Workers want their work experiences to take a page from the consumer world with rich features and functionality that are personalized and super easy to use. The line is blurring between which tools are used at work and at home. It’s no longer of a matter of “good enough..
Enrich Worker Experiences or Risk Losing Talent
A new generation of digital natives is poised to step into the workplace, Gen Z – born in the mid-1990s and beyond. According to the study Gen Z: The Future Has Arrived, 91% of Gen Zers, say the technology offered by an employer would be a factor in choosing among similar job offers. The trend is clear – delivering a unique and productive worker experience is becoming essential. To attract and retain talent, organizations must create a better work experience.
Machine learning, bots, interactive voice and virtual personal assistants, augmented reality and virtual reality are key technologies being leveraged in the consumer world to enrich experiences and adapt content based on preferences and behaviors. These same consumer trends are now emerging in the digital workplace as well as new ways to make workers productive. The objective – make it easier for workers to do their jobs with the list amount of friction. Learn more about our perspective, download the eBook ‘Empower the workforce with consumer-grade, personalized experiences‘.
Tools and Techniques to Create Change
Personas are the foundation of workforce transformation – Understanding the workforce is the first step to deciding how to deliver truly impactful worker experiences. Start by segmenting workers into clearly defined groups. Determine the exact experiences, services and support each group requires, to deliver the right solutions and options. Define these groups by using a combination of robust data collection, desk-side observation, focus groups, interviews and analysis.
Leverage robust worker profile data to create personalized experiences – Too often organizations use a one size fits all, “take it or leave it” approach; which to their detriment impacts worker productivity and innovation. What’s missing is a focus on personalization. The workers’ profile is the basis for providing a personalized experience. Apps workers use should understand who they are (key attributes), what they care about (role) and their organization.
Enterprise user experience applies consumer techniques to enterprise applications – Organizations have done a lot to consolidate and standardize platforms and applications in the workplace, however they remain largely inflexible and often don’t deliver the experience or value workers require. While features are important, the experience is equally as important and often an after-thought or not considered at all. Given enterprise applications are accessed by a variety of personas, the ideal scenario is to minimize the applications’ complexity with a well thought out experience.
Focus on adoption and change management for long term rewards – Moving to a new way of doing business is a cultural change for the organization. A comprehensive, persona-driven approach to driving change and adoption allows targeted and tailored awareness, communications, education, governance and help assets to be more effective. A persona-driven model will better position organizations to reap the rewards and benefits of a more productive, happier workforce.
Examples of what good looks like in real-world solutions – Transforming the worker experience starts with having the vision to see beyond what’s always been done. The examples below illustrate the art of the possible, when old ways of thinking are abandoned.
- A Productive Intranet – Empower the workforce by aggregating and connecting content, notifications and data from different tools and platforms into one cohesive experience. Move away from one-way communications to personalized interactions for finding information quickly.
- Dynamic Team Collaboration – Evolve from document-centric sharing repositories and email-based communications to persistent chat-centric team workspaces. Workers want tools and digital workspaces that allow them to collaborate with colleagues from anywhere, at any time.
- A Self-Service IT Experience – Break down the barriers between the workforce and IT with a robust marketplace and ecosystem of self-service designed to change the focus from opening tickets with IT, to delivering the outcomes workers want. Designed from the workers point of view, it delivers an intuitive experience and elevates IT sentiment – all while IT maintains control behind the scenes.
- Empower Development Teams – Enterprise developers are often the backbone of digital business. These unique personas require a specialized, developer-obsessed section of the IT portal that focuses on delivering what they need – primarily because they prefer APIs and pipelines to get what they need. Deliver project-ready compute resources and DevOps tool chain integrations on-demand along with persona-based dashboards to maximize team productivity.
- Enable Smarter Selling – Arm sales teams with intelligently tailored CRM tools and connected collaboration experiences to help them sell more effectively. When done right, this frees them to better engage customers, foster relationships through authentic, personal engagements, build trust and grow revenue. A personalized CRM solution can make the difference between a sales process the field struggles with or one that helps them achieve new heights of productivity.
Helping organizations transform to create lasting change – If you’d like to understand our perspective in more detail download our eBook ‘Empower the workforce with consumer-grade, personalized experiences‘.
Summary
At Dell, we believe every organization needs to adapt to the changing expectations of the workforce to compete in the modern economy. Dell Consulting Services can help. Our workforce transformation consulting practice has deep industry expertise designing and delivering modern, consumer-grade experiences. We have a diverse team with a mix of specialized skills to help organizations with services such as personas and enterprise UX, end-user computing, team collaboration, enterprise business apps and custom digital hubs and portals.
Contact your Dell Sales Representative to learn how we can help you empower your workforce with consumer-grade personalized experiences to unlock creativity and collaborate in new, innovative ways.
