Johannesburg, 21 Sep 2023
Ensuring a good Digital Employee Experience (DEX) helps organisations boost remote and hybrid workforce productivity, improve staff retention, and ultimately control costs.
This is according to Think Tank Software Solutions and Ivanti experts, who were addressing a webinar on Remote work and the Digital Employee Experience.
Deon van der Walt, Solutions Engineer at Think Tank Software Solutions, said the Covid-19 pandemic had dramatically changed the way in which people work: “We have entered into a new era of work. Workforces have realised remote and hybrid work is possible and really convenient, and they aren’t willing to give it up. Ivanti research finds that 71% of workers now say they want to have a hybrid or remote work experience.”
A poll of webinar attendees found that 33% have complete flexibility and control over their work hours and location, and 41% have some flexibility but with certain constraints. Only 8% have little to no flexibility in their remote work arrangements and 16% don't work remotely.
Van der Walt said offering hybrid and remote work helped organisations overcome the war for talent.
However, the quality of the digital work experience makes a significant difference to how productive and satisfied remote and hybrid workforces are, he noted.
“Employees want to be productive from everywhere. However, 49% are frustrated with the tools they need to use at work, and 26% consider leaving their current job – partly due to technology. Workforces have become a lot more savvy about the technology that’s available out there,” he said.
He highlighted Ivanti research, which found that knowledge workers are affected by 3.67 digital issues every business day. “That may not sound like a lot, but when you look at the impact of an issue during the time of productive thought, it is a problem. When you are just about to tackle a complex task and the system shuts down, the interruption takes around 20 minutes of productive time. At 3.67 times a day, this could constitute a 12.5% loss in productive time,” van der Walt said. “If we can predict user issues and technology failures before they happen, we could enhance the user experience and avoid this lost productivity.”
Paul Bornhutter, Enterprise Service Management expert and Senior Sales Engineer at Ivanti, explained that automated DEX platforms allow organisations to discover and understand device and software issues and security vulnerabilities before employees are impacted.
“Once we understand what’s out there, we can start measuring potential productivity degradations and areas providing a less than optimal experience. There are quick wins, with recommendations on quick actions to remediate the root cause of poor experience on the fly. These measurements can also be used to resolve issues proactively,” he said.
When asked what technical challenges they encounter when working remotely, 11% of webinar attendees said internet connectivity issues, 5% said insufficient hardware or software, and a further 5% said security concerns. 17% pointed to disturbances from their households, or other environmental factors.
Bornhutter said: “When employees can trust their tools and technologies, that’s when we get employee satisfaction and productivity, which impacts employee retention and productivity.”
“We need to resolve performance issues before they become hardware failures. We also need to measure utilisation of the tools provided, to determine if the tools are being utilised and the investment is delivering value, and to assess whether employees need and use the full suites installed on their laptops.”
“DEX can unlock value by identifying unreported technology interruptions, allowing organisations to realise value from tech implementations, measure and improve the employee digital experience, and ultimately optimise cost and resources,” Bornhutter said.
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