The survey highlighted that 64% of employees believe that the use of technology has an impact on morale, but only 20% of managers provide a budget to improve the digital experience of collaborators while only 21% of IT managers favor the end user experience when evaluating tools
Ivanti Inc., provider of the Neurons automation platform that discovers, manages, protects and supports IT assets from the cloud to the edge, has released the results of the State of the Digital Employee Experience (DEX) study. Ivanti partnered with digital transformation experts and interviewed 10,000 employees, IT managers and executives to assess the level of priority and adoption of DEX in enterprises and what impact it has on employees' daily work experience. The report revealed that 49% of employees are dissatisfied with the technology and tools that the company provides and 64% believe that the way they interact with technology directly affects morale. Indeed:
– 26% of employees are thinking of leaving their job due to lack of adequate technologies,
– 42% have invested their own money to buy better technologies and work more productively,
– 65% believe they would be more productive if they had better technology available.
There are conflicting opinions among executives, IT and employees when it comes to the future of work and the role of technology in fostering a hybrid work culture. Only 13% of knowledge workers prefer to work exclusively in the office, while 56% of CXOs still believe that employees need to be in the office to be productive, although 74% of executives say they are more productive since the start of the pandemic – demonstrating a disconnect between what they have experienced and what they think employees should do to stay productive.
Globally, the number one priority of business leaders is employee productivity, while the quality of the working environment and employee satisfaction remain at the bottom of the list. Additionally, 62% of executives admit that leadership impacts profitability over employee experience. While the importance of employee experience remains among the last positions on the agenda of business leaders, even IT continues not to consider it a priority, and only 21% of IT managers evaluate the end user experience before choosing new tools.
Ensuring optimal digital experiences for employees becomes a critical element in modern enterprise IT management,” he noted Steve Brasen, Research Director di Enterprise Management Associates. "Improving employee productivity helps attract and retain talent, accelerates business agility and competitiveness, reduces operating costs, and drives enterprise success and profitability. Understanding DEX requirements is key to adapting technologies and related practices that will support each organization's unique environment."
Innovation is undeniably the driving force behind hybrid working, but unfortunately many organizations still encounter great difficulties in its adoption. Among the top problems reported by company employees are too many emails or chat messages (28%), lack of connection with colleagues (27%), and software that doesn't work properly (23%). However, despite these challenges and executive skepticism, all respondents said they are more productive in the era of hybrid working, highlighting the fact that it's not so much the workplace that impacts productivity, but the experience people have when interacting with technology.
“The Everywhere Workplace has forever changed employee expectations about where they work, how they work and what device they work on,” he said Jeff Abbott, CEO of Ivanti. "How employees interact with technology and their satisfaction with this experience is directly linked to the success and value they deliver to the organization. Digital Employee Experience should be a board-level priority, and IT teams are poised to become strategic leaders in their organization to make it happen."
The growing variety of devices and networks used by so-called hybrid workers has dramatically expanded the inventory of assets that IT teams must manage, but 32% of IT professionals still use spreadsheets to track these assets and only 47% agree that their organizations have full visibility into every device that attempts to access the network. One of the biggest challenges IT managers face today is the need to enable a seamless user experience while maintaining a strong security posture. The challenge becomes more complex when pressure is put on executives to bypass security measures with 49% of executives reporting having been asked to bypass one or more security measures in the past year.
“Maintaining a safe environment and focusing on the digital employee experience are two inseparable elements of any digital transformation process,” continues Abbott. "A key differentiator for companies in trying to retain talent is certainly providing an exceptional and secure digital experience. Knowing that organizations do not prioritize the way their employees experience technology, we think is a negative factor contributing to the Big Departures phenomenon."
With the availability of innovative new technologies that enable and support hybrid workforces, IT now has the opportunity to have a positive impact on broader organizational strategy. By taking ownership of employee digital experiences and working closely with executives to achieve common goals, IT can drive better business outcomes, from employee productivity to employee retention. After all, the Everywhere Workplace is undeniably the future of work, and digital experience is the key enabler.
To learn more about the findings of Ivanti's 'State of the Digital Employee Experience' report, see who.
