DIGITAL EMPLOYEE EXPERIENCE

What is a “Digital Workplace”?

It is the natural conversion from traditional workplaces into today’s contemporary ecosystem composed of technologies that facilitate employees’ collaboration from anywhere, on any device, at any time. The ecosystem consists of the data and tools such as:
Communications / Collaboration tools
Intranet, portal and social interaction platforms
Content and knowledge management systems
Cloud storage / document sharing
Mobile integration

Benefits of a Digital Workplace

The ease of communications between stakeholders drives improved collaboration and encourages strategic conversations and exchange of ideas that may not otherwise have been possible.
Flexible working hours and flexible work environments provide a better work-life balance to employees which can improve morale and employee satisfaction.
New digital tools enable employees to do more with less resources, be it time, effort or money, and help identify key performance indicators that can be monitored to drive increased productivity and efficiency and lower operational expenses.
Engaged employees communicate and collaborate easier and better, creating a stronger internal bond regardless of where they are in corporate hierarchy, leading to improved User Experience (UX), a lower turnover rate and a better cultural integration.

What is DEX?

Digital employee experience is the interaction of employees with the Digital Workplace i.e., with the ecosystem described above and how well they are able to use it to be engaged, efficient and productive.
Just like in their personal lives people have become digitally engaged, they expect a similar, simple and easy digital experience in their workplace.
Typically, an employee’s interactions in the workplace are:
Daily operations, Processes, workflows, … (project management, analytics, customer relations, etc.)
Communications and collaboration with colleagues (email, IM, voice/video calls, etc.)
Learning (official trainings and functional development)
HR systems (self-care, forms and policies, compensation, and performance management, etc.)
The overall level of job satisfaction and engagement employees express in surveys is partly a reflection of their interactions in the Digital Workplace. And consequently, if employees find it difficult to perform their tasks with the tools provided, it can reflect negatively on their overall level of engagement.

Why invest in digital employee experience?

In addition to the benefits of a Digital Workplace mentioned above the main reason for investing in DEX is to:
Enable the post-Covid workplace:People now expect no less than hybrid work options but still want convenience. A good digital workplace and digital employee experience bolster this.
Better customer experience:It is very well known that employee experience and customer experience are interlinked, so companies with engaged and empowered employees outperform their competitors.

Some Considerations for a better Digital Employee Experience

A. Employees come first:
Digital tools and software systems are implemented to serve users and make their life easier. It’s not the other way around. Users cannot become slaves to the systems and adapt to the way the system was designed to work.Any digital initiative that doesn’t prioritize a positive impact on the employee experience will fail to achieve its intended purpose, regardless of how large investments were and how advanced the technology was.

B. DEX vision as part of the overall Employee Experience:
A good Digital Employee Experience must:

Align with and support the business objectives
Select the appropriate digital tools and a scalable future proof technology
Prioritize phases for improvement, processes, workflows, automation
Ensure fast adoption and acceptability through proper employee engagement and training
Measure success through identifying meaningful KPIs

C. Build consensus:
Any corporate change requires buy-in. Lack of internal consensus and support can cause any strategy to fail. Consequently, some elements are crucial for the success of the DEX cause:

support from senior leadership and transparent communication
clear, concise elevator pitch that sums up the DEX vision
cross-functional cohesive team to coordinate, collaborate and promote the change
communicating the benefits of the change at each stage of the process, to help stakeholders understand what is changing, why, and what positive impact it will have

D. Adoption:
Most changes in corporate environments fail due to employee resistance and poor adoption. Without proper training, there’s a risk that employees will end up demotivated and the DEX implementation to fail.The best way to avoid that is to prepare employees for success from the beginning and to promote an environment where mistakes are tolerated.This will enhance engagement and speed up the technology adoption process.

E. Measure success/failure and plan improvements:
Employees’ honest feedback through well designed surveys is essential to understand where the DEX strategy succeeded and where it failed. The best practice is to benchmark results of such surveys with other similar implementations and identify areas for improvement.Well planned continuous enhancements will mitigate short term setbacks and will gradually increase adoption rate.