A recent research on Workforce Transformation has found that in Asia Pacific and Japan (APJ), only six in 10 (61 percent) business leaders felt that existing technology in their organization is sufficient to meet their business goals.
In India, firms realize the value of technology and innovation and the importance of constantly improving customer experience better than other developing countries in the region, putting them in a unique position in APJ.
The commissioned study, conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of Dell, investigated how a workforce enablement approach can impact business performance. In the digital era, enabling the workforce with technology is a deliberate strategy to foster high performance and excellence.
It begins with understanding that employee experience, customer experience, and revenue growth are decisively linked. A key finding from the research carried out with 61 Indian organizations, was that most IT and business decision makers believe improving workforce experience and employee productivity, is a critical step in achieving business goals.
Indrajit Belgundi, director and GM, Client Solutions Group, Dell India, said: “Businesses find themselves at crossroads, between aiming to meet financial goals and creating and sustaining a niche in the new age digital economy.
"To establish a balance, IT and business leaders need to embark upon a workforce transformation strategy and provide employees, appropriate end user technology – the requisite devices and software – in order to attain the two-fold objective of increasing employee efficiency, as well as retaining talent. Dell is at the forefront of providing solutions aligned to these objectives."
According to Forrester Consulting: “Business leaders know that to succeed, they need committed and driven employees who understand the value their work delivers to customers and have the right tools to boost their productivity. But attracting and retaining the best talent is a growing challenge, forcing many organizations to look to ideal technology partners that can help manage device life cycles and, more specifically, PC life cycles.”
India spotlight: Retention workforce experience: Employee experience ultimately determines revenue gains
Improved workforce technology will not only help firms retain the best talent but also help deliver a winning customer experience.
* 36 percent of the business and IT leaders in India are of the opinion that investing in better employee-facing technologies will help enhance employee experience and ultimately productivity.
In addition, 34 percent feel that removing barriers to productivity will help organizations to retain talent. Engaging employees and empowering them with the technology they need is critical to employee productivity and central to the bottom line.
* 43 percent of business and IT leaders in India (higher than the average 38 percent for APJ) said that they see employee experience as a critical aspect of achieving their business objectives.
* 62 percent of these feel that demand for a new device will be driven by better user experience. To enable their workforces effectively, organizations need to better understand the unique requirements of employees and set employee experience benchmarks, but are falling short in their efforts.
The study revealed that more than half of the organizations (52 percent) in APJ conducted periodic passive audits to measure employee experience, instead of using more active methods such as end user experience monitoring tools (34 percent) and conducting surveys (20 percent).
India spotlight: Security workforce security: Secure workforce technology to improve security
The complexity of the IT environment due to diverse devices, coupled with growing sophistication of security threats, outdated security policies and easy information access have made endpoint devices increasingly vulnerable.
* According to the survey, most security breaches that have occurred in the past 12 months are because of vulnerabilities at the device level: 43 percent of breaches in India occurred due to lost/stolen assets by an employee, while 39 percent occurred due to a security breach of an employee device.
As malware increases in sophistication and the number of new variants and methods of obfuscation rise, antivirus technologies have become less effective at stopping advanced threats to employee endpoints.
* 79 percent of business and IT leaders in India said that device malware is a major concern for device security, signifying the need for robust and secure anti-malware solutions in endpoint strategies.
Most security challenges could be addressed by updating workforce technology to the latest devices.
* 61 percent of the respondents across industries said that buying newer PCs would significantly reduce security challenges since newer PC hardware would be more secure. This will further help firms address the user authentication challenge.
* 61 percent of respondents mentioned user authentication is a critical challenge that leaves their devices vulnerable and 70% feel that data loss due to theft is a serious security challenge. India spotlight:
Device lifecycle management: Workforce enablement: Enabling employees through device lifecycle management
Firms in India want to emphasize improved employee experience, leading to improved productivity and bringing them closer to their business objectives. Employees want to work from multiple locations and use several different devices, including their personal devices, at work. The need for improved IT support has emerged as a top concern.
* 44 percent of the survey respondents, who are IT leaders in firms across industries in India, said that the inability to support a remote workforce is a top PC life-cycle management challenge, while 35 percent have found a lack of 24x7 IT support to be a key concern.
Workforce technology is one of the most important tools to deliver enhanced workforce experience and increases in productivity if mapped accurately to employees’ unique requirements.
* 62 percent of the survey respondents in India said that a better user experience is the prime driving force behind new devices, while 56 percent said that one of the key device demand drivers is employee preference In order to overcome these critical challenges and deliver the capability and experience required by their employees to get the job done,
Indian firms will look to partner with technology providers for holistic PC life-cycle management solutions. They will look for several key attributes in a provider —
* 41 percent said they look for scalability as a top choice, while others look for vertical-specific knowledge (38 percent) and the ability for cross-geo support (36 percent).
* 41 percent of these leaders also feel that feel scalability on demand is a key attribute that they look for in a technology partner to support end user computing at an organization.
“Finding an equilibrium between managing budgetary constraints, delivering efficient IT support and enabling enhanced productivity and workforce experience will be key for organizations," added Belgundi.
Succeeding in the digital era is not just about changing devices for organizations. Business leaders need to focus on changing the way the company functions. To complement this, CIOs must help with the challenge of employee productivity to in turn enhance customer experience, by providing the tools to better understand and address those diverse needs and requirements.
Companies can use the Dell Workforce Transformation Maturity Assessment Tool to get customized results and recommendations which will provide insights into their organization’s maturity on workforce technology.
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