Digital Employee Experience: A Complete Guide to DEX
13 minute read
Today, employees demand that technology not only does not hinder them but also helps them do their jobs more efficiently. As a result, digital employee experience (DEX) has become a crucial part of the employee experience and one your organization should pay close attention to.
So, let’s explore how DEX can help improve your overall productivity, employee engagement, and satisfaction.
What is digital employee experience (DEX)?
As a relatively new term, digital employee experience, you may often hear it being incorrectly defined as a platform, tool, strategy, or even a different name for corporate Intranet.
According to Forrester, some common misconceptions about DEX are that it is:
- A tool that helps measure the technology experience on end-points, apps, and other IT services
- A platform that serves as a central place for employees’ communication and collaboration with other colleagues
- A different name for corporate Intranet
- An HR tool
- A type of strategy designed to help improve the employees’ digital experience
While DEX may have some elements of some or all of these “definitions,” these all miss the mark.
Instead, the digital employee experience is a reflection of the quality of the employee’s interaction with the digital environment in their workplace.
This includes the hardware and software employees use to perform their tasks, the quality of access to the digital tools, and the support the organization provides them regarding digital tools.
In today’s remote and hybrid work environments, DEX shows how the organization’s digital environment aligns with the employees’ needs and preferences, and optimizing DEX has become vital for organizations that want to create a positive and innovative work culture.
Key components of DEX
Digital employee experience is much more than just having the tools.
It includes different components that the employee can use in such a way that it enhances their experience while they are using them.
These critical components of DEX include:
- Performance. Are the devices and programs employees use fast and reliable, or do they crash often and sluggishly? While 40% of visitors will leave your website if it doesn’t load in 3 seconds, employees don’t have that luxury and must suffer through a slow computer.
- UX and UI. It’s not enough that a program or an app “just works.” Users should also find them user-friendly, intuitive, and visually pleasing to have a positive experience with them.
- Personalization. Digital tools must meet the users’ preferences and needs and allow them to customize the functions and visual appearance for a better digital employee experience.
- Support and training are crucial elements of DEX because if employees don’t know how to use the digital tool to its full potential, they can’t get the most out of it.
- Integration. Employees rarely use only one digital tool; they use several much more often. The question is how well these tools integrate, and do they slow down or speed up the work?
Why is digital employee experience significant?
Digital employee experience is vital for both the employees and the organization.
For the employee, it promotes employee engagement and satisfaction.
DEX helps increase productivity, efficiency, and the organization’s performance.
How does digital employee experience fit into the overall employee experience?
Digital employee experience can shape the overall employee experience every day, and it can do this positively or negatively.
An employee given a user-friendly tool to work with will be happier, more motivated, and better empowered. Conversely, an employee who uses poor digital tools will feel disengaged and frustrated, and they will reflect that on their environment.
Also, an organization can demonstrate its commitment to employee well-being with a robust DEX. Employees who see that their needs are prioritized have a more positive outlook on the company.
With HeartCount’s weekly pulse surveys, you can easily identify all the factors influencing employee satisfaction and overall experience. This allows you to address issues promptly and prevent dissatisfaction.
What effect does DEX have on company performance?
The first step of a robust digital employee experience for the company is to provide its employees with efficient and reliable tools in their digital workplace. These tools allow employees to spend more time on tasks and less on fixing problems and troubleshooting.
Furthermore, DEX can also promote collaboration throughout the organization. This is very important for remote and hybrid-oriented companies, where teams are dispersed but still need to communicate effectively, often in real-time, and make quick decisions.
The good news is that business and IT leaders see DEX as a key consideration in their digital transformation strategy. In a survey by Riverbed, 95% of 1,800 leaders who participated see delivering seamless DEX as the key to remaining competitive.
Measuring digital employee experience
Employee feedback
The easiest way to measure digital employee experience is to ask for feedback. For instance, a tool you were sure would enhance their productivity might create a bottleneck because the employees need help.
You can measure DEX using surveys, one-on-one interviews, questionnaires, or any other feedback method that works for you (like suggestion boxes).
Pulse surveys can help measure DEX exceptionally as they are short enough not to disrupt the employees’ work much while they answer them.
While measuring DEX, keep attention to:
- Which areas are underperforming and which are working well (and why)
- What adjustments can you make? Replacing the digital tool with a new one, increasing employee training and support, etc.
- The timetable in which you can make those improvements.
With HeartCount’s custom survey feature, you can create your own questionnaire and send it to all employees or specific teams to measure DEX.
Digital experience observability (DXO)
Digital experience observability, or DXO, allows you to see (or “observe”) how employees are experiencing their digital workplace and its tools.
This includes the following elements:
- Monitoring. When we say “monitoring,” we mean monitoring the tools and their performance, not that of the employees. This means tracking how quickly servers respond or how fast a page loads. In the end, the goal here is to have everything running smoothly.
- Analytics. Of course, you’ll need data and information on how your employees use your digital tools. Do they need to click all over the screen and press every button on the keyboard until they find the one they need?
- IT Helpdesk. What problems are your employees facing most often? They’ll probably create a helpdesk ticket, whether that’s a particular crash or another problem.
- Insights. The first three parts of the DXO were there to help you gather the data from different sources. Now, you need to figure out what to do with this information. What areas need improvement versus areas that work well?
Best practices for improving the digital employee experience
Here are some best practices you need to consider if you want to improve the digital employee experience of your workforce:
- Prioritize learning and development
Your team members need the right learning resources and training to use the digital tools they need in their workplace correctly. This can mean offering training or courses or providing access to certifications, degrees, mentorships, or other types of credentials they might need.
- Make sure the technology serves the employee.
Technology should serve the man, not the other way around. Ensure that your digital tools serve the needs of your workforce and satisfy their user experience by understanding their pain points and what you could do to impact your employees positively.
- Carefully choose the technology.
Research a new technology in the workplace thoroughly before introducing it to the team. Don’t go for the first or cheapest tool you find; instead, compare a couple of alternatives until you find the tool that best aligns with your organization’s and your team’s needs.
- Ensure executive buy-in
While employees usually use digital technology, stakeholders and leadership must be convinced it’s worth it. Think of it as selling toys for kids. Yes, the kid will play with it, but the parent pays for it.
- Collect input from different sources.
Your DEX strategy will need more than just HR input. While no one knows your company culture better than HR, they must gain the technological know-how. For this, you’ll also need to include the IT department, which will need to audit the tech, install it, and fix any problems when they arise.
- Be patient
Don’t try to implement everything at once. This can only lead to backlash. Start with one tool and project to project until you gain enough support for the technology.
How to create a practical digital employee experience digital strategy?
When creating a digital employee experience, here are five steps you should follow.:
- Specify your goals
What are you aiming to achieve with DEX? For instance, are you looking to boost productivity, improve employees’ morale, or create a more positive and friendly work environment?
In addition to the organization’s needs, you should also understand the needs and requirements of your employees.
- Choose the right digital tools.
The digital tools your employees will be using should deliver a seamless digital experience without friction.
These include collaboration, project management, communication, sharing, and feedback tools.
Here, you can’t look at the tools individually but as a whole. Consider how well they integrate and work together.
- User experience first
Are the tools that your employees use intuitive and easy to use? In other words, are they user-friendly?
Technology should be easy to use, primarily if people use it daily. This is why you must always be alert for any pain points.
- Focus on priorities
Aim to remove any unnecessary steps in your workflow and automate repetitive tasks.
Let’s say one employee needs to sort emails daily. In Outlook, for instance, they can use Folders to organize emails into different categories (project management, design, etc.). Or, if that’s not enough. You can use Rules and specify the condition that will trigger the rule when you get an email.
- Don’t forget to support
Finally, don’t expect everyone to “get it” on their first try. Some people are less familiar with the tools and platforms you present, or they’ve been using others and now need time to switch.
Don’t give up on them right away. Encourage them to learn and experiment. Provide them with guides and tutorials on how to use the tool effectively. Consider assigning a more experienced team member to sit with them for the first few weeks and guide them through the digital workplace.
Examples of great digital employee experience
Digital employee experience can take different forms, such as:
- A user-friendly customer relationship manager (CRM) tool,
- A single sign-on (SSO) that streamlines the log-in process across different websites,
- A fast and reliable IT help desk that your team members can turn to when they have tech problems. This can be a virtual or an in-person help desk.
- A feedback tool that employees can use to request features, offer suggestions and vote on them.
According to research by Productiv, the average number of SaaS apps in an SMB was 253, 335 in mid-size companies, and 473 in large companies and enterprises in 2023.
That means there are plenty of good and bad examples of digital employee experience at work.
Let’s start with some bad ones.
Uber’s driver app issues
Uber users are not the only ones who encounter issues with the app. Unfortunately, the problems that drivers face are often much more severe and directly impact their work. As a result, employee turnover was especially bad in 2017 (and we’re not only talking about low rates here).
Instead, Uber drivers commonly reported connectivity and notification issues, including delayed or inaccurate notifications on their arrival, ride status, and trip progress.
Additionally, according to some drivers, the app is prone to glitching and even crashing, which negatively affects the service and causes frustration with the drivers.
Another common issue for Uber drivers is the inaccuracy of the rideshare’s GPS, which often causes them to be late for a pickup and get a lower rating.
The good news is that Uber has since brought in a new app version, which solved most of these problems (but not the low rates, unfortunately).
Amazon warehouse monitoring employee criticism.
When Amazon introduced its warehouse monitoring system, it ensured that its employees worked efficiently and tracked their productivity.
Instead, the constant, 1984-esque surveillance, coupled with profit-oriented productivity targets, leads workers to feel under severe stress and anxiety over meeting their quotas and being generally unhappy at work.
In addition, many warehouse employees complained about the lack of autonomy and felt dehumanized by having to wear location-tracking wristbands.
The situation got so bad that the US Department of Labor found that Amazon workers in warehouses in Colorado, Idaho, and New York were exposed to unsafe work conditions and ergonomic hazards.
On the other hand, we have many positive examples of DEX.
Toolstation creates a more engaged deskless workforce
Toolstation, a global tools and building materials company selling its products online, is an excellent digital employee experience example.
One of Toolstation’s most significant challenges was that most of its distributed workforce, particularly in warehouse and retail, didn’t have a company email address. This meant they didn’t have access to the information shared by company management.
To solve this problem, Toolstation introduced an internal communication app for deskless workers that they could easily access and engage with, creating a much more engaged workforce.
Salesforce’s Work.com helps businesses improve workplace operations
The Covid-19 pandemic didn’t only have an impact on our health but also on how businesses operate.
Fortunately, Salesforce introduced its Work.com app to help businesses better manage their work operations.
This includes tools for employee health and wellness monitoring, allowing companies to promptly address any health issue and create a safer work environment.
Also, the shift management and capacity planning tool helped businesses more efficiently schedule shifts and manage occupancy levels while maintaining the social distancing guidelines during COVID-19.
Conclusion
Saying that the digital landscape rapidly evolves sounds like a cliche, but it’s the truth. However, in this rush, we mustn’t forget technology’s “primary directive”: to assist and support people.
Investing in digital employee experience is essential for a productive workforce to achieve your organization’s goals.
Do you want to elevate your employee experience? Sign up for a HeartCount demo today and start a free 14-day trial.