Your Focus on Employee Experience – It’s Time to Turn That ITSM Tanker Now (and Quickly)

If, like the IT industry as a whole, your IT organization is currently interested in how employee experience measurement and improvement can help it deliver the IT services and support your business needs, does it understand what it needs and how long it will take? This question might seem an odd introduction to a blog, but it’s something that your IT organization can’t afford to overlook. Please keep reading to find out why.

If your org is currently interested in Employee Experience measurement & improvement, does it understand what it needs & how long it will take? Cause this is a question you can't afford to overlook. Here @Joe_the_IT_Guy explains. #ITSM #EX Share on X

In case you missed it – employee experience is a hot ITSM trend right now

There are likely several IT service management (ITSM) trends on your radar. Perhaps enterprise service management opportunities or the use of artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled ITSM capabilities to deliver “better, faster, cheaper” operations and outcomes.

Importantly, there’s a significant overlap with these trends, including the ability to improve the employee experience through the introduction of new capabilities. However, without focusing on experience and “what matters most” to employees, any employee experience gains are likely to be suboptimal and realized more by luck than judgment. Because, without the ability to measure employee experience, it’s challenging to understand your organization’s starting point and the effect of any improvements made.

Without the ability to measure employee experience, it’s challenging to understand your organization’s starting point and the effect of any improvements made - @Joe_the_IT_Guy #EX #ITSM #ServiceDesk Share on X

Most organizations understand the need to improve the employee experience

In the AXELOS 2022 ITSM Benchmarking Report, two-thirds of survey respondents (67%) stated that their IT organizations understand the need to deliver a better employee experience. 18% expected them to in 2022, and only 9% thought their IT organizations wouldn’t see the need for employee experience improvement.

Interestingly, there was a correlation between ITSM maturity and the interest in employee experience:

• The IT organizations that reported “great” or “good” ITSM success were more likely to understand the need to deliver a better employee experience
• The IT organizations with “still much to improve upon” were the most likely not to see the need.

Please note that these were self-ratings of ITSM success.

According to a new survey from @AXELOS_GBP, 67% of respondents stated their IT orgs understand the need to deliver a better employee experience. But only 18% expected to in 2022! #EX #ITSM Share on X

Turning employee experience interest into actions (and improvements)

The survey-based data points above relate to the understanding of the importance of employee experience but not necessarily the organizations’ commitment to acting to make improvements. After all, we can all think that something is a good idea or needed but still not do anything about it (or at least not until “it’s too late”).

In some ways, this lack of action can be understood (although I’m not going to say “excused”). Experience management is still an evolving discipline and not something on which bodies of service management guidance such as ITIL 4 offer best practices (yet).

The worrying thing, though, is that if your IT organization waits around for the formalized best practice it needs to appear, it likely won’t have the experience-related capabilities it needs when it needs them.

I’ll explain why.

If your IT org waits around for the formalized best practice for Employee Experience (e.g. in ITIL) to appear, it likely won’t have the experience-related capabilities it needs when it needs them - @Joe_the_IT_Guy #EX #ITSM Share on X

The “lead-time” for effective experience management

The required “lead-time” for effective employee experience improvement is best understood by looking forward to when your IT organization is measuring employee experience well. Not only will it have employed suitable, experienced-based metrics. It will have also driven the necessary changes to make the new metrics worthwhile. It’s, therefore, essential to understand that simply adding (or swapping in) these additional experience-focused metrics is insufficient to fully benefit from employee experience data and the insights that can come from it.

Instead, the focus on employee experience needs to be treated as a people-based change that transforms the corporate culture (and requires an investment in organizational change management to help make it successful). For example, in selling the change to business stakeholders such as senior management (including budget holders), the employees who consume your IT services (including those provided by IT support teams), and the IT staff that contribute to the employee experiences.

The introduction of experience management is the proverbial “journey” often discussed in ITSM. It takes time to decide how best to operate experience-focused capabilities, even though the mechanics of experience measurement might be quick to implement. From understanding the reasons for and goals of the new capabilities to instilling the right behaviors in people for experience management to work. Then there’s the process of analyzing the experience data and actioning improvements – not only focused on the most important employee-identified issues but also on the experience management capability as well.

Also, how your organization uses the experience management data will change and mature over time. For example, at the outset, there will likely be “quick wins” where the experience-based feedback identifies previously unnoticed issues. The ability to prioritize based on “what matters most” will help here too. In some ways, this can be considered the “firefighting” stage of experience management – where the most visible issues and pain points get identified and addressed.

If you need your IT organization to improve employee experiences effectively in a year’s time, because of the required lead-time, there’s a need to start now - @Joe_the_IT_Guy #EX #ITSM #ServiceDesk Share on X

However, this will change over time. Not only will the available “quick wins” dwindle but also because – in line with the culture change that happens – the experience management capabilities will evolve from reactive to proactive. This evolution not only covers the analysis of experience data sets to uncover issues and their root causes but also the drivers for strategic decisions. For example, IT support operations or policies will be introduced or changed in the future based on employee needs rather than the costs of different options.

There are other reasons why effective experience management capabilities take time. Still, hopefully, the above is sufficient to get you thinking about the journey needed for your organization to get things right. Ultimately, if you need your IT organization to improve employee experiences effectively in a year’s time, because of the required lead-time, there’s a need to start now. Think of the slow-turning tanker in this blog’s title; some things can’t “turn on a dime.” Instead, the tanker’s captain (or whoever is at the helm) must start the maneuver well before the actual turn.

If you want your IT organization to focus on and improve employee experience, as per my blog’s title – it’s time to start turning that ITSM tanker now (and quickly)!