What Employees Really Want: Creating a Positive Employee Experience in the Digital Realm

What Employees Really Want: Creating a Positive Employee Experience in the Digital Realm

In today's digital era, organizations are realizing the importance of prioritizing the employee experience. Our society has highlighted the need for seamless remote work and the impact of technology on employee productivity. To create a positive employee experience, here's what employees really want:



Develop digital skills


Employees want leaders who empower them to develop their digital skills. By providing training and resources, organizations can help employees enhance their digital proficiency and increase their chances of promotion. 

According to Garters Digital Workplace Survey, Employees are engaging with digital technology in four new ways: 

  • 72% of employees are streamlining work tasks by combining applications using digital automation
  • 76% of employees are beginning to create context-specific channels and meetings
  • 77% of employees are using analytic tools to build customized dashboards
  • 80% of employees are managing their content to reduce duplication and/or improve knowledge


Epoch is a great tool that allows employees to enhance their digital literacy while making employee events easy. Epoch streamlines event management by combining Slack channels, Google calendars, etc, into one space. Moreover, Epoch allows users to build and customize events so that they can receive easy feedback with the help of feedback forms. 

Implement hybrid work planning


With the rise of hybrid work models, employees want to be involved in planning how it will be implemented. Organizations can create a more inclusive and flexible work environment by enabling them to contribute their ideas and preferences.


Organizations should implement workplace experience applications that plan the best days to go to the office and that reserve personal and group spaces, parking, lunch, and amenities. Or, enable team productivity apps that help workers coordinate with others such as “find a time” features. Common applications include Google Calendar, Calendly, Doodle, and Chili Piper. For more information on hybrid work planning, click here



Have access to in-person opportunities


Despite the rise of virtual meetings and remote work, employees still value face-to-face interactions. According to a Gartner Survey, the top motivators for employees include face time with colleagues, office equipment, the ability to focus, and face time with managers and senior leaders. Workers want in-person meetings to connect with colleagues, managers, and senior leaders. 


Offsites and on-sites are a great way for employees to meet face-to-face and forge meaningful connections with their team and organization. However, they can be challenging to plan. Epoch’s Offsite Guide will help you plan successful offsites for your company, from setting intentions to logistics, do's and don'ts, and even a fillable template to get you started.



Utilize proper tools

As technology advances, employees find themselves using an increasing number of applications. Garters Digital Workplace survey revealed that 36% of employees use between 11-25 applications, and 5% use even more. However, this leads to challenges, such as struggling to find information (47%), receiving irrelevant notifications (45%), missing important updates (36%), and making wrong decisions due to a lack of awareness (32%). 


Organizations should help teams create "how we work" strategies to reduce app overload and streamline work processes. Publishing a list of endorsed tools for digital workplace processes, along with linked resource guides, can be immensely helpful. For example, GitLab has a great remote workplace guide



Find information more easily


Implementing knowledge-sharing applications and practices, such as communities of practice, can foster collaboration and knowledge exchange. Leveraging emerging technologies like generative AI and workstyle analytics can also help employees find the information they need more efficiently. 

Epoch has an invite-only community where individuals in the engagement and culture space come together and lean on one another for support, share ideas, and build connections. Apply here!



Have quick solutions for technology problems


In 2020, workers wanted to solve their own technology issues. In 2022, workers wanted you to solve their issues (Gartner 2023). Why? Because it is more efficient. By proactively solving technology problems and implementing Digital Employee Experience (DEX) tools, organizations can enhance employee productivity and satisfaction. For more insights on improving your organization's digital EX, click here. 



In today's digital era, creating a positive employee experience is crucial. Employees want organizations to prioritize their digital skills, involve them in hybrid work planning, provide in-person opportunities, offer the right tools, and efficiently solve technology problems. Embracing these factors will help companies adapt and thrive in the ever-changing digital landscape while ensuring a motivated and engaged workforce.

What is Epoch?

Epoch is an employee engagement platform used by people teams at Reddit, Asana, and more. Epoch supports any internal event that needs email, Slack announcements and reminders, calendaring, and reporting. On top of impactful engagement and feedback analytics, Epoch provides a simple way to communicate and promote events to your workforce, helping events reach employees where they prefer to receive messages.

Teams using Epoch have seen positive impacts in event engagement while reducing time spent managing and promoting events by over 70%. Udemy used Epoch to scale its inclusive culture, driving 89% participation, and Modus Create successfully scaled a global events program across 15 timezones.

Increase productivity and connection among employees through company culture with Epoch. Curious to learn more? Book a demo today!

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