Ivanti research uncovers employees' work frustrations

Ivanti has published the results of its State of the Digital Employee Experience (DEX) study. Ivanti worked with global digital transformation experts and surveyed 10,000 office workers, IT professionals, and the C-Suite to evaluate the level of prioritization and adoption of DEX in organizations and how it shapes the daily working experiences for employees. The report revealed that 49% of employees are frustrated by the tech and tools their organization provides and 64% believe that the way they interact with technology directly impacts morale.

In fact:

26% of employees are considering quitting their jobs because they lack suitable tech,

42% have spent their own money on better tech to work more productively,

and 65% believe they would be more productive if they had better technology at their disposal.

Conflicting views remain between C-Suite, IT, and employees when it comes to the future of work and technology's role in enabling the culture of hybrid work. Just 13% of knowledge workers prefer to work exclusively from the office, yet 56% of CXOs still feel that employees need to be in the office to be productive, although 74% of the C-Suite report they are more productive since the start of the pandemic – showing a disconnect between what they have experienced and what they believe employees need to do to be productive.

Globally the C-Suite's number one priority was employee productivity, with workplace culture and employee satisfaction falling further down the list. Furthermore, 62% of the C-Suite concedes that leadership prioritizes profitability over employee experience. As employee experience continues to fall to the bottom of the C-Suite agenda, IT will continue to deprioritize it on theirs, with only 21% of IT leaders considering the end user experience to be the main priority when selecting new tools.

"Ensuring positive employee digital experiences is the new cornerstone of modern business IT management," noted Steve Brasen, Research Director with Enterprise Management Associates. "The improvement of workforce productivity helps attract and retain essential talent, accelerates business agility and competitiveness, reduces operational costs, and drives organizational success and profitability. Understanding DEX requirements is the key to adapting related technologies and practices that will support each organization's unique environment."

Innovation is undeniably the driving force behind the rise of hybrid work, but the unfortunate truth is that many organizations still experience major challenges in its adoption. The top challenges reported by office workers include too many emails or chat messages (28%), a lack of connection to coworkers (27%), and software not working properly (23%). But despite these challenges and executive skepticism, all groups reported being more productive in the era of hybrid work, highlighting the fact that it is not so much the place of work that impacts productivity, but the experience that people have when interacting with technology.

“The Everywhere Workplace has forever changed employee expectations when it comes to where they work, how they work, and what device they work on,” said Jeff Abbott, Ivanti CEO. “How employees interact with technology and their satisfaction with that experience directly relates to the success and value they deliver to the organization. The Digital Employee Experience should be a board level priority, and IT teams are poised to be strategic leaders in their organization to make it happen.”

The growing variety of devices and networks that hybrid workers use has greatly expanded the inventory of assets that IT teams need to manage, but 32% of IT professionals still use spreadsheets to track these assets and only 47% agree completely that their organizations have full visibility into every device that attempts to access their network. One of the biggest challenges facing IT leaders today is the need to enable a seamless end user experience while maintaining robust security. The challenge becomes more complex when there is pressure from the top to bypass security measures, with 49% of C-level executives reporting they have requested to bypass one or more security measures in the last year.

“Maintaining a secure environment and focusing on the digital employee experience are two inseparable elements of any digital transformation,” said Abbott. “In the war for talent a key differentiator for organizations is providing an exceptional and secure digital experience. We believe that organizations not prioritizing how their employees experience technology is a contributing factor for the Great Resignation.”

With the availability of innovative new technologies that both enable and support hybrid workforces, IT now has the opportunity to make a positive impact on broader organizational strategy. By taking ownership of the digital employee experience and working closely with the C-suite to accomplish common goals, IT can drive better business outcomes – from employee productivity to workforce retention. After all, the Everywhere Workplace is undeniably the future of work, and digital experience is its number-one enabler.