Why Business Application UX Is Essential for Your Employees (and Your Company)
At work, have you ever said to yourself:
“But what is this tool they give me to work with? It doesn't look like anything, I can't find anything. Plus, it takes me ages... The guy who designed it didn't understand my job at all.
Or he wanted to torture me, take your pick.”
If this has never happened to you, you are one of the lucky ones.
Because unfortunately, this is still the daily life of a majority of employees.
According to one survey conducted on 9000 employees worldwide, 91% say they are frustrated by poorly designed and unsuitable professional interfaces.
Added to this is the multiplicity and heterogeneity tools provided, which further complicate matters.
Which sometimes we don't even have control over because they are publisher licenses that we are stuck with. We are entirely dependent on them and we can't modify or customize anything.
Beyond individual irritation, what is the business impact of poor UX on a company?
This is what we will explore in this article.
And above all, how a UX and UI approach can help transform internal tools into real allies in daily work.
The consequences of poor UX on the employee experience
When business interfaces and tools are not optimized, this impacts the company on two levels:
- A significant loss of efficiency
- Growing annoyance among employees
But let's see how this is quantified and explained.
Declining productivity and performance
Poor UX in business applications leads to:
- Slower work
- A misunderstanding of the business application
- Mistakes, sometimes with serious consequences.
- An onboarding session lasting several days or even weeks to master a tool, which may be impossible to provide.
- A lack of accessibility and adaptability. Lack of mobile compatibility, unsynchronized data, and inability to collaborate effectively.
Frictions which, added together and multiplied by the number of employees, waste time and money.
For example, 70% of employees are unable to locate information to do their jobs effectively. Performing an average of 8 searches and losing 2 hours a day.
It's as if, in one week, you were paying an employee one day for nothing.
And over a year, for an employee paid €55 net, this represents €000 wasted by the company.
Just because of systems that are not optimized.
It's crazy, right?
As for onboarding, it's no better.
A survey shows that 68% of managers find business applications too difficult to understand and requiring too much training.
Additionally, 69% add that employees do not have enough time to learn how software works.
In other words, they don't know how to use the tools properly, which slows them down and increases the risk of errors.
The good news is that UX can help change this.
Let's take the example of the redesign and optimization of an internal SNCF application.
The UX did in-depth work to understand the professions, the business framework, the design, etc., which made it possible to reduce the training time from 2 days to 0,5 days.
This represents a saving of more than 87% in time and investment.
In an era and economic context where boosting processes and reducing budgets are the #1 priority, focusing only on AI is a mistake.
UX and UI are key business challenges for increasing performance and generating an optimal user experience.
Which brings us to our second factor:
😤Frustration and progressive demotivation of employees
Imagine:
Every day, in your personal life, businesses provide you with the best possible customer experiences. Ordering an Uber, shopping, booking a ticket…
Your journey is designed to be beautiful and modern, but also intuitive, fluid and easy.
Because they know: your experience, both graphic and functional, is essential to making you want to stay and come back.
Now imagine you arrive at work:
You are given a business application that you have to use 8 hours a day, whose design dates back to the 90s, with buttons hidden under 15 clicks in a menu and where you search for 10 minutes to find information.
Ouch!
Especially because it's impossible for employees to magically forget all their great digital experiences from their private lives, just because they've walked through the doors of their office.
(Unless you're in the series Severance by Ben Stiller. By the way, if you haven't seen it, we recommend it 😉)
If I were to try to make you experience this shock in this article, I would make you go from this (your private life):
To this in your professional life:
Doesn't that make you cringe?
It's a bit like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.
And yet, this is what happens on a daily basis for the majority of employees.
“There is a colossal debt between business tools and everyday websites. A huge cultural gap that is blocking and prohibitive for employees.” – Nicolas Lepelley, Lead UX
And by dint of having unsuitable interfaces and routes, this results in:
- An increase in turnover
- Du stress due among other things to techno-complexity
- A gradual demotivation.
Quite understandable when an employee spends hours on unsuitable tools that belong to another era. - A talent drain.
The current generation, but also the new generation, who are demanding in terms of work experience. 81% consider it important that their company integrates the latest technologies. - A bypass of official tools.
Hello DIY and insecure solutions! - A negative feeling towards the company.
“If I am given rotten tools, it means my work has no value.” - A feeling that their jobs and daily lives are not understood.
UX therefore impacts not only IT and CIO teams, but also HR.
Their involvement is essential in improving internal tools to create an environment that attracts and retains talent.
There is also a Espaitec's Very interesting on YouTube which covers: the importance of employee experience, the perspective and business complexities/constraints...
This is an important topic because we often view the employee experience through the prism of UX: “we need to do better.”
But business realities must be studied to understand the impact of the tools, the professions, the current ecosystem, etc. In order to prioritize, define budgets and position oneself on the solution:
- Acquiring a license (off-the-shelf or semi-customizable) can be a quick and perceived cheaper solution. But it also multiplies the number of tools and forces us to adapt to them and the limitations of their solutions. This can be a headache because we have little or no control over the employee experience, yet this is also what we're trying to solve.
- Or the Rolls Royce: designing in-house which gives us total control.
On costs, centralization of solutions, interfaces to professions or skill levels of employees.
Why is customer experience great, but employee experience isn't?
In this article we highlight an interesting topic:
Companies are investing heavily to deliver differentiated and high-performing customer experiences.
What is natural and logical: you have to attract prospects and generate stable revenue.
But what about the collaborators, these famous “internal customers” ?
In a less direct and visible way, they participate in a reduction of costs if their tools are adapted, allowing them to be productive.
This article is an invitation to reconsider their place and importance in the company.
Because the reality is that they are the heart of the business and keep it running. Without them, we wouldn't have any products or services to sell.
An investment in their tools therefore becomes a real strategic lever.
Allowing colossal repercussions on companies, both in human and business terms.
“Your employees are your company's real competitive advantage. They're the ones making the magic happen-so long as their needs are being met.” Richard Branson
How to integrate UX and UI into the design or improvement of employee interfaces?
UX will aim to meet users at several key moments.
To better understand their business needs, their daily working methods, and also to find ideas for suitable solutions. And then start building the journeys and interfaces.
A structured methodology is the heart of the project's success
- Business objectives
Understand the business and the needs related to the approach.
But also define precise KPIs to measure the success of the project. For example via the method HEART. - Field observation to understand the current situation
Observe what already exists by meeting the professions.
See how they operate on a daily basis, their habits and what their business needs are.
But also how they use the platform today and the pain points they encounter. - Organize workshops
Whether it’s for ideation, technical feasibility, maybe a design sprint…
To frame the project with the departments, but also to unite the teams.
It is also important to have a UX champion or users at each workshop to ensure alignment with field needs. - Benchmark direct and indirect
See and be inspired by what is being done elsewhere.
However, it's often difficult to look at competitors' business interfaces because they aren't public. But you can either look at service tools on the market (e.g., I need to design schedule management interfaces. Why not look at Monday.com?).
Or discuss with peers and consultants who have worked on similar missions.
They will be able to help you based on their knowledge and expertise. - Creations of low-fidelity models
Build the foundations and skeleton of screens and navigations.
In black and white, without visual/textual dressing, to allow for first drafts. - Design of graphical interfaces
The designers will dress the models with the colors of the graphic charter, icons, etc. to create a visually pleasant environment. - Carry out user tests
Conduct a reality check by testing the new interfaces with business teams. This ensures they adequately meet their daily needs and requirements. This helps reduce launch risk and refine the workflows if necessary. - Accompany with change management
A new tool means replacing the old one, which requires communication, preparation, and support.
This article will give you more practical details on certain pieces of the methodology to follow for B2E.
Conclusion: UX, an under-exploited lever in business applications, which can nevertheless boost the company
Current internal tools are mostly unsuitable for employees. Generating losses of time, money and performance. But it also drives away talent and creates intense frustration among employees.
So, rather than imposing software that drives you crazy... Why not design tools that work for your employees (and ultimately, for you)?
Maude VAN RYMENANT, Lead UX Researcher at UX-Republic
