Let's get real for a sec. Your frontline workforce is lost in a jungle of apps. Need to chat? There is an app for that. Learning & development? Yup, another app. Payslips, scheduling, feedback—you name it, there’s an app for it. Tech promised to make life easier, but here we are, drowning in tools.
Instead of a streamlined workday, we’ve created chaos. Multiple logins, different interfaces, and confusing learning curves are turning employee experience into a nightmare. But, what’s employee experience, and how does tech tool consolidation impact it? Let’s find out.
What is Employee Experience and why should you care?
Employee experience is everything your employees encounter, feel, and observe during their time with your company. The very essence of it revolves around creating an environment that’s productive, engaging, and supportive. It's about ensuring that every touchpoint, from onboarding to daily tasks to feedback sessions, is seamless and positive.
When employees have a great experience at work, they are more engaged, motivated, and likely to stay with the company. This, in turn, leads to higher productivity, better customer service, and ultimately, increased profitability.
Why should you care about frontline employee experience?
So why should you care about employee experience?
Well, aside from the obvious benefits of having a happy and engaged workforce, investing in frontline employee experience will also give your company a competitive edge. In today's job market, where top talent is in high demand, companies that prioritize frontline employee experience are more likely to attract and retain the best employees.
That’s not all though. Happy employees are more likely to speak positively about their workplace, which can attract top talent and customers alike. In a world where online reviews and word-of-mouth recommendations can make or break a company, having a strong employee experience is a powerful asset.
Frontline employee experience is key to growth: EX → Growth. In other words, happy employees = happy & thriving business. Investing in employee experience is not just beneficial, it's absolutely essential in adapting to the evolving demands of your workforce.
The hidden costs of no tech tool consolidation
For every step of the employee journey, there’s a tool (or ten). But when these tools are standalone entities, things fall apart:
- Too many tools create confusion and frustration. Already, only 33% of employees feel engaged at work. Tool chaos won’t help with this.
- Constantly hopping between apps kills productivity. Gartner says this costs us up to 32 days of productivity per year.
- Not all tools play nice with mobile, which is an absolute deal breaker for frontline workers on the go. Finding an email with the latest security update before your shift at a manufacturing plant on mobile Outlook app? Good luck.
- Too many tools = $$$ down the drain. Companies average 125 different SaaS apps, costing $1,040 per employee annually, yet most employees don't even use half of the apps.
Transforming your HR tech wreck into a useful tech stack
The fix? Start by listening to your frontline employees and aligning tech with your goals. It’s not about adding more work. It’s about improving the employee experience by optimizing what’s already there. Consolidation isn’t about slashing essential tools. It’s about integrating them into one platform. This move simplifies workflows and maximizes the ROI of your existing tools.
Three impacts at once: cutting costs and boosting revenue, while improving employee experience
Impact 1: It obviously leads to an improved employee experience
Let’s take retail as an example. Imagine a sales associate who has mobile access to an easy to use platform that consolidates every tool they have to use for work in one. This automatically makes it easier for them to perform tasks - less time spent switching between systems and a smaller learning curve. After all, instead of mastering 10+ separate platforms, they only need to master the use of one.
Always keep the employee experience as the focus and make the tools they need easy to access from one platform. Easier said than done, I know, but it is achievable.
Tobi Anderson, Head of Customer Experience at Speakap
Now, fewer tools mean that employees save time (and let’s be real here - it saves time for you do too, because now you need to provide information on only one platform, not 10+). Fewer tools also mean that the frontline employee experience of that platform is even more richly personalized, so that each piece of information in front of them is as relevant as possible.
Impact 2: Cutting costs
When you consolidate tools into, ideally, a single platform provided by a single vendor, this also means saving on administrative costs, licensing fees, integration payments, and ongoing training and maintenance for manifold systems. Yet this is not only about saving. Tool consolidation also helps produce value. Research by Forrester says that companies that consolidate see a 42% boost in productivity and a 31% cut in wasted time.
Ever heard of the saying less is more? Tool consolidation cuts costs and creates efficiencies by consolidating tools under one platform, requiring less frontline training on how to use multiple apps, and demanding that the company juggle fewer tech vendors. Less is more.
$47,750 in reduced costs
For example, a retail branch with 800 employees could spend $116,950 per year on separate tools for task management ($115,200 per year) and employee onboarding ($1,750 per year). Whereas, switching to an employee experience platform which contains both of these aspects would cost around $67,200 per year. Additionally, reducing administrative costs from $5,000 a year to $2,000 year results in total annual savings of $47,750 potentially giving you more budget to play with for other IC and HR initiatives
Disclaimer: These numbers are just averages, actual pricing varies based on number of user licenses, pricing model and other factors.
Impact 3: Boost in revenue (yep, you read that right)
Yes, tool consolidation boosts revenue by centralizing the frontline employee experience in a single platform and driving, for example, retail sales enablement via one unified data stream.
For example:
In a manufacturing setting, timely communication is crucial. Imagine a scenario where a critical piece of machinery in a plant shuts down. If employees are relying on disparate communication channels like email, WhatsApp, or other messaging apps, there's a significant risk that the notification about the shutdown could be delayed, missed, or drowned out by other messages. This delay in communication can lead to prolonged downtime, causing significant financial losses.
With a consolidated employee experience platform, all communications and notifications are also centralized. When a machinery shutdown occurs, you can send out immediate notifications through the platform. The result? Everyone is informed in a prompt manner, allowing for a faster response to fix the issue and reduce downtime.
6 steps to achieve successful tool consolidation
- Assess needs. Understand what your frontline employees need and when they need it.
- Audit your existing tech tool stack. Identify the tools you currently use and evaluate their effectiveness.
- Choose the right platform to consolidate all your tools. Select a unified employee experience platform that can integrate with the essential third-party software. Note: Some employee experience platforms, such as Speakap for example, already offer features such as task management, employee journeys for onboarding and training, document management and workforce analytics. These features can significantly improve the employee experience. You might already be paying for a separate training tool, but an employee experience platform that provides on-demand training and onboarding can cut these costs by eliminating the need for multiple tools. It’s a win win for all.
- Implement gradually and provide necessary training for employees. Roll out the new system in phases to ensure a smooth transition. Ensure employees are comfortable and proficient with the new system by providing them with best practices for using the platform and guiding them through the process.
- Gather feedback. Continuously seek feedback to make improvements and ensure the platform meets employees' needs .Most employee experience platforms, including Speakap, allow you to gather this feedback by conducting anonymous polls. This helps in making informed decisions and continuously enhancing the employee experience.
- Measure and quantify your successes. Additionally, use the analytics provided by the platform to measure the effectiveness of its adoption across departments, locations, and countries. These insights are crucial for demonstrating the ROI to your CFO, showcasing the tangible benefits and improvements in the employee experience.
Ready to make a step towards tool consolidation to improve frontline employee experience?
Looking for a technology solution to empower frontline employees and ensure they live your service promise every day, in every location? Learn more about the ultimate employee experience platform here. Let’s make it happen! 😉