Companies today have more ways of getting the job done than ever before. For instance, people have increasing options for optimizing the work experience to communicate, design, research, sell, manufacture, and inform. But all these possibilities do not always lead to more productivity, much less a better employee experience.
Digital innovation has led far too many employees to the unintended consequence of digital burnout.
With earnest intentions, companies offer employees applications that are supposed to improve productivity and communication, especially in light of a large remote workforce. Instead, these applications can slow down employees as they hunt for information and face unnecessary processes.
Most workers log into 10 or more applications at the workplace, according to one report* sponsored by IDC research and SAP. And employees are even more reliant on digital work tools when working from home. On top of home responsibilities and the isolation many remote workers feel, 69% of employees are now experiencing burnout symptoms while working from home, according to Monster.com.
At the same time, people want the freedom to choose the applications that they prefer. Each employee has their own view on how they can be their best on the job.
Whether people feel overwhelmed or overworked, the workforce needs an unparalleled employee experience. To help, what can human resources (HR) leaders do to improve and simplify their digital workplace experience?
One materials science company shared that its HR employees could easily build their benefits enrollment page for each geographic region, eliminating the need for a third party and saving hundreds of thousands of dollars. This also enabled greater communication and engagement with the entire workforce, including those who might only have access to a phone and also do not have an email address.
To simplify the employee digital workplace experience, HR leaders should assess how employees are getting their work done and how it is affecting their employee experience.
Expect and Demand a Consumer-Grade Experience
In their free time, employees can share photos and communicate with their loved ones quickly and easily. They should have that same kind of ease of use when it comes to collaborating with colleagues, viewing a pay stub, or booking a training course.
HR leaders should invest in tools that allow employees to hyper-personalize their digital workplaces in meaningful ways. That means enhancing their personal productivity with comprehensive, personalized access to everything they need to do their job.
Capabilities on Any Device
Employees should be able to manage HR-related tasks and specific work applications from any device so they can work productively from anywhere. The recently launched SAP Work Zone for HR is one tool that helps them do just this.
On one company’s shop floor, for example, line workers who only had access to mobile devices were previously limited in collaborating with other employees and their managers. With SAP Work Zone for HR, employees have access to the information they need to perform their jobs. For example, in addition to the private recipes needed to manufacture their products, they can also access certification training and new skills needed to perform their job.
HR has the ability to promote various programs and company information to further engage employees and align everyone to the organization’s brand and strategy.
Easy Access to Relevant Apps and Information
HR leaders should look for simple access to relevant business apps and more in a unified entry point for work, with the employee experience as the top concern. Employees need an intelligent workplace that streamlines work to create a unified experience across software landscapes and third-party apps.
For business continuity and emergency preparedness situations, organizations should be able to rely on a single platform as a unifier of information. This should be true for multiple applications, collaboration, and updating policies. With a single source of truth, companies can move faster during an emergency.
The materials science company mentioned earlier is relying on SAP Work Zone for HR for communication regarding changing COVID-19 information. The company can use it for additional capabilities to execute its employee programs in a simplified digital workplace experience.
In addition to the applications available within, SAP Work Zone for HR supports continuous learning, employee onboarding, cross-boarding, and off-boarding with the same simplified interface it uses elsewhere. It can provide access to community and affinity groups that provide a safe place for employees to ask questions and pursue interests – from building community to volunteering.
The ultimate benefit of all this is a better employee experience and, with it, a better customer experience and company performance. By improving the digital workplace experience, HR leaders can:
- Enable people to work smarter and faster from anywhere
- Engage employees with top-down and two-way communications
- Foster a culture of continuous learning
- Optimize employee onboarding, cross-boarding, and off-boarding
- Support remote workforces flexibly and securely
- Proactively monitor and improve the employee experience
HR leaders have multiple tools at their disposal to understand and foster the employee experience. While SAP Work Zone for HR creates the digital workplace experience to improve productivity, software from SAP and Qualtrics measures the employee experience. HR leaders can gain insights and measure employee engagement across the entire HR life cycle.
They now have the opportunity to provide a simplified digital workplace experience when their people need it the most.
Learn more about SAP Work Zone for HR.
*IDC document #US46188420BROI, IDC Research sponsored by SAP, “The intelligent digital workplace, leading the way to the future of work, April 2020”