Beyond the Black Box: Bridging the Employee Experience Gap

The modern hybrid workplace creates new challenges and demands for IT teams. A combination of disparate systems and a reliance on technology that sits outside of the IT estate means that IT decision makers (ITDMs) lack deep visibility into how technology is impacting end users.  At the same time, employee expectations of corporate IT have increased considerably, based on their experiences with slick consumer tech.

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Moving to an employee-centric perspective means that IT must shift its focus from providing and maintaining technology, to instead supporting and optimizing employees’ digital employee experiences (DEX). This involves identifying digital friction that hampers productivity and increases the risk of employee burnout, and spotting potential wellbeing risks that are compounded by negative DEX.

Yet, despite significant investment in IT management tooling in recent years, for most IT teams, the experience employees have with this technology remains a mystery. It’s what Gartner describes as the experience “black box” for many organizations.

What ITDMs believe vs. what workers experience

The core challenge IT decision makers (ITDMs) face lies in a gap between perception and reality of DEX. Recent research finds most believe they already have enough data on DEX to optimize it, with 84% saying they can “proactively identify and fix digital friction” and 86% confident in their ability to track DEX and predict productivity issues.

However, there’s a clear disconnect between the data IT teams provide and the actual DEX that teams are working with. In reality, ITDMs estimate that employees lose an average of nearly four (3.8) hours a week to DEX failings. In addition, employees experience various instances of digital friction, from repeatedly crashing applications (47%) to notification overload (30%) and forced application switching (35%).

With research of knowledge workers revealing that more than half (52%) rate the DEX­ provided by their employer as poor or merely adequate, the need for insight into how effectively the workforce are using technology is paramount.

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Tech-centricity over employee-centricity

The gap exists because IT repurposes tools built to monitor technology performance to address DEX. While metrics like slow software loading times, CPU load or bad Wi-Fi performance can aid in improving the digital experience, they fall short in providing a complete view from the employee’s perspective. IT monitoring tools overlook the human element, including work patterns, employee sentiment, and overall wellbeing. Without these insights, IT teams are left with a fragmented picture, limiting their ability to surface digital friction and leaving employees to struggle alone with ongoing issues.

For instance, research shows that almost half (45%) of organizations do not conduct any employee journey mapping. Among the 55% that do, 29% rely on manual observation of a small user segment, which is then extrapolated to represent the entire workforce – leading to inaccurate insights. Businesses are missing a trick here. Many excel at this type of analysis for their customers, optimizing user journeys by understanding how customers interact with their platforms and digital channels. If they applied the same approach to their employees, they could uncover crucial insights including training gaps and workflow inefficiencies. Traditional IT management tools aren’t equipped to provide this level of DEX analysis.

The Power of Combining Sentiment with Data

Individual perceptions of the work environment vary widely, but when employee sentiment is collected at scale, it becomes a powerful tool, especially when paired with objective DEX metrics. By connecting how employees feel about their workload with data on workflows, collaboration, and the reliability of their tools, companies can make informed decisions that boost productivity, wellbeing, and retention. This approach to DEX is more important than ever, as hybrid work has made traditional management methods for addressing these issues nearly obsolete.

A further indicator of DEX maturity is the ability to share data beyond IT, involving teams like business analysts, HR, and experience managers. This data is particularly valuable to HR, as HR professionals are often closest to employees’ day-to-day experiences. With DEX data, HR leaders can identify early signs of burnout, disengagement, or isolation, and detect training needs. They can also assess whether remote work is contributing to burnout and make informed decisions about resourcing and headcount based on team capacity.

This capability is crucial, as only 52% of organizations can currently identify employees who need tech support, and only 44% can spot excessive out-of-hours working that could indicate burnout risk. To truly optimize the employee experience, IT and HR departments must speak a common language powered by purpose-built DEX solutions

Relying on traditional IT management tools for DEX insights won’t optimize experiences. Instead, purpose-built DEX analytics, focused on understanding the employee’s perspective, are essential for truly unlocking the “black box” of digital experience. Advanced DEX tools offer a clearer picture of the workforce’s reality, revealing how teams are working, pinpointing inefficiencies, and identifying sources of digital friction that might otherwise go unnoticed. By integrating these insights across the organization, businesses can proactively enhance productivity, improve employee wellbeing, and foster a more resilient, engaged workforce.