IT departments have not always seen eye-to-eye with the wider workforce, but since the Covid-19 pandemic began, physical separation has only made the problem worse.
According to a new report from endpoint management firm 1E, the average IT department is clueless as to what the remote working experience for the average employee actually looks like. IT pros are overestimating employee satisfaction, while underestimating how disruptive their work really is.
All 300 IT staff polled for the report said they were confident that employees are satisfied with the service desk experience. However, of the 300 remote workers that were also polled, less than half (44 percent) said they were completely satisfied.
Since they started working remotely, more than a third (36 percent) have also suffered more IT issues, which wouldn’t be that big of a deal if issues could be diagnosed without disruption.
IT staff believe they are doing a good job in this regard, but more than two thirds of employees (69 percent) said they felt disrupted while IT was resolving their issues.
The report also says the situation is about to get a whole lot worse, as three quarters of businesses are planning to move from service-level agreements to experience-level agreements to better measure and report on employee satisfaction.
Just half (50 percent) of service desks ask employees for feedback, and 64 percent of IT organizations do not routinely ask employees about their IT experience, leaving frustrations often unearthed and unaddressed.
“While 2021 presents a real opportunity for IT organizations to drive change that will positively impact the lives of knowledge workers, actually doing so will require greater transparency and dialogue between IT and employees,” said Sumir Karayi, CEO and founder of 1E.
“To achieve this, IT must strike a better balance between vendor agendas and employee needs. The lack of focus on, or even knowledge of employee priorities will ultimately prove detrimental to the overall success of the business, especially considering the level of employee dissatisfaction.”
