When the COVID-19 pandemic hit the world, remote work became necessary. Two years later, remote work and work from anywhere structures have become the preferred choices for most companies. That said, businesses need to invest in digital platforms that enhance the digital employee experience (DEX) in such an environment. VMWare recently partnered with Forrester and conducted a study to explore the challenges and opportunities related to DEX and the benefits of a well-designed DEX in work from anywhere environment. The study also explored the opportunities for a holistic and integrated solution for DEX.
The following are the key findings from the study.
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Increased Hybrid Work Has Elevated the Importance of DEX
The study found that as more businesses started to embrace work from anywhere and hybrid work, 75% of respondents considered DEX high or top priority. More than 80% of organizations have started implementing, piloting, or have already implemented a dedicated DEX platform. This is primarily because organizations have realized that enhanced productivity is essential for business success. Many companies have realized that better equipping their employees is a competitive advantage, especially in times of the Great Resignation.
When it came to what organizations considered the critical capabilities of DEX platforms, at least 66% of respondents prioritized DEX solutions that can offer successful delivery, monitoring, and remediation capabilities. About 50% rated AI analytics and benchmark DEX as vital.
Organizations Are Failing at Integrating DEX Solutions
The study found that about 80% of the respondents purchased multiple solutions to manage their DEX from multiple vendors. Yet, only 33% of these respondents integrated these solutions to form one consolidated solution. Once the platforms are bought, their management varies, with almost 50% of respondents relying entirely on external partners or a mix of internal technology managers and external partners.
Companies Plan To Expand DEX’s Scope Over the Next Two Years
Most surveyed companies recognized their DEX solutions were incomplete, as only 25% said they have a comprehensive DEX solution. That said, 60% of respondents expect to have a comprehensive solution that includes delivery, monitoring, analysis, and remediation in about 6-24 months.
Companies Face Challenges in Providing an Excellent Digital Employee Experience
The study found that decision-makers face several challenges and concerns regarding their current DEX. For example, high costs were a major concern in managing DEX. Decision-makers are also challenged by the C-suite to translate DEX investments into business outcomes. Further, measuring ROI through remote workers’ effectiveness is a related challenge in justifying investments. About 51% rated the ability to scale access to critical apps and data a challenge.
Another major challenge is that vendor sprawl and integration impact root-cause analysis. This compounds the challenges in measuring ROI. About 67% of respondents said the root-cause analysis was either “Extremely†or “Very†challenging. The study also found that 42% of decision-makers used 3-5 vendors to support DEX. This could be why 65% felt it was difficult to ROI from their DEX tools.
How challenging are the above regarding managing DEX?
Source: Study conducted by Forrester on behalf of VMWareOpens a new window
Remediation was another challenge for decision-makers. About 56% of respondents agreed that AI-based proactive remediation of incidents was a critical capability. Yet, only 45% can predict tech issues and remediate them using AI. Similarly, only 47% of organizations have sufficient device telemetry to make effective data-driven decisions.
Maximizing DEX Investments To Drive Employee Experience
Organizations and decision-makers understand the benefits of DEX. These benefits include better employee engagement, improved business resiliency, and fewer security vulnerabilities.
What would you perceive as the benefits of a DEX solution?
Source: Study conducted by Forrester on behalf of VMWareOpens a new window
So, how can companies maximize their DEX investments to realize these benefits?
- Embedding self-service into DEX: By embedding self-service, organizations can improve productivity. Comprehensive solutions can reduce the manual burden on employees. Higher employee engagement through better end-to-end DEX experience and employee empowerment with self-service can improve employee satisfaction.
- Consolidating DEX into one platform: As 80% rely on multiple vendors and solutions, streamlined DEX procurement and management is a significant opportunity. Besides solving the problem of solution and vendor sprawl, a comprehensive platform can also be used to create new experience-level agreements (XLAs) to measure the overall health of their DEX. A comprehensive DEX platform can create XLAs associated with tech performance, stability, and usability. It can also be critical to view XLAs in the context of an employee’s daily journey.
- Committing additional funds to DEX: DEX has gained more importance since the pandemic. Decision-makers are already aligning their investments with their DEX strategies by planning to allocate 10% to 25% of IT budgets to DEX solutions over the next three years.
- Craft a DEX score: Measurement is an essential component of a DEX solution. However, only a few solutions help create a DEX score. A DEX score can help organizations continuously track and improve DEX. It can also serve as a strong benchmark that can be shown to C-level executives.
- Going beyond monitoring and analysis: Capabilities that provide self-service tools and remote issue remediation are driving the greatest interest among decision-makers. With more employees wanting work flexibility, a strong DEX can be a differentiator in talent acquisition and retention. To address today’s DEX-related challenges, decision-makers should look for a comprehensive platform encompassing delivery, monitoring, analysis, and remediation.
- Extend DEX’s value through cross-functional collaboration: DEX is more likely to be owned and managed by IT teams. However, other functions like HR, corporate communications, security, and C-level may also contribute to DEX in some way. Hence, IT teams should empower them by giving access to qualitative feedback capabilities within the platform. They should also hold regular meetings to understand the challenges their organization faces. This will help them improve DEX holistically instead of focusing only on traditional end-user capabilities.
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Conclusion
With work from anywhere culture becoming popular, more organizations are realizing the need and benefits of digital employee experience. Simultaneously, they face certain challenges with their current DEX, such as vendor and solution sprawl, difficulty measuring ROI, and remediation. By following the steps recommended above, they can overcome these challenges and maximize their DEX investments to drive employee productivity and retention.
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