The digital workspace experience – the way employees are connected with digital systems in the workplace, contributes to the overall experience that they get from being part of a company. The manner in which they interact with technology; how easy it is to use, how reliable it is, how it helps them gain access to information, and how it helps enhance their productivity all combine to determine the overall workplace technology experience that employees have.
Most often, leaders think that they are choosing the right tech for their employees, but that’s not always the case. When it comes to the digital tools employees use to accomplish their tasks, that relationship status can best be described as “complicated.” That said, by leveraging Power BI Reporting, you can obtain insightful data that can help you determine the best technology that can improve your employees’ efficiency.
What Is Employee Digital/Technology Experience?
Digital employee experience focuses on employees’ interaction with the digital workspace and the tools that they use. Today, the digital aspect has taken over most aspects of people’s lives–they are used to having technology work quickly and helping them get things done.
Unfortunately, the digital experience most employees have doesn’t always function this way. Employees are often frustrated by technologies that make their work more challenging rather than giving them an easier time. Understanding how attitudes and experiences shape a worker’s willingness to adopt tech at work can go a long way in helping you build great performance.
What People Say About Tech at the Workplace
Leaders Say That They Are Choosing Tech With Their Personnel in Mind, but Employees Disagree
Most C-suite executives believe that their companies pay attention to the needs of their staff when introducing new technology. But most employees disagree with this. Sure, there may be tech annoyances, but when tools don’t function the way leaders think they should, they usually find someone to delegate the problem to. On the other hand, employees have no choice but to muddle through.
When you don’t clearly understand how your personnel use technology to undertake their tasks and what they need and want from a given technology, the chances are that their experience at work will suffer. An unsatisfactory employee experience can have a ripple effect across the company, impacting everything from how engaged your personnel are to their eagerness for delivering a superior customer experience.
So, what do employees really want from the tech they use at their workplace? From picking apps, choosing devices to opting for voice texts, employees usually seek options that enable them to accomplish their work in the best way possible. For instance, the increased adoption of remote work means that employees need mobile devices that can enable them to accomplish their tasks while working remotely.
Employees Want to Acquire New Digital Skills
Today’s workforce is curious about emerging technologies and would readily invest time in learning. This is not to say that employers should take people out of the workday for training purposes. Rather, it portrays people’s willingness to learn how to use new technologies to enhance their productivity. According to the World Economic Forum, more than 54% of employees will need significant training by the end of 2022, with more than a third of that number requiring at least six months’ worth of effort. That said, employers should acknowledge the efforts of employees undergoing training to develop new skills to become more tech-savvy.
Employees Value the Human Touch at Work
Employees don’t fancy machine interaction entirely replacing the human connection they require to gain a true sense of belonging at their workplace. Many employees prefer face-to-face interactions for tasks such as performance reviews, receiving help on challenging problems and asking their HR (human resource) team questions.
Employees also prefer that the above tasks be partially or fully digitized – this signals that digital assistance does have a place when it is unobtrusive and seamless or where it improves employees’ work experience. For example, whereas most employees prefer face-to-face interactions for performance reviews, they also value the immediate and continual validation that they get when they use digital tools.
Common Issues That Affect Employees’ Workplace Technology Experience
The experience that employees get with technology in the workplace is dependent on many factors. Some of the common factors include:
- Unavailability of the best tools for the job: Employees expect that they will be provided with the best technology that’s not only easy to use but will simplify their work. When you purchase something that doesn’t meet your employees’ expectations, you will hamper their productivity.
- Failure of IT departments to update software: With several work functions increasingly moving online, employees require reliable systems that are updated frequently.
- Custom software that is not fit for purpose: When creating custom software for your business, ensure that it has features that your employees regularly use to minimize the chances of disrupting their workflow because you have introduced a solution that they don’t know how to navigate.
- Failure to set up properly from the word go: IT onboarding for new employees is a crucial requirement. When there is a consistent and reliable onboarding strategy in place, businesses can improve their new hire retention. What’s more, when employees are trained on how to handle the systems that they will be expected to use, they will be better placed to handle their tasks effectively. This enhances their technological experience.
- Inefficient processes and systems: For employees to have great technological experiences, employers should ensure that they provide them with the latest technology that is compatible with their existing system and is easy to use.
Power BI Report Scheduler Can Help You Improve Your Workplace Technology Experience
Power BI Report Scheduler (PBRS) is an intuitive software product that saves resources and time by simplifying filtering, automation, distribution, and remittance of SSRS and Power BI reports and dashboards.
With it, you can use data in your database to dynamically and automatically populate report filters, email addresses, formats, body texts, destinations, and much more. You can also learn more about PBRS and how you can use it to get insightful data that you can use to improve your workplace technology experience.
