New Research Suggests Delivering a Complete Digital Employee Experience is Essential in the Hybrid Workplace

PALO ALTO, Calif.–VMware Inc. (NYSE: VMW), a leading innovator in enterprise software, today unveiled research on how to improve the employee experience for anywhere work. The commissioned study, titled “Optimizing Digital Employee Experience for Anywhere Work” and conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of VMware, found digital employee experience (DEX) is a critical component of how companies are enabling today’s hybrid workforce and a superior employee experience requires four integral components – experience delivery, experience measurement, analysis and remediation.

Accelerating DEX investment and adoption has become essential as companies navigate hybrid workplace challenges. According to the study, 75% of respondents have made DEX a higher or top priority since the start of the pandemic. When asked about the top business priorities driving a need for improved DEX, 80% of respondents aim to increase employee productivity. 75% hope that a DEX solution can improve overall employee experience and drive increased retention rates.

“In the hybrid workplace, organizations are prioritizing digital employee experience as an essential investment. Digital employee experience empowers employees and IT teams to make a positive impact and do their best work,” said Shankar Iyer, senior vice president and general manager, End User Computing, VMware. “A seamless digital experience is a competitive differentiator to companies focused on hiring and retaining top talent.”

DEX Assurance, Anywhere

Investment in DEX solutions continue to grow as companies strive to improve employee satisfaction. While only 25% of respondents indicated having a comprehensive DEX solution currently in place, a majority (nearly 60%) expect to implement one within 24 months. In addition, 84% report their budget for DEX solutions will grow to 11-25% of their overall IT budget in the next three years, demonstrating the importance of finding a comprehensive solution that supports the needs of all employees.

Currently, two-thirds of respondents are using three or more vendors to support their DEX journey. Using multiple vendors can amplify the challenges of DEX integration by hindering root-cause analysis and compounding the difficulties in assessing DEX return on investment. This makes a holistic approach necessary for DEX improvement. Two-thirds of respondents prioritize comprehensive DEX solutions that can offer successful delivery, monitoring, analysis and remediation capabilities. It is important to integrate a DEX solution that covers all these components to create a seamless employee experience.

VMware Anywhere Workspace helps IT deliver a great employee experience by enabling employees with delivery, measurement, analysis, and remediation of experience issues, specifically:

  • Unified Workspace with Single Sign-On: A one-stop-shop for employees to access all their apps without remembering passwords, helpful resources, communications and workflows enabling them to quickly act on business processes.
  • Experience Measurement: A comprehensive view of a digital employee experience score that takes into account the users’ interactions with the workspace (mobile or desktop device, apps, OS, network, etc.) as well as employee sentiment, and is personalized based on organizational needs.
  • Proactive Analysis: Observability into employee experience via dashboards and rich insights; including using machine learning models to detect anomalies and proactively surface critical experience detractors. Guided root cause analysis (RCA) with contextual dashboards, breadcrumbs visualization, and admin collaboration to quickly identify the root cause of an issue.
  • Fast Remediation: Employee self-service with access to FAQs and corporate resources. IT can proactively remediate issues before they impact employee productivity with digital employee experience management (DEEM) or start a remote screen sharing session when interaction with IT is required.
  • Support for BYO and Corporate Devices on a Single Platform: Provides consistent experiences across mobile and desktop, regardless of device management status.

Additional Resources 

Methodology

In this study, Forrester conducted an online survey of 537 global director level or higher decision-makers with responsibility for strategy, oversight, or implementation for digital employee experience (DEX) to evaluate the challenges related to DEX and opportunities for a holistic, integrated solution. Questions provided to the participants asked about their organizations’ DEX challenges and opportunities, as well as their current and future plans for investing in DEX solutions. Respondents were offered a small incentive as a thank-you for time spent on the survey. The study began in February 2022 and was completed in March 2022.