With all the attention on the customer experience in recent years it seems that the employee has been short-changed with respect to digital innovations. This could be very short-sighted on the part of commercial organisations. A recent survey of 3,600 respondents in the EMEA region sponsored by VMware revealed that:
All these findings reinforce the view that employee experience is critical to growth and profitability in a digital age, but there appears from the survey to be a perception gap between what IT can do, and where HR sits in this critical arena.
The most disappointing fact is that not much has happened to employee experience in the last three years, with only 20% of organisations implementing a fully digital workplace during this period.
With five generations of employees in today’s workforce the picture is somewhat confused. Delegates around the table agreed that high on the list of obstacles was mindset and culture that often preferred the status quo and sought to avoid risk. Government appeared to have major difficulties due to its size and the high degree of fragmentation between departments. Recent government ‘hub’ campuses have been beset by differences in departmental policies that cover areas such as video conferencing and collaboration.
Further obstacles arise from functional silos. IT has been largely responsible for the employee digital experience over past decades, but HR is fast realising that it needs to be involved given employee sentiment within the workplace. In 2017 an HR department of a leading utility ran an employee survey on working conditions. Technology came last on the list of satisfactory services causing a radical rethink within the IT organisation that included greater emphasis on mobile devices and applications.
From a technical point of view all the tools are available today to deliver a truly exceptional employee experience comparable to that of the consumer. Most organisations have adopted a ‘bring your own device’ with equal tolerance for Apple, Windows and Android operating systems. Many of the internal core applications now have a web front-end and can be accessed by any mobile device. Containers within the employee device can separate corporate and personal data. End-to-end security is available now in both the mobile and multi-cloud environments. Single ID can replace multiple access codes.
Some of the delegates have adopted vending machines to equip their employees with accessories for fixed and mobile devices. This has saved much paperwork and employee time. Service catalogues offer employees a wide range of applications, both public and private, to conduct their business in the office and elsewhere. Tasks such as submission of expenses and procurement approvals can be undertaken in minutes from any physical location saving hours during the week.
Security is a challenging issue in a ‘bring your own everything’ world, but modern cloud-based capabilities can ensure safe working in the office or on the move. According to VMware, who recently published the report ‘The Value of Digital Employee Experience: An EMEA Perspective’, the prospect of ‘anywhere, anytime, anyplace’ working is now entirely feasible for every sector, including blue light services such as police and health workers.
How to improve the employee's digital experience? What steps can organisations take to achieve it? Learn more in the full article available in our app exclusively for CIONET members and join the conversation!
This article was written by Roger Camrass, director of CIONET UK and a visiting professor of the University of Surrey, and is based on the conversations during a dinner on employee’s digital experience, sponsored by VMware in January 2020.
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