• New podcast reveals how functions can team to remove friction from the workplace, improve the employee experience and transform business results
Citrix Systems, Inc. It’s been said that happy employees equal happy customers. Unfortunately, employees today have never been more frustrated or disengaged. Why? There’s too much friction in the workplace that prevents them from getting things done. It’s a problem plaguing companies around the world. But it’s one that experts say together, IT and HR can fix. According to a new podcast published on the Briefings Direct Network, in joining forces, the functions can cut the noise and distractions that have employees down and create a superior work experience that boosts satisfaction, productivity, and overall business results.
“How businesses perform has always depended on how well their employees perform. Yet never before has the relationship between how well employees work and the digital technology that they use been so complex. And it’s taking a toll on productivity and results,” said Dana Gardner, host of “IT and HR: a Not so Odd Couple,” a newly released podcast on the Briefings Direct Network. “To improve things, business leaders must enhance and optimize the employee experience so that they in turn can optimize the customer experience and – by extension – better support the success of the overall business.”
Art Mazor, Principal and Global Human Resources Transformation Practice Leader at Deloitte Consulting LLP, who joined Gardner on the podcast, agreed. “Customers have a very high bar with which they measure their experience with an organization. And if the employee or workforce experience is not up to par, the customers feel it. As a result, leaders recognize that they have to get this right and get their workers in a place where they feel they can be highly productive and in the service of customer outcomes.”
New Allies
And both HR and IT see this as their responsibility. According to The Experience of Work: The Role of Technology in Productivity and Engagement, a survey conducted by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) with sponsorship from Citrix, 74 percent of IT executives and 75 percent of HR executives say they feel personally responsible for improving the employee experience.
“The days when competitive salaries, benefits and career development initiatives were enough to find and keep talent are over. What employees today want in addition to all of this is a simple way to do their jobs,” said Tim Minahan, EVP of Strategy and Chief Marketing Officer of Citrix.
And this is where IT comes in.
“In teaming with HR to drive the convergence of physical workspaces that are conducive to both collaboration and mindful work and digital ones that provide simplified access to the information and tools that employees need to complete tasks with minimal complexity and disruption, IT can help take things to the next level and create an environment that removes frustration, engages employees and inspires them to do great work,” Minahan added.
Transformative Results
And in the process, Mazor noted, they can drive real improvements in overall business results.
“There has been a longstanding sense on the part of leaders that there must be a link between a positive employee experience and customer satisfaction. And now, there is true evidence that demonstrates the linkage,” he said. “We noticed a very important finding in this regard in the Deloitte Global Human Capital Trends Report 2019, which found that purpose-focused companies outperformed their S&P 500 peers by a factor of eight. How do you get to purpose for people working in an organization? It’s about creating that strong experience.”
As for the connection between employee experience and larger business performance? A recent MIT study showed companies with strong employee experiences have twice the innovation, double the satisfaction of customers, and 25 percent greater profitability.
Changing the Game
The key to enabling all of this? In Minahan’s view, “It all comes down to people-centric computing, in which you put the person at the center, make it easy for them to interact with the technology and information they need to do their jobs and remove some of the noise from their day so they can do the meaningful work they want and are actually paid to do.”
And the key to doing this, Minahan added, lies in technology such as intelligent digital workspaces through which companies can give employees simple, unified access to the applications they prefer to use anywhere, anytime, from any device. “Real business value comes from using technology to empower people – to give them flexibility and choice rather than bogging them down,” he said.
