In times of economic uncertainty, organizations are forced to scrutinize every dollar spent, with workplace technology no exception. Whether it is new hardware, software or workplace tools, business leaders across industries are facing the same challenge – proving their investments are driving growth, improving employee productivity and delivering a competitive advantage.
While it may be tempting to cut costs when there is no straightforward way to measure ROI, the solution is not investing less in workplace technology. In fact, organizations that prioritize establishing the correct type of services alongside employee experience see benefits across their business and are twice as likely to exceed sales and revenue expectations.
Digital workplace tools – from video conferencing to project management platforms and productivity tools – enhance productivity and deliver measurable outcomes. At a time when organizations are looking to do more with less, this is precisely the type of solution that can drive growth, but only if leaders know where to start.
The Performance Gap
Currently, 70% of executives recognize that digital workplace tools are critical to their long-term growth. Yet there is a growing divide between those who are investing in the right tools and prioritizing their employees’ needs.
“Productivity Leaders”, or organizations that, regardless of market conditions, continuously emphasize employee productivity and experience as a top measurement for return on investment, are seeing benefits in many ways. These organizations outperform on product and service innovation, have enhanced cybersecurity capabilities, and report improved ROI across many key business functions.
What separates these groups isn’t the sophistication of their technology stacks or the size of their IT budgets. It’s their approach and commitment to using the right resources to match what employees actually need.
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How Productivity Leaders are Pulling Ahead
While technology may serve as the foundation of a successful digital workplace, employees are the heart of every business. Therefore, technology must be designed around employee needs to make them more successful and productive.
The first step in achieving this is to understand daily roles and tasks employees perform and which technology stacks will support them. This step isn’t about conducting annual surveys. It’s about maintaining continuous feedback between leadership and employees so the right IT investments can be made. Currently, 96% of Productivity Leaders say they have a clear understanding of what employees need from technology, and 93% have established ongoing processes for employee input.
Next, organizations must rethink how they evaluate employees’ use of digital workplace tools. Too often, organizations rely on service-level agreements (SLAs) to provide quantifiable results. However, these methods do little to evaluate the employee experience. This is why Productivity Leaders are turning to experience-level agreements (XLAs), which measure employee outcomes, such as application usage times and the effectiveness of applications in helping employees complete tasks. As a result, employers are better able to determine what works and where adjustments are needed.
Finally, business leaders must change the way they view AI in the workplace. AI is not just a cost-reduction tool, but also a means to increase productivity and reduce service disruptions. No matter how robust systems and processes are, they break down – creating costly unintended downtime for organizations. When this happens, productivity slumps and IT teams often struggle to respond quickly enough to offset costly delays to clients.
When used correctly, AI is embedded across digital workplace services, responding to breakdowns in near real time. The technology can automatically summarize and triage IT tickets according to urgency, making it easier for human agents to know what to prioritize first – ensuring that critical systems get back up and running faster.
Overcoming the Business and IT Misalignment
Whether an organization excels at putting employees first or uses AI effectively, one key challenge remains: holding everyone back. Business executives and IT leaders, more often than not, fail to align on how to measure the success of their workplace solutions.
The breakdown often occurs like this: IT leaders naturally prioritize operations efficiency, citing data-backed findings and compliance as key outcome metrics. On the other hand, business leaders focus on employee productivity above all else, with few executives believing that digital workplace tools work equally well for remote and in-office workers.
Even if everything else is done correctly, this misalignment can still derail a successful digital workplace strategy. Furthermore, it could prevent organizations from quickly course-correcting when needed, wasting resources on services that don’t work.
The Bottom Line
Digital workplace solutions have the potential to drive real, measurable results across businesses. But to realize these benefits, organizations need to ensure they have the right approach in place. Failure to do so will only erode productivity and cause organizations to fall behind in an ever-evolving, competitive business landscape.
The next wave of digital transformation is already upon us, disrupting every facet of daily life. Business leaders have the opportunity to get ahead of these disruptions and use the tools available to create real, lasting growth if they center employees in their approach. Taking this step will make all the difference, enabling businesses to embrace today’s technology and prepare for what’s yet to come.
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