Why the best digital employee experience puts people first.

We’ve all embraced, or rather have been forced to embrace, a digital-first approach when it comes to customer experience. But what about the digital employee experience?

If 2021 was the year of fully embracing hybrid and remote work, then 2022 will be the year organizations start to care about the digital employee experience.

Everything that employees learn, do, see, and feel on the job constitute part of that experience, whether it takes place in-person or remotely.

It’s important to remember that the employee experience isn’t just how employees interact with technology, or how organizations enable their employees to succeed in their jobs. It’s about understanding the human element of the employee experience.

Brands need to optimize their internal applications and journeys to account for those most responsible for building their best customer experience: their employees.

What is the relationship between CX and EX?

Designing for CX helped companies survive and thrive during the early stages of the pandemic. In 2022, designing for employee experience will be the edge companies need, especially given the great resignation.

It goes without saying that customer experience is crucial to a company’s future. Most companies realize that a standout digital experience drives customer satisfaction and leads to higher conversion rates, more revenue, and a stronger sense of brand loyalty. The digital digital experience, on the other hand, hasn’t been given nearly as much attention.

Nowadays, CX and EX should be built in tandem. Design thinking has helped companies become more customer centric, and now it’s taking over the employee experience.

Behind the screen, employees are like customers: human beings seeking intuitive, easy-to-use tools that allow them to accomplish the task at hand. Investing in positive digital experiences makes employees feel more valued, which in turn reduces employee turnover.

Sure, your employees aren’t trying to make a purchase or open a checking account. But when employers invest in positive digital experiences and reduce friction, employees can better assist customers.

Why remote and hybrid work have put pressure on the employee experience.

After the pandemic hit, most companies embraced hybrid and remote work. Nearly 2 years later, employees want flexibility, opportunities to grow, social cohesion, purpose, and collaborative teams. That’s a lot for companies to deliver, especially when they are not routinely seeing their team in person.

This means the digital environment that your business is building for employees should reflect this.

How can companies build their tech stacks to empower collaborative, cross-functional work, even when employees are not in the office together?

The answer? Investing in digital products that enable employees to succeed.

Digital products should empower people, not replace them.

Roles are becoming more fluid, especially as employees learn how to navigate the widening skill gap in the labor market.

Organizations need to invest in intuitive systems, platforms, and data analytics tools. But they also must provide their employees with the necessary training and time to learn the tech stack. When digital products are both useful and reliable, they are more likely to deliver meaningful, enjoyable employee experiences.

If your tech stack is difficult to navigate and relies on outdated legacy technology, employees get frustrated. This leads to lower levels of satisfaction, which can negatively impact how people view their employer.

Do your internal applications crash often? How long does it take employee applications to load? Can they quickly attend to the needs of customers?

When organizations are proactive about removing employee roadblocks, addressing internal technical problems, and delivering standout user experiences for internal tools, they attract better talent. This helps them to maximize employee satisfaction, performance, and productivity.

By delivering a standout employee experience, you’re not just showing employees new and exciting ways to get involved in their own professional development. You’re also helping them find satisfaction and purpose in their work.

So how can brands deliver standout experiences for their employees?

Companies have realized they need to optimize the customer experience to drive revenue.

The next step is learning how to optimize the employee experience by listening to their employees, as well as quantifying the employee journey. This requires leveraging first-party data from both customers and employers, so that digital leaders can better understand what components of the customer and employee journey are driving value.

Connecting data from the employee experience to business impact gives digital teams across the organization one source of truth. It enables teams to overcome data silos and find effective ways to communicate at the digital distance.

How Quantum Metric helps improve the digital employee experience.

With Quantum Metric, digital teams have access to tools like session replay and anomaly detection. By equipping employees with the right tools, you can help product and technical teams discover intent and friction on your most critical internal employee applications.

This way, organizations can understand whether employees are frustrated by technical issues, UX/design problems, API failures, rage clicks, app crashes, and other challenges that also impact customers.

Interested in learning more about how to build standout digital employee experiences? Join our discussion about CX and EX at our virtual conference Quantum LEAP on Feb 8-9, 2022.