More than "nice to have"

It’s usually “little things” like long PC boot times, random crashes and network slowdowns that put users and IT staff on edge. My previous article “Start your day the EUEM way and keep your IT support worries away” explained how those types of annoyances over time can build employee frustration, decrease productivity and generally have a negative impact on a company’s work atmosphere. IT and other company managers should keep an eye on those issues because inadequately maintained or outdated equipment also can degrade company competitiveness and market value.

According to The Experience 2020 Report, employees lose an average of around 28 minutes of work time for each IT-related problem. Assume in round numbers that an employee encounters 100 IT-related problems per year. That means that the employee and the company lose about 40 hours or one week of productive working time annually. It’s easy for managers to translate that into lost income and increased costs.

However, no one knows exactly how much time and money is lost because employees actually report only about 50 percent of IT problems. That can indicate a disconnect between users, IT staff and company management or reinforce an existing communication problem. The Experience 2020 report also states that up to 83 percent of employees think their companies could improve their digital work environments. In contrast, IT executives assume that 89 percent of users are satisfied with their workplace technology.

EUEM is not just about employees just getting new laptops or smartphones, rather, it’s a major factor in building long-term employee satisfaction and retention. In principle, EUEM has the following goals:

1. reduce the workload for IT departments by offering more automated and self-help problem solutions for affected users.
2. improve and, above all, stabilize end-user experiences across all users and devices regardless of application or location.

Hybrid work has become enormously important since 2020. And employees today want to maintain the flexibility of working from home or in the office. A 2022 Gartner research study reported that 55% of employees said that the ability to keep flexible work arrangements would determine whether they stay at their current organization. In addition, 43% said that location flexibility was a major factor in decisions to look for or accept a new job. That not only means providing them with secure, well-functioning equipment – a laptop, webcam, monitor, headset, etc. – but also that EUEM is an increasingly important part of company IT strategies.

The importance of EUEM is underlined in the LinkedIn study “Inside the Mind of Today's Candidate.” More than a quarter of respondents indicated that alignment with company values and flexible work/telecommuting options are key determinants of employee loyalty. Simply put, when employees are happy they are less likely to look for another job.

While the sources of user frustration with company IT are diverse and complex, system performance and stability are probably the biggest area that can be improved proactively with EUEM. I explained more about this in the blog article “When the computer goes into a Chroma,” aka, the dreaded Windows BSOD or “blue screen of death.” EUEM not only can reduce or prevent crashes, it can provide the foundation of maintaining a high-quality IT infrastructure that improves user satisfaction and productivity.

It's no secret that productivity is a key component of company success. Consequently, a company that prioritizes EUEM using the right solutions is in the best position to improve IT and employee performance. In fact, the cost of an EUEM solution is an investment in an asset dedicated to improving productivity.

Greater happiness at work also leads to better business results and long-term value. According to a 2015 Glassdoor study, a portfolio of companies awarded the “Best Place to Work” seal outperformed the S&P 500 stock index by 84.2 percentage points. The stock prices of companies receiving the award also rose by 0.75 percent within 10 days of being included in the “Best Places” list.

Conversely, the 30 lowest-rated companies on Glassdoor performed worse on average, making it clear that there is an economic connection between employee satisfaction and overall financial performance.