EXPERT SPEAK
HOW THE CHANNEL CAN HELP
DELIVER THE TRUE DIGITAL
EMPLOYEE EXPERIENCE
The need for companies to put their people first has never been greater. The
‘experience’ organisations can now offer their employees – in terms of giving
them access to the right digital technologies, applications, culture and support
– can now directly impact business growth and attracting and retaining
talent. Andy Philp, EMEA Solutions Marketing, VMware, tells us more.
M
ajor research, recently conducted
with 3,600 employees, HR and
IT decision makers in EMEA,
revealed that more than double the
number of employees in high or hyper
growth companies have the freedom to
work from personal devices, compared to
underperforming companies, and that two
thirds of all employees state the flexibility
of digital tools for work influences their
decision to accept a position at a company or
even apply for a job.
So why aren’t all businesses doing this?
And what is the opportunity for the channel?
As ever, it’s often easier to say
than do. Creating an optimum digital
employee experience means overcoming
operational, cultural and technology
challenges. Specifically, it means bridging
significantly siloed thinking between HR
and IT teams, which is compromising the
ability of organisations to deliver the digital
experience their employees are demanding.
52
Here’s where partners play a vital role as
trusted advisors – they’re invested enough
to know the nuances of the business, yet
objective enough to drive coordination
between different departments within
companies. The opportunity for businesses
operating in the channel is to challenge
their customers to think differently, to help
bridge the gaps within organisations to
ensure the business performance case for
taking a digital-first approach to employees
is well understood. So, what steps can they
take to do this?
Communicate to collaborate
I’ve sat in workshops with Heads of IT and
HR where it’s clear these teams rarely share
conversations concerning areas of overlap.
This is a widespread phenomenon – 84%
of employees in EMEA are calling for HR
and IT to work better together, while just
18% think HR and IT collaborate all of the
time. The result is a lack of coordination
and unclear accountability – that’s between
lines of business but also for employees. In
fact, half (49%) of employees don’t actually
know whether they should approach HR
or IT about the digital experience they are
having at work.
With such internal confusion, partners
have a strong opportunity to drive joined-
up communications and connect these
departmental silos, to help unshackle IT from
being just the tech and distance HR from
being seen as just the procedural elements
of talent management. By doing so, they can
help clarify roles, responsibilities and routes
to internal teams better working together.
Taking a joined-up approach to this, where
IT, HR, the business and employees all have a
voice and a role, is essential.
Always think user first, not
device first
Too often, we think of mobility and digitally
empowered employees as classic office