Putting Employees Experience First
Many organisations have been forced to quickly implement remote working solutions in order to continue working throughout this pandemic. As we begin to adapt to a new normal, it’s important to reflect on your digital foundation and ensure it is being fully utilised to protect your investment.
There are five critical requirements for a digital workspace, the first and most important is putting employees first. Implementing and maintaining an employee-focused digital workspace is critical to supporting new business initiatives and fostering better ways to securely connect people with data.
Why is putting the employees experience first critical?
A digital workspace provides organisations with more flexibility, enabling employees to securely work remotely, using their preferred devices. It builds a strong design culture that meets the demands of your organisation, as well as the ability to secure data. If lines of business, teams and individuals believe that IT gets in the way and slows them down, employees will avoid adopting the tools and services designed to protect them. A digital workspace should empower employees and enable them to seamlessly perform their role. If you’ve had to quickly build your digital workspace due to COVID-19, it’s not too late to re-evaluate your journey and rewind in terms of looking at the initial requirements.
Putting the employee’s experience first requires a different way of thinking and the development of new skills. Previous approaches meant that tools and processes revolved around devices which misses the critical connection of how an individual employee moves between devices throughout their workday. In order to truly understand how your employees use their devices and applications, IT must consider the following questions:
- How do employees learn about new applications?
- How intuitive is the process when using the app for the first time?
- Is the process different depending on the device or location?
- Does the app require access to other apps or services, like cameras or local files?
- When changes are made to the app, does it improve or hurt its usage and adoption?
- Is the application or its data stored in a public cloud or on-premise?
Not only does putting the employee first ensure the applications and technology you’ve invested in is well utilised, but it can also provide a whole host of benefits, including higher staff retention rates and more productivity. According to a study done by Forbes and VMware, employees spent 17% less time on manual processes, 16% increase in team collaboration and 16% faster decision making when firms make apps available and highly accessible. You can find the full findings from the study here.
