Monthnote: February 2023

February was the first full month since we went public with Digital Workplace Experience Study (DWXS) and our first full month of client meetings setting up studies. We're rock-solid on the study and the process, but getting to grips with the sales process has been a big learning curve.

And while that’s often a long-winded and painful process, the buzz of the sale has been a surprisingly fun and rewarding aspect of our work.

Salesman or therapist?

We love nerding out on digital workplace, and this gives us an excellent opportunity to do just that. Many of our introductory chats with people interested in DWXS have gone on for far longer than planned as we shot the breeze about the way the communication and collaboration tools we champion have come into their own in recent years – and what we need to do to keep pace with people’s growing expectations.

Other calls have been more like therapy sessions. Being an internal comms manager can be a lonely game sometimes. We get it; we’ve both been there ourselves.

Getting DWXS out into the world has given us the opportunity to re-connect with many of our broader network and get into the detail of what they need to do to up their game – and we’ve enjoyed working out where we (and our new tool) can help.

Affordances

With any new tool or technology, people first understand what a tool does, then they think about it in the context of their own work or environment. This “interpretive flexibility” is a core component of the appropriation process for any tech.

And DWXS has been no exception. We had some clear initial ideas how it might be used based, primarily, on our own consulting experience of using benchmarking tools. However, our digital workplace community are an innovative bunch and they’ve come to our client calls with some terrific ideas on how they want to use the DWXS in their organisations.

In one call, we spoke with a client who was looking for a way to measure their digital workplace team’s performance as part of their annual appraisal. Their existing analytics provided insight into the productivity numbers – the traffic reports on popular pages, sections, hang-times, bounce rates.

Now we know these numbers are useful, but they hide a valuable point: that employees using internal tools have no agency in the process. Unlike the consumer tech world, they can’t refuse to use the HR tool and they can’t switch to another intranet if they don’t like the one you provide! So the traffic tells you how many visits were received, but nothing of the sentiment of the visit or the value derived. The DWXS does give that insight so we can start to see what employees really think about the tools and content you share. Are employees using your digital workplace through gritted teeth? Our client wanted to include that in the appraisal process and we were happy to oblige.

Another call pointed towards a more common use case: the ability to create a business case for investment and change. Faced with a variety of potential digital workplace projects, our client was looking for some focus. Which areas would employees want the company to invest in? And just how bad are those DW areas? We’re really pleased to hear that the DWXS will be used in this way and we’re sure that every team needs that direction.

The third surprised us both. We’re used to dealing with companies that have – bluntly – an ecosystem that sub-par at least somewhere and needs bringing up to scratch. But what about the opposite? One organisation we spoke to are confident the digital tools and experience they provide for employees really is world-class. How can they prove that? They wanted to explore how they can use DWXS to evidence what they believe to be the case – so they can make it front and centre in their employee value proposition. In a tight talent market they want to show potential hires they really do give them everything they need to thrive.

As this month draws to a close, we’re grateful for the opportunity to talk to people about DWXS at last! Each call offers a chance to learn something new and to help someone else succeed, and we’re excited to continue building these relationships in the months to come.

If you want to talk to us about how the DWXS might help your planning, or you just want to geek out about this stuff, drop us a line*.

(* therapy optional)