IT teams failing to deliver a positive remote employee experience

Conducted during the coronavirus pandemic, 1E unveils the findings of an analysis of the remote employee experience and the digital workplace in 2020.

remote employee experience

Vanson Bourne and 1E surveyed employees across eight industries in the United States and found that enterprise IT teams are failing to deliver a positive remote employee experience. Data shows IT has more to do in order to prepare their organizations—and employees—for a work from anywhere enterprise in the aftermath of the coronavirus pandemic.

“Never before have we had this level of insight about the experience employees have with their devices—and IT generally—in the post-COVID world. In the work from anywhere enterprise, endpoint management tools are the central nervous system because the endpoint is no longer just a device.

“Endpoints have now become much more personal and integral to the lives of all employees, enabling them to stay connected and work. This research helps businesses understand the new digital employee experience and reimagine the traditional definition of the workplace,” says Sumir Karayi, CEO at 1E.

46m Americans are now totally dependent on their laptop

At its heart, the digital work from anywhere enterprise is about putting people first and serving their needs wherever they choose to work, but the data from the research indicates that IT teams, along with over-burdened and ill-equipped service desks, are struggling to meet the needs of newly remote employees.

Since the start of the pandemic, 46m people have moved from working in the office on a full-time basis to working from home full-time. That’s a significant amount of people forced into new ways of working overnight and who are totally reliant on their laptop for work and communication.

“IT must be able to understand and optimize the employee’s world through the endpoint. But what the research shows is that the speed of change has left legacy IT tools ineffective in their management of remote endpoints and the digital employee experience.

“This research proves that legacy tools must be replaced with a new generation of endpoint management solutions designed to cope with the complexities of the work from anywhere enterprise; they need to be real-time, autonomic, and scalable,” Karayi concludes.

US employees take huge productivity hit when working remotely

98% of US knowledge workers said that device performance is critical to their ability to work remotely but 36m (53%) reported that their device performs slower outside the office and 33m (48%) flagged it as a top three issue that hinders their productivity and overall employee experience.

25m employees (37%) are also experiencing more issues working remotely, and those issues are taking much longer to resolve. 49m employees (72%) are reporting that it takes days and weeks to get issues fixed. Yet more worryingly, 50m employees (74%) experience repeat issues.

But when issues are resolved, 46m employees (68%) are disrupted by the service desk, with only 21m (31%) of employees able to continue their work during the process. Shockingly, 18m employees (26%) said they couldn’t work at all when an issue is being fixed. Needless to say, 50m (74% of employees) are feeling less connected than ever to their colleagues.

“Too often we only ask IT about IT issues. What’s refreshing about this research is that employees took part and were asked how they’re coping in this new normal. The data shows how critical endpoint automation is so employees can just get their work done,” says Paul Hardy, Evangelist, Chief Innovation Office, at ServiceNow.

“The fact that 74% of employees are facing repeat issues proves that a lack of automation doesn’t just impact the employee experience, but further burdens the service desk and holds organizations back from creating meaningful value and growth,” comments Hardy.

“The reality is that COVID has ripped up the enterprise IT book, and it’s time to use research such as this to rewrite the norm.”

The work from anywhere enterprise and the remote employee experience beyond 2020

As well as the employee experience, the research has also found other issues for IT to deal with on the journey to a work from anywhere enterprise.

Most damagingly, security (50m or 73% of respondents aren’t concerned about their corporate device being hacked when working remotely) and software provisioning (24m or 35% of respondents don’t have all the software they need to work from home effectively).

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