Consider that workers who experience a negative Digital Employee Experience are likely to be less productive, less helpful to customers, and less satisfied with their jobs overall.
Companies spend a lot of time thinking about their customers' digital experience. A good option can keep customers coming back, encourage them to buy more each time they visit, and turn them into raving fans (those who share their positive experiences with others). A poor digital experience can have the opposite effect, frustrating customers so much that they turn to other vendors and often never return.
But customers aren't the only people who evaluate the digital experience they have with your company. The employees are too. The impact of a poor digital employee experience (DEX) may, at first glance, seem like a minor problem. But consider that workers who have a negative DEX are likely to be less productive, less helpful to customers, and less satisfied with their job in general.
These impacts can lead to diminished company reputation, higher attrition rates, and lost sales and revenue. In the following sections, we'll take a closer look at this issue, including potential company problems resulting from negative DEX, how hybrid work can make the problem worse, what employees look for in their DEX, and steps for improvement.
Why you need to approach DEX
Negative DEX involves more than employees' personal feelings. Their frustration can lead to many negative consequences, including sharing unflattering information about your company on sites like Glassdoor, making it harder to find qualified employees. Additionally, these team members may choose to leave, forcing you to spend additional resources and money trying to replace them. Difficulty finding workers and more workers leaving equals fewer people to perform critical work.
Customers can also be impacted in other ways. For example, faulty or outdated technology that leads to negative DEX can be equally frustrating for call centers, who end up waiting for slow systems to return information or discover that their needs cannot be met. But these situations are as challenging for employees as they are for customers, especially in sectors like healthcare, where a helpful response is critical.
When customers start to be impacted, your business suffers. You could lose sales and revenue, leading to a downward spiral. Without the necessary funds to upgrade your equipment and processes, it is difficult to raise DEX and therefore your level of customer service. As these factors continue to decline, sales fall further, and so on.
The impact of hybrid work
In addition to all the pre-pandemic challenges preventing companies from offering a positive DEX, the recent increase in hybrid work has brought additional concerns, largely due to the lack of control IT teams have over remote work environments. The problem is further compounded when remote workers travel, frequently switching between locations such as airports, hotels and cafes.
In these situations, employees may not have direct access to IT teams or even co-workers and may try to resolve issues themselves. Although they have good intentions, they may actually be making technical problems worse for themselves and the company.
What employees want
What employees want in their digital experience isn't hard to identify. They want the technologies they interact with at work to be as integrated as those they use in their personal lives. For example, ordering new office supplies should be as easy as ordering dinner using a food delivery app. Customer service programs should be as intuitive as a social media platform. Your company intranet and knowledge base should be as simple to navigate as a well-designed shopping website.
Workers also want to know that when they have a problem, someone will be there to help them solve it and that someone at your company will be responsible for creating a positive DEX. That's why it's important for organizations to assign this role to someone on the IT team and let employees know who that person is and how they can help.
Steps to improve DEX
While not all DEX issues are technology related, technology can provide a lot of support. The following suggestions can guide your company's DEX in the right direction.
- Get an employee perspective. To improve DEX, company leaders must understand what employees are experiencing. Take the time to conduct surveys, interviews, or both, to determine the biggest frustrations and impediments to productivity.
- Provide self-help options. Create an intranet section that team members can use as a starting resource to resolve their own issues.
- Provide 24/7 access to IT support. Employees who require further assistance should be able to contact a member of the IT team at any time. With hybrid working, you can have employees anywhere in the world, which means support must be 24/7 to cover all time zones.
- Stop problems before they start. IT must take a proactive approach to resolving employee technical issues. For example, team members can use IT management platforms to identify known software issues or even known employee behaviors that can lead to problems and send alerts to prevent them before they start.
- Assign responsibility to one person. As mentioned above, a big part of positive DEX is knowing that employers are invested in making the employee experience a good one. To help with this process, assign DEX responsibility to one person and task them with improving DEX across the company and communicating initiatives to employees.
Pay attention to the benefits
For companies that invest in DEX, many positive results will eventually emerge. First, employees will be more satisfied with their jobs overall and more productive, sometimes coming back for hours each week to help their organization achieve its mission. As a result, retention will increase, reducing the burden and cost of hiring.
Customers will also receive benefits, with faster and more efficient service, generating more sales and greater revenue. Ultimately, some of the troubleshooting aspects are moved outside of IT, giving these teams time to create even better efficiencies, leading to greater success.
