Employee experience (EX) has never been more important than it is today. But if you focus solely on EX and fail to address the bigger workplace picture, you won’t unlock the full potential of your workforce.
Rather than looking at the different elements that impact your workplace in isolation (for example, employee experience, automation and AI, IT operations), an integrated approach brings cross-functional teams and areas together. By embracing this aligned and cooperative model, which Avanade calls Workplace Experience or WX, you can maximise returns, deliver greater ROI and elevate your employee experiences too.
We recently published research that sought to discover the ROI organisations can realise by implementing a more holistic Workplace Experience strategy. We spoke to 1,375 senior decision-makers across HR, Operations, IT, Marketing and other lines of business. Overall, they estimated they could achieve a 16% increase in annual revenue and a 13% reduction in operational costs by implementing a workplace transformation that brings together technology, operations, cultureand employee experience. Based on the aggregated annual revenues of the participant organisations, this equates to around $2 billion.
WX – the heart of business transformation
But the transformation doesn’t happen overnight. “Most organisations are not where they need to be,” says Florin Rotar, Avanade’s Global Modern Workplace Lead.
“Yet what’s encouraging is that 95% of those we spoke to agree that to maximise ROI, businesses need to put the workplace experience at the heart of their business transformation strategy. Overwhelmingly, our research highlights a great employee experience is as critical as delivering a great customer experience.”
Perhaps unsurprisingly, 94% of respondents cited their employees as a main source of competitive advantage for their business.
The case for collaboration
While the potential of workplace transformation is compelling, challenges persist across multiple areas. Forty-seven percent cited modernising IT as a significant challenge. Just over a third (34%) named upskilling employees, recruiting talent and managing evergreen IT as additional obstacles they need to overcome when implementing workplace experience strategies.
Tellingly, 96% of respondents agreed that a Workplace Experience transformation should be driven by multi-disciplinary teams – including IT, HR and business unit leaders in order to succeed. In the UK, up to 62% of senior decision-makers suggested that HR should be involved in deploying a comprehensive Workplace Experience transformation initiative, while IT and HR were identified as the two highest-priority roles when undertaking a workplace transformation initiative.
Proving sustainable business value
Workplace modernisation is a proven driver of sustainable business value. Taking a holistic approach to WX – modernising technology platforms, services and physical workspaces, reimagining culture and employee experience, and optimising operations – is now a key competitive differentiator. And it’s delivering a tangible business impact that can’t be ignored.
Explore the research in more detail and discover the WX opportunities that you can capitalise on – download the executive summary today.
