Penny Wise and Productivity Foolish
As the likelihood of financial uncertainty grows, businesses will be thinking about their finances and contemplating ways of saving money. Don’t be distracted by what appears to be low hanging fruit. If navigated correctly, you can weather the financial storm and position your company to come back much stronger.
Throughout my career, I’ve seen many organizations look for quick budget wins in the tools and services that support their employees. Some companies will look to outsource support. Others will reduce the quality of employee tech. And while these measures are sure to reap near-term financial benefit, you can expect to pay for the cuts in the future.
To your workforce, technology isn’t just a component of your company - it is your company. While on paper, it may appear to be just a piece of hardware or an application, these systems are the very essence of how employees, customers, and partners interact with the business and move business forward. It’s through these services that employees come together to co-create, collaborate, manage business processes, and sustain relationships.
I recently came across an interesting study conducted by SalesForce and Forbes Insights that underscores what we’ve learned through our own employee surveys: The systems and services your workforce interacts with every day, directly impact employee satisfaction and productivity.
The study found that those who were dissatisfied with their employee-facing technology were more than twice as likely to plan to leave their job in the next year, less than half as likely to recommend their employer to potential employees, and less likely to feel productive. This reaction is not in response to hardware or an application - it's about the impact tools and services have on their ability to do their best work.
The right tool or service, delivered thoughtfully, will reduce friction and whittle-down the steps to the absolute minimum so that your talent can focus their energy on adding their highest value. My colleagues often hear me talk about “delight” when it comes to the technology and services we provide our workforce. Why delight? It’s the opposite of frustration, which is the feeling people typically associate with tech. But ultimately, it’s about achieving a business outcome - enabling your workforce to deliver their best. Afterall, we go to great lengths to attract and retain the very best talent. Why would we hamper their ability to deliver?
