Digital Employee Experience (DEX): What is it, why it matters, and what are its benefits

How often have you finished work and thought to yourself “wow, my laptop worked flawlessly today, what a great IT experience”? You could probably count on one hand.

In fact, 49% of employees say they lose between one and five hours of productivity each week dealing with IT issues and 69% have missed deadlines due to tech disruptions.

In a world where—with few exceptions—our work relies on technology, surely a frictionless digital experience is the bare minimum? This is the promise of digital employee experience (DEX). DEX focuses on proactive IT problem-solving with one key goal: to keep your workforce productive and free from digital frustration.

You might still be wondering, what exactly is digital employee experience? How will it help me and my team? And where do I start? In this article, we’re going to explore DEX and how the acquisition of 1E will benefit TeamViewer clients worldwide.

In this article:

• What is digital employee experience (DEX)?
• Why does DEX matter?
• The benefits and ROI of DEX

What is digital employee experience (DEX)?

When it comes to digital workplace transformation, digital employee experience (DEX) is key to succeeding and a critical part of ITSM.

A DEX platform uses real-time monitoring solutions and automations to find and resolve IT issues before they affect users. This eliminates digital friction, avoids costly downtime, and keeps IT operations running smoothly.

DEX tools help IT support, asset management, procurement and other teams whose work depends on reliable information.

In essence, DEX helps you address the challenges of supporting a digital workforce—wherever they’re working from.

DEX vs traditional endpoint management

DEX is an evolution of endpoint management that goes past identifying the digital problems faced by employees, instead providing real-time insights and solutions.

But why the evolution? With devices replacing traditional offices, cloud-first initiatives overtaking on-premises servers, and the increase in hybrid working, priorities have changed when it comes to providing employees with a good experience.

Take for example traditional digital experience monitoring (DEM) tools. As Gartner VP Research Analyst, Dan Wilson, explains, DEM tools provide advanced monitoring, early issue detection, and root cause analysis for web-based applications. They support both employee and customer experience use cases for IT operations teams.

In contrast, DEX tools focus on enhancing employee experience by monitoring technology usage. They gather sentiment, and automate responses to issues, primarily for internal IT teams.

So, what does this mean for you? Let’s dive in.

Why does DEX matter?

It is estimated that by 2026, 50% of digital workplace leaders will have established a DEX strategy and tool. Furthermore, by 2028, digital workplace teams that have fully implemented DEX tools will have a competitive advantage over those that haven’t.

With this—plus an increasing reliance on technology to remain productive—in mind, DEX is fast becoming something that organizations can’t ignore. But why?

There is also a correlation between digital experience and employee retention. According to Forrester’s Digital Workplace Strategy report, “good DEX strongly correlates with high employee engagement, which ultimately impacts employee retention—93% of employees with a high EX index score plan to stay with their organization.”

If employees leave due to poor DEX, this amounts to much more than an inconvenience when you consider both the direct and indirect costs. In fact, if we consider the DEX butterfly effect, it’s safe to say a bad digital employee experience can have drastic effects on your company’s bottom line.

Providing seamless digital experiences for employees helps to keep engagement and productivity high, increase operational agility and automation, and keep employees secure and compliant regardless of location. "Tools that continuously identify opportunities to improve the digital employee experience based on usage and performance data are critical for a thriving digital workplace." - August 2024 Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for Digital Employee Experience (DEX) Management Tools report

The benefits and ROI of DEX

We’ve said it before, and we’ll say it again: downtime is the enemy of productivity. Organizations must stay agile and productive—and that means fixing issues quickly and keeping downtime to a minimum. With DEX, reducing downtime and keeping your employees productive is the priority. Its benefits are far-reaching.

Don’t believe us? Consider the example of Britain’s favourite retailer. Since introducing DEX tools, they have seen significant results. With automation and remediation capabilities they have been able to increase visibility and improve experience.

The impact? Endpoint management for 26,000+ devices is simplified, device uptime has risen to 98%, mean time to resolution (MTTR) is lower, and—crucially—employee experience is improving while digital friction is reducing.

The ROI of DEX speaks for itself. Organizations with mature DEX programs experience 7x fewer disruptions in the digital experiences of employees; are 56% more likely to agree that DEX practices provide better remote work experiences; and benefit from 33% higher employee satisfaction and 62% improved employee retention.