Employee engagement can make or break a business, but the latest generations in the workforce are notoriously discerning in terms of how they work. How can you get the best results out of your staff and start seeing a positive effect on your customer experience too? For a start, don’t underestimate the importance of having the right tools for the job.
The saying goes that “a happy worker is a productive worker”. And that’s still true. A recent Forrester report (Forrester 2019 paper SMBs: Your Tech Choices Impact the Employee Experience) into workplace transformation confirms it. They conducted an online survey of employees and tech buyers from across the globe and found that about 80% of productive employees are satisfied in their work, compared to 23% of unproductive workers.
The report shed light on other aspects too. For example, enhancing employee experience has an effect on the amount of discretionary effort people put into their work, it reduces employee turnover and – importantly – it can change how customers interact with your business. They found that the Net Promoter Score, which is a preferred measure of customer experience, was twice as high when customers interacted with a highly engaged worker rather than their less engaged counterparts.
Clearly, it’s an important thing to get right.
But while it’s common to think of employee engagement as being an issue for the HR department, in an age where so much of our interaction is mediated by technology – really it’s an issue for your IT department as well.
Getting the right technology in place enables your staff to get their work done quickly and efficiently, and transforms your business for the better.
So far, so good. Most people who are in the position to make these decisions are already convinced of that fact.
But here’s the kicker: although 79% of decision makers in businesses across the world believe they’re offering a good employee experience, only 60% of employees are actually satisfied. And in fact, that disparity is even more pronounced in East Asian businesses, where the difference can stretch to 31%. That means there’s a significant blindspot, which contains massive potential value.
If you can find a way to reduce that gap, you could improve employee retention, recruitment, overall productivity and business growth. That’s where the IT department comes into it: improving employee experience by providing the right technology.
It’s becoming more common for the new workforce, comprised of millennials and Gen Z, to want more flexibility in their work. They want to be able to work from wherever they need, with versatile devices, and they need to collaborate with others who are working in the same way. They may not know the specific technology they’re asking for, but if you can figure out what your employees really need to do their jobs better, you can fix their current problems while also heading off problems that may develop in the future.
And, of course, your business is not operating in a vacuum. It’s not just internal factors that influence your decision. As technology continues to advance, it’s providing a competitive advantage to whichever businesses are using it. The competition just keeps getting tougher.
According to the Manpower Group, companies that invest in employee experience are four times more profitable than those that don’t . So if you’re ready to transform your workplace and enable your employees with smarter technology, Lenovo’s ThinkBook is a good place to start.
These smart laptops are built for business and powerful enough to accommodate the demands of next generation technologies. Lenovo ThinkShield security solutions are included to bring even more safety to sensitive business data, and you can access specialist support throughout the device lifecycle to make sure nothing interferes with your productivity.
The new workforce doesn’t want to learn how to use specific technologies – they just want technology that works for them. If you want to start transforming your workplace and improving your employee experience, visit our new ThinkBook landing page < https://www.lenovo.com/gb/en/solutions/smb/thinkbook > for more information.
