Enterprise work environments have changed beyond recognition. Hybrid work, remote teams, cloud applications, collaborative suites, digital workplace services, and AI workplace assistants have revolutionized how we work.
With growing investments in digital workplace technology comes one question: how can businesses know that digital tools and services are improving employee experience?
Enter Digital Workplace Analytics.
Enterprise digital workplace analytics allows businesses to collect data from devices, applications, collaboration tools, service desks, and everything employees use to derive insights into how to improve employee experience.
Below, we’ll cover:
- What are digital workplace analytics?
- How workplace analytics improves employee experience
- Key digital workplace analytics metrics to track
- How to implement digital workplace analytics in the enterprise
What Are Digital Workplace Analytics?
Workplace analytics is simply the data generated by digital tools and devices that employees use every day. It can include any information about how employees use technology to complete work tasks. With digital workplace analytics, IT leaders have visibility into what’s happening in the workplace, enabling them to derive insights that drive action.
Traditional IT service management reporting provides only a partial view, focused on technology health. Workplace analytics includes technology performance plus how people are experiencing work.
Key sources of digital workplace data include:
- Endpoints
- Applications
- Collaboration tools
- IT service desks
- Digital workflows
- IT infrastructure
- Employee feedback
These tools define how work happens. Understanding how employees interact with these tools can highlight friction points that impact productivity.
Traditional IT Monitoring Vs. Employee Experience Analytics
Traditionally, IT performance was measured by availability and uptime. Analytics focuses on everything that impacts employees’ ability to do their jobs.
Key examples include:
- How long does it take to complete tasks
- Application performance from the user’s perspective
- Confusing workflows
- Collaboration gaps
- Poorly handled service desk tickets
At Hexaware, we take a modern approach to digital workplaces. Our digital workplace strategy includes continuous experience monitoring and predictive analytics to enable enterprises to achieve intelligent automation and proactive IT support through AI-enabled workplace platforms.
Why Does Employee Experience Matter?
Today, employee experience is directly linked to business outcomes. All interactions employees have with technology can make or break their day. There are several reasons why digital employee experience is critical.
For starters, how employees use digital tools defines how work gets done. If employees experience tech headaches, productivity drops. With hybrid work-from-home environments becoming more common, seamless digital experiences are more important than ever.
Additionally, we expect digital tools to work seamlessly. Today’s workforce expects technology that works like consumer software and devices. Finally, as more organizations shift to a data-driven approach, employees need tools that allow them to do their jobs without interruption.
It’s critical to design digital workplace strategies that integrate productivity apps and collaboration tools into seamless workflows to improve employee engagement and productivity.
Components of Workplace Analytics
There are four main components of workplace analytics that leaders should understand.
IT Experience Monitoring
IT experience monitoring is the practice of monitoring endpoints, applications, networks, and infrastructure from the end user’s perspective.
IT experience monitoring can detect:
- Slow application logins
- Application failures
- Network performance issues for remote workers
- Performance variation across devices
Traditionally, IT leaders would wait for employees to report slow application performance. With experience monitoring, IT can address tech issues before employees even notice.
Employee Experience Analytics
Employee experience analytics measures objective device and application performance, as well as qualitative data such as employee surveys and feedback.
Employee experience data can highlight:
- How satisfied employees are with their tools
- Pain points in day-to-day workflows
- Roadblocks to employee productivity
- Technology usage trends
Workplace Insights/Behavioral Analytics
Workplace insights are derived from how employees behave when using technology.
Insights can reveal:
- Collaboration habits
- Application usage trends
- Workload imbalances
- Time wasted on repetitive tasks
These insights can be used to redesign workflows and improve the digital worker experience.
AI and Predictive Analytics
AI powers the advanced analytics used to identify trends and make predictions.
AI can be used to:
- Predict device failures
- Forecast demand on service desks
- Recommend workflow automation opportunities
Our digital workplace platforms are powered by AI-enabled observability and proactive monitoring. Learn more about Hexaware’s digital workplace approach.
How Digital Workplace Analytics Impacts Employee Experience
Embedding analytics into digital workplace solutions enables organizations to gain an unprecedented view of employee behavior and friction points.
Predict and Prevent Tech Issues
No more waiting for employees to file tickets. Analytics can identify technology-related issues before they impact employees.
This can lead to:
- Decreased downtime
- Higher productivity
- Lower support costs
- Trust in IT
Personalize Employee Experience
When armed with actionable data and insights, IT can create personalized experiences for employees based on their roles, workflows, and behaviors.
Personalization can look like:
- Tailored application environments
- Device configurations based on role
- Role-specific workflows
Improve Communication and Collaboration
Digital workplace analytics can paint a picture of how employees collaborate and identify areas of improvement.
Businesses can use these insights to:
- Reduce meeting times
- Help teams work better together
- Limit tool sprawl
Faster Service Desk and Automation
Digital workplace analytics can surface opportunities to automate manual processes and deflect support tickets through guided self-help.
Automation benefits include:
- AI-assisted virtual agents
- Optimized knowledge bases
- Improved first-call resolution
By leveraging digital workplace analytics, IT can build an experience-driven service desk that minimizes resolution times and maximizes employee satisfaction.
Enhance Hybrid Employee Experiences
When employees work remotely, new challenges arise.
Analytics can help with IT monitoring:
- Remote network performance
- Device health for remote employees
- Remote collaboration
Digital workplace analytics can help IT leaders gain insight into what their distributed workforce is experiencing.
Benefits of Digital Workplace Analytics
While the benefits of digital workplace analytics are many, here are a few that deliver immediate improvements:
- An Increase in productivity: Empowering employees to work better means they spend less time on tech headaches and more time on the job.
- Informed decision-making: Digital workplace analytics can arm leadership with data about how technology is being used.
- Cost savings: Predictive support and automation can limit incident volume and decrease operational expenses.
- Higher employee engagement: When employees have a great experience with technology, morale increases.
Metrics to Track with Digital Workplace Analytics
- Digital experience score
- Application performance from a user’s perspective
- Device performance
- Employee sentiment
- Service desk performance
- Workflow efficiency
- Collaboration levels
Implementing Digital Workplace Analytics
Here are four steps to help your organization implement digital workplace analytics.
Step 1: Identify Experience Goals
Goals can range from reducing service desk tickets to improving the new-hire experience. Having a goal in mind will help guide your analytics strategy.
Step 2: Integrations
Integrate your ITSM tools with endpoint monitoring solutions, collaboration platforms, and employee feedback channels.
Step 3: Implement AI and Automation
Use AI to help identify trends and recommend action.
Step 4: Practice Continuous Experience Monitoring
Workplace technology is constantly evolving. By monitoring experiences as they happen, you can better identify opportunities for improvement.
Challenges with Workplace Analytics
- Measuring qualitative experience vs. task completion
- Data privacy
- Integrating tools and devices
- Employee resistance to monitoring
Conclusion
Workplace analytics allows businesses to transform how IT thinks about servicing the modern workforce. No longer can IT focus solely on uptime and service desk metrics. By placing employee experience at the center of your digital workplace strategy, you can use analytics to drive better business outcomes.
Learn how Hexaware is building workplace intelligence, a comprehensive analytics platform designed to improve employee productivity through intelligent digital workplace automation and AI-driven insights.
