Digitalization: The Key To Employee Satisfaction, Engagement and Retention
It may seem obvious to many HR executives, but while it is commonly accepted that going digital is necessary to reach younger generations of consumers, many organizations forget the same factor applies to keep their younger workers satisfied as well.
Just as a company integrates a digital lens into its customer interaction, HR leaders must do the same when creating the employee experience.In today’s digital era, employee satisfaction and motivation are especially driven by a company’s digital approach – as is customer satisfaction – and it’s up to HR to create an environment that supports and ensures positive employee engagement. As such, businesses across every industry are beginning to prioritize the digitalization of their HR operations and capabilities as related to their overall digital transformation.
The need for digital
Consider Randstad’s 2018 report, Workplace 2025: The Post-Digital Frontier, which documented that job fulfilment is significantly influenced by the digital tools that employers offer their staff. Crucially, Randstad found that although technology is commonly accepted as a key motivator for staff, only 42% of companies acknowledge the benefits of digital and mobile tools.
Embracing the digital workplace is no longer a luxury. Rather, it’s a necessity not only to keep staff happy, but also to attract top young talent. In fact, it should be seen as the natural evolution of the workplace. While making the shift (which covers all the technologies and many of the systems and processes used by employees in most offices) may seem like a major leap to many executives, it can be far more natural than some would anticipate.
Traditional strategies and approaches used to achieve satisfaction in the workplace, such as Maslow’s long-standing Hierarchy of Needs, don’t necessarily have to be tossed out. Instead, they must be reshaped to incorporate digitalization in order to upgrade the employee experience.
New HR technologies – from the bigger HR and core business applications to e-mail, enterprise social media, intuitive intranets and portals, and instant messaging – permit employees to engage how, when and where they want, ultimately enhancing their experience and keeping them happy.
For instance, according to Deloitte, by employing dynamic online social networks that enable knowledge-sharing across teams, enterprises can be 7% more productive, while those that use such social media tools internally generally see a 20% increase in employee satisfaction.
Meanwhile, developments in HR tech, such as robotic press automation, can cover the entire employee life cycle – from recruitment and onboarding to when they leave the company.
It may sound counter-intuitive, but by embracing digitalization – especially in HR – companies can improve the human connection within the organization by creating a healthier office culture and building stronger staff engagement and loyalty. Just ask your employees: MIT Sloan Management Review reports that 80% workers across every demographic prefer to work for digital leaders.
Digitalization for engagement and retention
With today’s digital age comes a much faster-paced business environment. This is true not only within organizations themselves, but in the larger business context as well: More than half of corporations in the Fortune 500 have been acquired, terminated or made bankrupt by digital disruption.
Unsurprisingly, given the daunting and growing impact of digitalization, keeping employees motivated is a key aspect of success for businesses.
It should be noted that for the majority of employees – as well as for executives and managers – a “digitally mature” workplace is comprised of more than the tools and technologies made available.
According to an annual global joint survey of the C-suite from MIT and Deloitte, a key element for an employer prepared to leverage digital trends is to offer resources and opportunities for staff to develop digital expertise and skills. The report found that workers at companies that fail to offer these opportunities were five times more likely to leave within a year.
Indeed, as the digital revolution impacts every aspect of the way we work, HR leaders must ensure they are prepared to be the driving force behind this transition. They must be proactive in reshaping their organization’s HR strategy – especially by taking every advantage of new technologies – in order to bring the HR operating model into the digital future.
