A failure by firms to consider Employee Experience is leading to staff not realising the value of workplace technology investments.
That is the finding of the Digital Wellbeing survey, comissioned by Avanade, which revealed that rather than empowering employees, the proliferation of new technologies can cause confusion, leading to a lack of adoption.
Of those surveyed, only 39 percent are embracing modern workplace technology like Slack, Teams, WebEx, and Skype, while an overwhelming proportion remain wedded to more dated technology like email (73 percent). This is preventing businesses from bringing about the productivity gains and improvements in Employee Experience (EX) they expect from their technology investments.
The study was carried out by YouGov, analysing the working habits of 1,000 UK professionals. It showed that adoption, ROI, and value are all impacted when technology is implemented without consideration for EX. The study also found that while 68 percent of employees react positively to new technologies, only 39 percent actually use them on a regular basis.
Almost two-thirds of employees believe that new workplace technologies are being deployed without consideration of their needs, and they feel this is something HR should contribute in partnership with IT.
Stanley Louw, UKI head of digital innovation at Avanade, said: “We see the workplace as the new frontier for competitive advantage and a driver of sustainable growth. Worryingly, the study shows that while businesses continue to invest heavily in Customer Experience (CX), many are still underinvesting in EX. Considering that employees play a major role in delivering CX this would appear counter-intuitive. Poor EX can also impact engagement, creativity and ultimately wellbeing.
“New technologies offer new capabilities which, not only provide opportunities to improve the way employees work, but also create new ways of working. Successful organisations are those which work with employees to help them understand the relevance new technologies have for them and their specific role, identifying how day-to-day processes and activities can be improved by incorporating these new capabilities.”