Leveraging digital transformation to improve employee experience

Organizations must prioritize the employee experience during digital transformation to boost engagement and create a more empowered workforce.

The employee experience is the journey an employee takes with a company from onboarding to exit, and it relates to how connected employees feel to their company’s goals and values.

Every interaction, big or small, goes into the employee experience and influences how a company is perceived, so it is vital to focus on giving workers a modern, streamlined interaction at every step in their journey. With the shifting values of millennials and young professionals, employees in the current digital environment want a pleasant, consumer-like experience, and they desire the flexibility that modern technology offers. Additionally, more than ever before, employees need to feel aligned with company goals and values.

Digital transformation plays an important role in improving the employee experience, and organizations that focus on digital employee experience management see improvements in satisfaction, engagement and business performance. Digitization gives workers the right tools to accomplish their jobs, flexibility in their work, and opportunities for training and development.

How digital transformation improves the employee experience

Digital transformation enhances the employee experience because it simplifies many day-to-day activities as well empowers the employee. Employees are more engaged when the technology they use is responsive, modern and centralized. Below are some of the ways that digitization improves the employee experience.

• Onboarding - The initial period of employment is a relatively fragile time in an organization’s relationship with new hires, and a positive onboarding experience is critical to defining the relationship. Digital transformation has made the orientation and onboarding process more convenient, moving away from paper hiring forms and centralizing previously disorganized training materials across different departments. An efficient HR onboarding process sets employee expectations of how they will be treated moving forward and gets companies started on the right foot.
  
  
• Training and development - Employees value having clear development opportunities, and a major part of the employee experience within a company is the chance for them to grow in their knowledge and skills set. With the digitization of training and development, employees can improve their knowledge and skills without disrupting business or decreasing productivity. Additionally, the digital transformation of T&D meets modern demands from employees for flexibility, allowing them to work on training opportunities from anywhere at any time.
  
  
• Flexibility/agility - Millennials and young professionals increasingly prioritize and demand from their employer a good work-life balance as compared to previous generations, and digital transformation plays an integral role in supporting those values. Digitization gives employees the ability to do their job with efficiency and ease, no matter their location. Offering flexibility through digital transformation changes the way companies can utilize remote work, increasing productivity and employee satisfaction.
  
  
• Autonomy - HR can leverage digital transformation to make the employee experience similar to the customer experience. Through digitization, questions can be asked and answered in a timely manner, making employees feel heard and valued. Additionally, employee self-service technology helps workers feel more connected to their organization by giving them direct control over their information. Employees feel independence in freely accessing information that is important to them, such as time-off requests, benefits or training resources. In the case of the complex and evolving employee benefits landscape, it is helpful to digitize this information, providing it in a clean, streamlined interface that is easy for employees to navigate and understand.
  
  
• Productivity - Streamlining processes speeds up the flow of information across a company, enabling employees to work more efficiently. Employees don’t want to waste time battling outdated legacy systems, and that is often a factor in creating a negative employee experience. Dismantling data silos and removing tedious manual processes allow employees to focus on the work that matters, making them not only more productive but also happier.
  
  
• Collaboration - Cloud collaboration platforms modernize the way employees share information and communicate, and during the height of the pandemic, these platforms were critical in successfully transitioning to remote work. Through digital transformation, employees can collaborate effectively and efficiently; without the need to travel for meetings, they save money and time for use on more important tasks. In this way, digital transformation offers opportunities for collaboration and communication that employees need to be productive and satisfied.

Employee-first culture

Although the result of digital transformation will benefit the employee experience in many ways, employees are often apprehensive of the idea at first. Understanding employee needs and expectations as well as overcoming resistance with change management programs will benefit the company as the digital transformation process progresses. Educating your employees on all the potential benefits of digitization and offering open lines of communication are great places to start.

Overall, employee experience in the digital workplace is integral to company success, and digital transformation serves as a great tool in enhancing satisfaction and engagement. Although getting employees on board and excited for the transformation process can be tricky, maintaining an employee-first mindset throughout the entire process will support a positive company culture and ensure adoption of the new system.