID, a status and a date. If you already run a staff survey, ask whether its answers can be matched to leavers by ID.

More in this guide

The People analytics guide
Compare the 33 researched products what each brings together, what its AI does, what it costs and the contract terms.
Mid-market companies which people analytics products suit 200 to 2,000 people, what they cost and what to ask.
Enterprise companies which people analytics products suit 2,000 people or more, what they cost, how contracts run and what to ask.
Companies whose HR system has analytics what the analytics in your HR system covers, what it costs and when to buy something separate.
Companies using their own AI tool or data warehouse how each product lets your own AI tool or data warehouse use the data, what it costs and what to check.