The Role of IT Leaders in Transforming the Digital Workplace
Research from McKinsey found that U.S. productivity has grown by an average of a “lackluster” 1.4% over the past two decades. And recent data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics showed that productivity growth in 2023 was even slower, at just 0.7%. Many U.S. business leaders have been quick to point the finger at remote and hybrid work as one of the biggest culprits.
This has led to a number of large companies, including Amazon and Zoom, introducing strict Return to Office (RTO) mandates. Our recent survey of US and UK businesses confirms this, with 90% of IT decision makers saying hybrid working is creating “productivity paranoia” in their organisation.
While hybrid working is an easy target, there’s something far more impactful but less visible at play: the digital employee experience (DEX). Modern workplaces are increasingly digital, and poor DEX costs the average employee nearly four hours of work per week as they battle digital friction caused by underperforming technology, unnecessarily complicated digital processes, and notification overload from a myriad of applications.
Executive Chairman of Scalable.
The struggle to measure productivity exacerbates the problem
Part of the reason the productivity crisis is so widespread is that measuring the problem is extremely difficult. Most IT departments use a set of established metrics, such as evaluating the volume of output, implementing time tracking software, or having employees report. But these metrics are too subjective and narrow in focus to provide real insight into the digital experience of employees and its impact on how effectively they work.
First, it is difficult to quantify output for many knowledge-based jobs. Second, even if there is tangible output to assess, that single number provides only partial insight. Accurately measuring productivity requires nuance. For example, a financial services firm might consider five mortgage loans per hour processed by a customer service representative as a benchmark for high output, and thus consider employees who complete five loans as productive.
But looking at a single number doesn’t provide insight into how a task was performed, how digital friction impacted the process, or whether the origination workflow could be optimized for improved productivity. It might be that by eliminating digital friction, the organization could increase the number of completed originations by 20% for the same level of effort. But without the ability to accurately measure DEX and see where friction occurs, organizations are left in the dark about how to enable employees to be more productive.
Why is DEX important?
The shift to hybrid has increased the need for this kind of digital experience and productivity analytics. It’s easy to assume that seamless and frictionless DEX is a “nice-to-have,” not a “must-have.” But good DEX is critical to knowledge worker job satisfaction. Nearly a third (29%) say poor DEX has caused them to leave their role — a worrying statistic considering the average cost of replacing an employee is nearly double their annual salary.
The good news is that the situation is changing. Both IT decision makers and knowledge workers agree on the top three causes of digital friction that contribute to poor DEX:
- Having to repeatedly switch between applications to complete a task or find information
- Applications that repeatedly freeze, crash, or load slowly
- “Notification overload” caused by having too many communication channels to manage
This growing alignment between IT and the business means there is a growing urgency around the need for IT to transform from the traditional ‘break/fix’ role of the workstation. What is needed is an emphasis on delivering the best digital workplace for the modern hybrid enterprise. The problem is that most IT teams do not have access to the DEX observability data that would enable them to optimise the digital workplace.
Developing the ‘break/fix’ approach
To transition from the break/fix model, IT departments need advanced solutions that provide visibility across the enterprise to uncover hidden friction. For example, identifying if employees need to access multiple applications to complete a workflow due to missing information or functionality, or spotting parts of a workflow that can be automated to reduce app switching. With the average employee switching between apps more than 10 times per hour, there’s significant room for improvement in most businesses. Crucially, these measures not only improve productivity, but also eliminate information and knowledge silos to make it easier for employees to collaborate.
Such insights enable IT leaders to make data-driven investment decisions. By understanding who the top performers are on a team, IT can replicate their workflows for other teams while automating time-consuming and repetitive tasks. Additionally, when IT teams understand how work gets done, they can assess the risks of any planned change and see whether users or tasks would be disrupted if they were migrated to a new application. This allows them to make improvements that will have the most impact while minimizing disruption for everyone.
A new way to tackle productivity
American businesses need a new way to address the productivity crisis. Rather than dwelling on narrow metrics and focusing on concerns about hybrid work, companies need to ask more sophisticated questions. The goal should be to give IT leaders the tools to address one of the most glaring barriers to productivity by improving the digital employee experience. For those organizations that take the plunge, the benefits will be enormous: delivering a happy and engaged workforce while creating a much healthier bottom line.
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