The Experience Of Work - Citrix

THE EXPERIENCE OF WORKThe role of technology in productivity and engagementThe experience of workThe role of technology in productivityand engagementResearch suggests that the more engagedemployees are in their work, the more likelythey are to be productive, self-starting andinnovative. Unfortunately, only a minority ofemployees are actually fully engaged. Thepush to improve engagement has promptedmany organisations to consider the holistic,subjective experience they create for theirworkers, the so-called employee experience.But which factors contribute to a positiveemployee experience? What role, if any, doestechnology play in shaping it? And how cancompanies improve collaboration acrossdivisional silos to create a more productiveand engaging experience for their staff?To answer these questions, The EconomistIntelligence Unit surveyed over 1,000 seniorexecutives, including IT and HR leaders, andconducted a series of in-depth interviews. Thisexecutive summary presents the key findings.Key findings The employee experience is high on themanagement agenda, and improvedproductivity and engagement arethe top two expected outcomes. Leadership and management are themost influential determinants of theemployee experience. Technology ismore likely to be seen as a primaryfactor among companies withhigher self-reported employeeengagement and productivity, andamong those with more advanceddigital transformation initiatives. Ease of access to informationand the ability to access it fromanywhere are the most importantcharacteristics of the technologythat helps shape a positive employeeexperience, respondents believe. Executive ownership of the employeeexperience is often shared, whichmay explain why only a minority ofrespondents strongly agree that theytake personal responsibility for it. Making sure that technology has apositive impact on the employeeexperience will require collaborationbetween IT and HR. High-performingcompanies are more likely to havetaken measures such as employingcross-functional specialists and definingshared key performance indicators.Sponsored by The Economist Intelligence Unit Limited 20191

THE EXPERIENCE OF WORKThe role of technology in productivity and engagementAbout the researchThe Economist Intelligence Unitsurveyed 1,145 business executives inMarch and April 2019. The respondentshail from eight countries (the US, theUK, Germany, Australia, New Zealand,Japan, China and Brazil) and work insix sectors (automotive, energy/oiland gas, financial services, healthcare,manufacturing and retail). They havesenior roles in their organisations, justunder half (49%) being C-level executivesand the remainder directors, businessunit or department heads, and seniormanagers. The vast majority (81%)work in businesses employing over500 people, while nearly half (48%)are at companies with over 5,000.The survey analysis identifiedDriven by productivity andengagementThe employee experience is squarely onthe management radar in large businesses,according to the executives interviewed forthis study. It is a matter of senior managementdiscussion at the vast majority (81%) ofsurveyed firms. Many businesses haveestablished management roles with explicitresponsibilities in this area (and even the exactterm in the title).significant differences in responsepatterns in two areas: Digital development. “Digitally moremature” organisations are thosethat have been implementing adigital transformation strategy formore than two years. These arecompared with “digitally less mature”organisations, where strategyhasn’t been developed yet. Engagement and productivity. “Highperformers” strongly agree thatemployees at their organisation aremore engaged in their work and moreproductive than at industry peers, andthat they are more productive in theirwork than at peers. “Low performers”do not agree with either statement.The most common business outcomesthat companies seek from improvingtheir employee experience are improvedproductivity and engagement. Althoughthe direction of causality is not entirelyclear, the survey suggests that these twoqualities are strongly linked to the employeeexperience. Half of the respondents whoreport that engagement and productivityamong employees are higher than those oftheir rivals (“high performers”)1 also say therehas been an improvement in their employeeWe identified “high”, “middle” and “low” performers based on the extent of respondents’ agreement with two statements put to them in the survey:that employees at their organisation are more engaged in their work than at industry peers, and that they are more productive in their work than atpeers. High performers agreed “strongly” with both statements; middle performers agreed “strongly” or “somewhat” with both; and low performersdid not agree with either. The Economist Intelligence Unit Limited 201912

THE EXPERIENCE OF WORKThe role of technology in productivity and engagementFigure 1: The benefits of experienceBusiness outcomes obtained or expected from an improved employee experience(% of respondents)010203040Improved employee productivity43Improved employee engagement41Improved customer experience and satisfaction36Improved profitability31Improved talent retention30Improved innovation/creativity28Accelerated digital transformation2321Improved talent recruitmentImproved brand perception5016Source: The Economist Intelligence Unit.experience in the past two years. Thiscompares to just one in ten of respondentfirms that do not report higher engagementand productivity (“low performers”). Digitallymore mature firms are also more likely thanless mature ones to report such improvement.But the employee experience is not an entirelyinward-facing agenda: in our survey, morethan a third of respondents’ companies areseeing, or expect to see, better customerexperience and satisfaction as a result of theirefforts to improve the employee experience.The role of technologyIt is difficult to overstate the role thatstrong leadership plays in the outcomesassociated with an improved employeeexperience. When asked to rank thecontributing factors, respondents placedleadership and management at the top—and with a more emphatic responsethan any other factor, including pay.In the overall sample, technology ranks justbehind organisational purpose and culture asa determinant of the employee experience.However, both the high performers and thedigitally more mature groups put technologyon a much higher level. This suggeststhat the factor has been a driver of theaforementioned improvement in employeeexperience, as noted by both groups.Among the various ways employeesinteract with technology, it is the ability toaccess and share information that has thegreatest bearing on improved engagement,productivity and, ultimately, a betteremployee experience. The ability to work fromanywhere is a close second for respondents.Almost half of high performers (46%) stateemphatically that the applications anddevices an organisation provides make apositive contribution to the employees’working experience. However, if not managedcarefully, technology initiatives may have The Economist Intelligence Unit Limited 20193

THE EXPERIENCE OF WORKThe role of technology in productivity and engagementFigure 2: The burden of leadershipThe factors perceived to contribute most to an improved employee experience(% of respondents who rank each factor 1st, 2nd or 3rd#)All respondentsLeadership andmanagementEngagement and productivityHigh performersLow performers59Salaries/contract terms594336Flexible working policies3632Organisationalpurpose/culture3432The technology availableto employees33Social relationships withinthe organisation31Workplace design225637Health/wellbeingpractices and policies38413622Digital maturityMore matureLess 21Source: The Economist Intelligence Unit.unintended effects: 44% of respondents firmlybelieve that inadequately specified or poorlyimplemented technology can have a negativeimpact on the employee experience. Oftenthis is the result of workplace deploymentsthat fail to pay enough attention to changemanagement, interviewees suggest.Taking ownershipBy its holistic nature, the employeeexperience cuts across every facet of anorganisation. This may explain why shapingthe employee experience is more often ashared responsibility among multiple seniorexecutives rather than the ownership of one.When the latter is the case, the chief humanresources officer (CHRO) is more likely totake the lead than other C-level peers.Shared responsibility can often result ina vacuum, however, and many surveyrespondents evidently believe theemployee experience is someone else’sproblem. Little more than a third (34%) ofC-suite respondents strongly agree thatthey take full responsibility for it acrossthe organisation. Only a handful more(39%) say that they take full responsibilityfor it even within their own teams.Among the global sample, the chiefinformation officer (CIO) is the least likelyC-Suite role to have ownership of theemployee experience. Again, this varied bymaturity: at digitally more mature businesses,the CIO is more likely to share the leadershipof these efforts than at less mature ones.IT leaders from more advanced companieswere also more likely to take the employeeexperience seriously, the survey shows. ITexecutives from high-performing and digitallymore mature organisations are more likely to The Economist Intelligence Unit Limited 20194