PULSE SURVEY
Harvard Business | Salesforce
SPONSOR PERSPECTIVE

When employees can work from anywhere, the tools and technologies they need to do their work suddenly matter more than ever. Whether physically in a workplace or working remotely, employees expect to have the tools they need to be productive and work efficiently—their success, and the success of your business, is determined by having the right technology.

As a result, when it comes to employee productivity and efficiency, HR is no longer the only stakeholder responsible for employee experience (EX). IT plays a critical role in building an EX strategy to ensure that employees are equipped with the right technology to get their jobs done. IT needs to be able to innovate fast to meet the ever-changing needs of the business and do so securely and at scale, while still maintaining the cost to serve and increase employee productivity.

Employee productivity not only impacts the bottom line, it also impacts overall employee satisfaction and engagement. Regardless of company size or industry, engaged employees create better customer experiences, which can further the growth of the business

Harvard Business Review Analytic Services has done a deep dive into how companies prioritize EX, how EX has been impacted by Covid-19, and how technology is a key catalyst that shapes employee impact. The findings reveal that companies that prioritize EX technology were better prepared to work remotely during Covid-19 and have an ongoing competitive advantage.

Key Takeaways

About This Report

Today's employees are consumers of the workplace. They expect a personalized digital experience and the ability to connect with information through consumerlike technology platforms that are as convenient as the ones they use outside work. The organizations that treat their employees like premium customers, from the recruiting process through the alumni experience, are best positioned to retain talent and see the highest performance in return.

While employee experience (EX) is entwined with an organization's culture, the right tools and technology to digitize work and provide new ways to collaborate are the key enablers of how workers view their experience. This dependency is made starkly apparent as businesses around the world reconfigure their ways of working in response to the Covid-19 crisis.

More than 90% of executives in a recent Harvard Business Review Analytic Services survey who say their organizations make EX a high priority report that their teams have the tools and technology to do their work efficiently, compared with 76% of all the other respondents. Communications tools (74%), remote work tools (73%), and collaboration tools (67%) were the top-cited technologies seen as "very important" for getting work done efficiently.

The survey comes as business executives are planning for recovery from the global pandemic during a recession, an exercise that is putting a premium on employee welfare and highlighting the connection between EX, technology, and organizational resilience and agility. In the face of this unprecedented workplace disruption, the benefits of focusing on EX and the technology that enables it are clear: increases in productivity, employee engagement and retention, and resilience despite external disruption.

About the Publisher

Harvard Business Review Analytic Services is an independent commercial research unit within Harvard Business Review Group, conducting research and comparative analysis on important management challenges and emerging business opportunities. Seeking to provide business intelligence and peer-group insight, each report is published based on the findings of original quantitative and/or qualitative research and analysis. Quantitative surveys are conducted with the HBR Advisory Council, HBR's global research panel, and qualitative research is conducted with senior business executives and subject matter experts from within and beyond the Harvard Business Review author community. Email us at hbranalyticservices@hbr.org.

Publish Date

September 2021