Organizations across industries are adopting digital technologies to improve all aspects of their business. They often focus on “digital transformation” as a way to streamline operations or improve the customer experience.
However, employers can also use digital transformation to improve the employee experience. This can increase engagement and efficiency and reduce turnover. Here’s how to apply digital transformation to the employee experience.
1. Solicit Employee Feedback
Before transforming your workplace, make sure you know what changes will actually help to improve the employee experience. Different factors can affect the employee experience, including:
- Having the right tools to do their job;
- Opportunities for career development and advancement;
- Serving their communities and other important causes within their careers;
- Flexibility in scheduling and work location;
- Feeling valued at work;
- A positive workplace culture;
- Fair reimbursement; and
- Benefits and perks they actually use.
Survey your employees to find out which of these factors have the greatest impact. Use the information you gather to establish an end goal, create a strategy for achieving it, and determine how you will recognize success.
2. Do Your Research to Pick the Best Tools
Once you know what your team members want, and how you intend to improve their experiences, it is time to choose digital solutions that can help make that happen. These choices will depend on the type of technology you will incorporate, such as upgraded office equipment or adding artificial intelligence-driven software to automate tasks.
Use input from different departments, including your HR, IT, and accounting teams, to choose the right digital tools. Your chosen solutions should be able to improve the employee experience without hindering business operations. If you are a hybrid workplace, make sure that any digital tools you choose will support both in-person and remote employees.
Choose tools that come with enough training and tech support. If employees have a tech problem and cannot find help easily, it can waste time and detract from their experience and create discouragement, frustration, and disengagement.
3. Get Ahead of Potential Problems
Digital solutions add enormous value to the workplace, but that doesn’t mean they come without difficulty. Unless your organization recognizes some of these challenges of going digital, any changes you implement may end up hindering the employee experience rather than improving it.
- Digital “noise,” such as multiple text messages, emails, and notifications, can be distracting and frustrating. Competing communications and priorities can also create stress and harm productivity.
- Using too many digital tools and apps for different tasks can waste employee time.
- Remote and hybrid workforces can create challenges as teams try to work together and accommodate different geographic locations and time zones. Reducing this friction can go a long way to improving employee experience.
- Systems and tools are often chosen to support business processes, rather than people. Be sure to choose tools that support the user experience and the job being done.
Consider which of these challenges are most likely in your workforce, and how you can mitigate them. Streamlining your digital tools, using multi-purpose or all-in-one solutions, and prioritizing the user can help improve efficiency and reduce fragmentation in the workflow.
4. Foster Clear Communication
Any changes you make that affect your employees’ experience should be communicated clearly, thoroughly, and often. When adapting new digital solutions, tell employees what changes they can expect, how it may affect them, and how long they will take to implement.
Let employees know how to use any new software or other tools, or how to follow changes in company policy. This will help keep everyone on the same page and help changes go more smoothly.
Communication should go both ways; encourage employees to express their thoughts on the process. When there is open interaction and employees can share feedback, they feel more empowered and valued in the workplace. Let employees know the best way to communicate, such as an internal forum or a designated point person.
As many workplaces attempt to draw new talent by focusing on the candidate experience, it is just as important to improve the employee experience to improve retention and engagement. With the right approach, the digital solutions you choose will help you achieve those improvements.