In the first blog in this series, we explored methods of assessing digital journeys and the importance of employee journey mapping in the modern hybrid workplace. If you haven’t already read it, you can check it out here.
In this follow up blog, we turn our attention to the real-world benefits that task mining and employee journey mapping bring. For IT and line of business leaders, optimizing the digital employee experience (DEX) in the modern hybrid workplace is a complex task. The good news is that employee journey mapping can have a transformative impact, from breaking down productivity barriers to addressing compliance risks, and a whole lot more in between. Here we lay out five benefits that employee journey mapping will deliver.
Free employees from productivity blockers
Tech can introduce productivity blockers, in the form of digital friction, that is hard for organizations to see. Our survey of knowledge workers highlighted the scale of the problem. It found that 5.5 hours are lost per employee per week due to digital friction. One of the biggest culprits is poorly designed and confusing workflows that are hard to navigate. 28% of knowledge workers have experienced this kind of complex workflow even for routine tasks, and 35% say they are frequently forced to toggle between apps to find information or complete a task.
Employee journey mapping offers organizations a way to surface these areas of digital friction. By utilizing task mining and mapping journeys, such productivity blockers like extra steps in a workflow or repeated app switching, can be eliminated to reduce the negative impact of poor DEX and enhance the productivity of teams.
Automate processes to boost employee engagement
As referenced above, knowledge workers often encounter unintuitive workflows that are repetitive and time-consuming. And since business leaders can't manually observe every action happening across the organization for every employee, identifying these inefficiencies is a challenge.
The task mining element of employee journey mapping delivers a solution. Analyzing interactions at scale between employees and systems allows IT and operational efficiency experts to spot the processes and workflows that can be streamlined and automated. This frees up time for employees to focus on higher-value tasks, and also improves employee engagement by removing dull, repetitive work.
Celebrate digital champions and replicate successes
It is often difficult for businesses with highly distributed workforces to identify what makes some employees more successful than others. Using employee journey mapping, IT and HR teams can analyze how top performers engage with processes and technology, spotting ‘digital champions’ who can offer other employees tips for navigating tools and workflows more effectively.
HR and IT teams can use insights from employee journey mapping to collaborate and create a framework that promotes successful behaviors, enabling the organization to standardize and scale best practices. This approach enhances overall performance and fosters a culture of continuous improvement and alignment with strategic goals.
Pinpoint training needs and focus on skills development
A further benefit of mapping is in uncovering areas where employees are struggling with digital technology, whether due to unfamiliarity with tools or gaps in knowledge. Insights from detailed mapping allow line of business process owners to analyze how well employees are following a process and identify employees that appear to be having an issue with certain steps.
Process managers can then explore whether issues stem from a lack of training, poorly defined process steps, technology performance issues, or lack of access to the right application – and take action. This could involve tailored training, adapting procedural materials, or improving the knowledge base.
Improve visibility for compliance and risk management
A robust oversight of workflows is essential to mitigating risk. Employee journey mapping provides full visibility into individual workflows so decision makers can quickly identify any anomalous behavior in processes where it is important steps are executed in a specific sequence.
This makes it easier for organizations to ensure adherence to industry regulatory processes and to company policy. For instance, in a law firm, journey mapping can ensure the right process for storing documents is followed so that documents are accessible to other lawyers. This proactive approach allows organizations to be compliant with required regulations, reducing the likelihood of fines and improving overall operational security.
Drive workplace success
Employee journey mapping frames task analysis within the broader organizational and user experience context. This gives organizations deep insight into work patterns (when work is done), location (where tasks are performed – office or remote), and group (function, team, role, or individual), as well as data on the performance and stability of the technology supporting employees.
Armed with this deeper understanding, business leaders and IT teams can address productivity blockers and improve the operational efficiency of the digital workplace. Find out more about employee journey mapping here: https://www.scalable.com/solutions/digital-workplace-optimization-and-efficiency-tools/
