Part 1: The value of a digital employee experience

What is a digital employee experience?

Let's start by clarifying some concepts. Two trending terms right now are digital workplace and employee experience. Combined, they become digital employee experience - which in many contexts is also referred to as digital employee experience or DEX. As if we didn't have enough X acronyms - CX, UX, CXM, TXD and HyFlex are just a few examples.

The term digital employee experience encompasses all the employee's feelings about the digital interaction with their organization and their work. That is, what you experience from the first recruitment contact (e.g. the advertisement) until the last day at work.

Surveys show that more than half of employees in companies and organizations say that their organization fails to meet their expectations for a good digital employee experience.

The value of a digital employee experience

We will now focus on how you can contribute to better results in your organization. The foundation is a clear strategy. IT research firm Gartner External link. predicted that only 40% of companies and organizations would have strategies in place to work on the digital employee experience by 2023. It should be 100%.

Strategy sounds big, but we're going to make it simple. We'll do it by focusing on what value you want to achieve and part two will be about how to achieve it.

So, the value of a good digital employee experience is the impact it has: better productivity, better efficiency, better employee well-being and better engagement.

Let me explain.

People – engaged employees

Let's start with people - the goal is to engage your employees. The value of this is that you will have employees who have positive experiences at work. They will feel more connected to their roles, colleagues and the organization as a whole. This in turn leads to a reduction in staff turnover, by as much as 2%, according to our study. Absenteeism is also reduced. And you get a stronger employer brand.

Ways of working – more efficient and productive ways of working

Moving on to ways of working - the aim here is to make your work and that of your colleagues more efficient. The value of this is that you get improved productivity. Because when employees are engaged and motivated, they are not only happier, they also get their work done faster. Each of them can save 20 minutes a week just by making your organization's internal communication easier and more efficient.

And you will provide better service. Happy employees make for happy audiences. Your colleagues will be more proactive in finding opportunities for your customers, clients, members and citizens.

Technology – creativity and innovation

And then we finish with technology where the goal is to enable improvements and new solutions and features. The value here is that you get a creative and innovative workplace. Engaged employees feel more comfortable sharing suggestions, new perspectives and ideas with both colleagues and management. It's old news. But few organizations open up to these opportunities.

And so the need for IT support will decrease. As your company or organization's work becomes more efficient and productive, IT spends less time and money resolving support issues. Imagine what your IT team could spend their time on instead. Who doesn't want to achieve results like this? But why don't you do it?

Well, because many people often face one or more of the following challenges:

• Email is the default communication channel,
• people working in the field have limited digital access,
• colleagues in the office spend more time in their business systems rather than on shared platforms such as the intranet.
• and it is difficult to deliver relevant news and information.

Do you recognize yourself?

You are not alone. Check out Jula Holding who had exactly these challenges and managed to create a great solution. See the case of Jula Holding on the Consid website. External link.

But what's next?

In the next blog you will get practical tips for creating engagement in the digital workplace and how you can achieve it. Then we will focus on the strategy for creating a great digital employee experience.