The Rise of the DEX Role

With 1 in 5 workers working remotely and approximately 32.6 million Americans expected to work remotely by 2025, it is now more crucial than ever to maintain an engaged workforce, to ensure productivity and efficiency. One crucial aspect of employee engagement in the workplace is the experience they have with the digital tools available to them, also referred to as DEX (Digital Employee Experience). The experience employees have with these tools may impact and influence their productivity, satisfaction and overall engagement at work.
As organizations adapt to modern working styles and environments, the DEX role is appearing to be a vital component in increasing employee engagement and powering workplace productivity.

How the landscape of work has changed

Remote work has become increasingly adopted in organizations all over the world, mostly owing to the COVID-19 pandemic, but also the introduction of younger generations in the workplace. This has caused a shift in the way employees work and how they expect organizations to adopt a more digital-friendly work environment and tool set.

In addition to this, employees have also become more aware of mental health in the workplace in recent years. This is primarily driven by factors such as burnout, work-life balance and the need for easily-accessible support systems.  

Technology has also advanced tremendously in the past few years, allowing for better communication and collaboration amongst employees, with the introduction of helpful tools like instant messaging platforms, video conferencing software and project management tools.

What is the DEX Role?

The DEX role is mainly responsible for optimizing the digital experiences of employees, to ensure that the digital tools used in the organization are aligned with what employees need, are user-friendly and ultimately effective. The DEX role also carries the responsibilities of analyzing employee feedback, providing training and implementing new technologies to the organization.

Skills such as user experience (UX) design, HR knowledge, good communication and data analysis are mostly required for the DEX role, but not essential. In saying that, it is crucial for the DEX role to have a balanced and holistic understanding of technology and human touch or behavior.

The DEX role doesn’t typically act independently within the organization, but rather works closely and collaboratively with other departments, such as IT, HR and leadership, to ensure a holistic, all-encompassing digital strategy that addresses all employee needs and concerns.

Benefits of having a DEX role

Enhanced Employee Engagement
By having a dedicated and active focus on digital employee experience, organizations can increase levels of employee engagement through listening to employee feedback, ensuring that they feel supported, valued and heard when it comes to their digital experience at work.

Increased Productivity
With a DEX role, the organization will benefit from continually optimizing digital tools by streamlining processes, reducing frustration and significantly increasing productivity. By adopting an intuitive design, making digital tools user-friendly and easily accessible, employees are more likely to save time and be efficient during their work day.

Attracting and Retaining Talent
By placing importance on employee digital experience, organizations gain a competitive advantage when it comes to recruiting and retaining employees. This not only attracts top talent, but also promotes their employer brand, showing that they are dedicated to providing employees with a positive work experience. With the world becoming more technologically advanced, job candidates are more likely to seek out jobs at organizations that prioritize employee experience and technology.

How to Implement a DEX Strategy

Assess your current digital employee experience
When determining whether or how to implement a DEX strategy, it’s important to first assess the current digital employee experience initiatives your organization has in place. To do this, organizations should first conduct surveys to understand their digital experience as it stands. Furthermore, organizations can also assess the usage of tools within the organization to determine whether they are being utilized enough to justify the cost of them. Organizations can then interpret this information and understand where the pain points are in the organization when it comes to the digital experience of employees.

Collect feedback from employees
In order to get an accurate understanding of the experiences employees have in their workplace, organizations should collect and gather feedback from employees in various ways. This can be done through regular anonymous surveys or one on one meetings for example. Once organizations have obtained this feedback, it is even more important to act on the feedback received in order to make meaningful improvements.

Craft a plan
The next step to implementing a successful DEX strategy is to carve out a roadmap that outlines the timeline, specific goals and metrics that will be used to improve the digital experience employees have in the workplace. This should be conducted by prioritizing specific pain points obtained from the feedback employees gave as well as aligning these pain points to the overall goals of the organization.

Using Qualee as a Tool to Support DEX Initiatives  

Making use of certain tools, such as employee engagement software, can play an important role in streamlining digital processes, resulting in a more engaging and productive experience for employees.

Qualee’s employee experience platform can help with:

Streamlining pre-boarding and onboarding
By pre-boarding or onboarding employees with the Qualee app, it allows employees to have a seamless, positive experience from day one (or before). Through Qualee Journeys, employees can access important information, sign necessary documents and connect with colleagues before they begin their first day. Organizations can also customize these journeys to ensure that the digital onboarding experience is personalized and provides all the information needed for that specific role or department.

Microlearning
Qualee enables organizations to deliver training to employees in bite-sized modules that are available on the go through a mobile app. This gives employees the flexibility to choose when to complete training throughout their work day, resulting in a more efficient and productive workforce.

Integration with other platforms
Qualee integrates with more than 180 other platforms, which removes the need to log in and manage each tool independently, essentially improving digital efficiency and productivity.

Feedback using Surveys
Qualee provides a platform for organizations to monitor engagement levels through surveys. This allows organizations to assess employee satisfaction, engagement and obtain feedback on specific pain points employees may be experiencing when it comes to digital tools.

Real-time analytics & data-driven reporting
Qualee also offers helpful reporting capabilities that are available in real-time. From automatic analysis of employee feedback and insights into training participation rates, Qualee’s platform provides organizations with objective data to make informed decisions and improve the digital employee experience.

Conclusion

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In conclusion, as organizations adapt to the modern working world with remote teams becoming more prevalent, the experience employees have with digital tools within their organizations is becoming more important, giving rise to the role of Digital Employee Experience (DEX). Having a DEX role can be beneficial when it comes to enhancing employee engagement, increasing productivity and attracting and retaining talent. Using tools like Qualee can support DEX initiatives in a number of ways, from streamlining the onboarding experience to providing valuable insight into difficulties employees may face with digital tools. By implementing a DEX role in your organization, you’re bound to increase efficiency, improve productivity and enhance employee satisfaction, resulting in a winning team all round!

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