The Empower Your Employees with the Right Technology study , sponsored by Lenovo and Intel, has revealed that the impact of technology on the employee experience or their total relationship with the organization is much greater than expected. The results indicate that, although companies see a five-fold return on investment in employee experience, driven by increased productivity, organizational agility and customer satisfaction; IT department heads (ITDMs) and employees disagree on technology priorities.
While IT departments prioritize strategic computing integration, software and service needs, employees focus more on their day-to-day technology experiences. This suggests that business leaders have room for improvement to collaborate more closely with employees on technology acquisition decisions to improve the connection of their teams, increase customer satisfaction and increase profits.
Reduce the gap
Now that organizations are shifting their focus to remote and hybrid work, IT managers are improving devices, software and services as part of efforts to improve the satisfaction and connection of their teams. According to the study, this has generated higher spending on technology and at the same time a profitability of 5x has been registered (1 dollar invested in these programs generates an increase of 5 dollars in the form of productivity improvements, organizational agility and customer satisfaction), which has led many to plan to increase investment by nearly 25 percent in the next two years.
Yet employees continue to express frustration at their experience with their PC software and hardware. 50 percent of respondents said their devices were outdated or insufficient (for example, not fast, reliable, or powerful enough) ; 46 percent noted that their software crashed often and interrupted their work; only 33 percent said they were extremely satisfied with their current business laptop; and only 30 percent said their laptop or desktop worked fine in horizontal collaboration.
Satisfaction with technology
It is important to note that both company IT managers and employees view satisfaction with technology as a key goal: nearly 60 percent of ITDM surveyed saw a greater than 10 percent increase in scores for improving satisfaction of employees with technology. It is clear that IT departments and the technologies they offer are key determinants, beyond conventional factors such as human resources, worker benefits, and so on.
However, also at this point there is a clear disconnect between employees and ITDMs, whose main concern is the longevity of technology investments, rather than their impact on team motivation. According to the study, although 84% of IT managers believe that employees can easily switch between different computing devices in the event of having to replace their current PC, only half of employees believe that this is an available solution. Ultimately, both ITDMs and employees agree that renewal cycles could be improved and aligned. Additionally, ITDMs believe that the integration of hardware and software will have the greatest impact on the user experience, while employees simply want devices that work consistently.
Give priority to employees
The study offers some key recommendations for business managers who want to increase employee connection and operating results through technology investments. Although many ITDMs are investing resources in exploring new and emerging technologies, such as 5G, augmented and virtual reality (AR / VR), artificial intelligence (AI) or machine learning tools, according to employee survey responses, There is an opportunity to address immediate employee priorities first, specifically building a strong foundation of collaboration tools and tools, while IT departments explore other more advanced technologies in parallel.
Managers should also focus on improving the employee experience rather than just addressing specific productivity metrics.In fact, according to the study, nearly 80 percent of IT managers plan to focus on improving their connection with employees over the next few months. PCs have become critically important to employees, and 77 percent of full-time employees say their computing devices are an essential factor in their daily work and professional collaboration. A renewed focus on PCs would have the greatest impact on operating results and customer satisfaction. Most respondents said computing devices are critical in increasing customer satisfaction (69 percent), increasing revenue (62 percent), and retaining employees (55 percent).
An overwhelming proportion of employees (72 percent) responded that listening to staff or clarifying their needs is among the top three actions companies should take to improve the employee experience.This information is important as employees understand the value of their work devices in driving business goals, based on technology factors such as performance, connectivity, reliability, portability, size / weight, battery life and the rest. Listening to employees can greatly help in technology decision making.
