As if the Great Resignation hasn’t proven problematic enough, employers must now also deal with a newer workplace phenomenon. Quiet quitting, where employees do the bare minimum as a form of protest due to feeling undervalued or disengaged, has emerged as a significant concern.

Both phenomena are usually associated with pay, company benefits, and other aspects of experience. However, our research suggests that a poor digital employee experience can also be a major source of frustration, resulting in a loss of engagement and productivity.

Tech researcher, Gartner, describes digital employee experience as “a strategy that focuses on the technology experience that companies offer to employees and a critical contributor to overall employee experience.” It predicts that by 2025, over 50% of organisations will evaluate the digital employee experience as a way of measuring the success of digital initiatives, marking a significant jump from less than 5% in 2021.

Delivering an exceptional digital employee experiences can result in several positive outcomes, such as increased employee engagement, talent retention, and organic adoption of digital workplace applications. Effective software adoption is not only crucial from a talent perspective, but also financially and operationally – higher engagement with workplace tech boosts productivity and reduces the risk of underutilised software licenses, saving costs.

Software challenges in the workplace
Over the last decade or so, there has been a massive surge in the SaaS applications used by businesses, ranging from everyday communication and collaboration tools to highly complex, process-intensive systems. However, only relatively recently have we considered how the need to quickly and successfully adopt this software impacts the employee experience.

A recent survey* showed that app overload could be a risk if digital adoption barriers aren’t removed.  The survey revealed that, on average, UK employees lose 2.33 hours per week due to software-related challenges, with 53% losing over an hour per week. A quarter admitted that it left them feeling stressed and overwhelmed.

These numbers are concerning, not least because 68% of employees link stress-free software usage to their overall workplace satisfaction, and 90% associate it with productivity. Quite simply, using software is not always as simple as we might expect. In fact, most employees report difficulties using software at work.

There could be a number of reasons for this. For one thing, employees commonly experience knowledge retention issues, especially if they only use certain software sporadically. Additionally, only around two-thirds believe their company provides sufficient software training and IT support, which is especially important for more complex tools.

Communication is also an issue – just 62% feel their companies explain plans for digital transformation clearly enough – and this often results in a lack of employee engagement from the outset.  Finally, the move to remote working has increased the need for employees to solve software-related issues on their own.

These perceived shortcomings contribute to a poor digital employee experience, which should be a significant worry for companies aiming to attract and retain top talent. They also lead to additional business challenges such as overstretched IT support desks, higher training costs, and poor return on investment from technology purchases.

Boosting digital adoption
To help remove these digital adoption obstacles, organisations should consider applying these five best practices:

1. Communicate clearly. To secure stronger support from the start, have transparent conversations with employees about their digital requirements, then select suitable products and provide the right support.
2. Establish digital adoption as a company-wide strategy. Involve all department, not just IT. Considering the impact on digital employee experience, HR and L&D leaders should be closely involved in the process of simplifying software adoption.
3. Offer a combination of training methods. Since people have different learning styles, adopt a blended approach incorporating traditional and innovative techniques such as simulations and gamification.
4. Consider introducing of a digital adoption platform (DAP). DAPs are purpose-built to simplify employees’ software experiences by providing real-time assistance within any application. Imagine a DAP as a digital GPS, navigating employees through their digital tasks with context-specific information. They reduce the cost and resources needed for conventional training, decrease dependence on IT support, and enhance scalability by promoting self-directed, continuous learning across hundreds of different applications.
5. Measure digital adoption continuously. Use a dedicated reporting system to measure employees’ digital adoption rate across enterprise software applications. At Userlane, we believe that the best analytics framework for measuring digital adoption is one based on five key data points contained in our HEART model:

• Happiness: Evaluate employee sentiment across applications, identifying and addressing areas of frustration.

• Engagement: Analyse real-time usage data to unlock the full potential of your applications.

• Adoption: Establish and track adoption targets to optimise the effectiveness of your software investment.

• Retention: Boost productivity and help your people develop meaningful habits.

• Task success: Monitor task completion to identify and reduce critical process risks.

When it comes to providing a great digital employee experience, simplicity is key. By making it as easy as possible to adopt and maximise software, you will ensure employee and business leaders alike can fully reap the benefits of your investments in digital transformation.

*Research from Userlane

State of Digital Adoption Report