Workforce UX Drives Productivity

In my career, I’ve engaged extensively with financial institutions of all sizes.

Time and again, I’ve seen how antiquated software systems hinder their workforce’s productivity and ability to innovate.?

The result? Institutions trapped using outdated tools that fail to meet evolving customer needs.

Modern software should empower users.?

Yet in many enterprises, employees dread logging in each morning, facing overly complex interfaces that feel puzzling rather than intuitive.

Efficiency suffers when using software becomes a chore rather than a pleasure.?

Innovating new solutions also grows difficult when engineering resources stay occupied maintaining existing systems. Even small customizations require hiring scarce and expensive technical talent.

Still, institutions must evolve to survive.

MIT did a study that defined “employee experience” in terms of work complexity and behavioral norms that influence employees’ ability to create value. Within this context, the data showed that companies with great employee experience were more innovative and profitable and had higher levels of customer satisfaction.[1]

This is a solid indication that when you focus on the user experience of your workforce—day to day within your organization—they do better work, which enhances the productivity and performance of the business.

The Need for Intuitive and Adaptable Systems

Truly effective enterprise software enables customization by design.?

Users should mold solutions to their workflows, not the other way around. Empowered employees then drive innovation, uncovering better ways to serve customers. Ultimately, this is about comfort through customization. When your employees feel truly comfortable within their digital workspaces, they are happier while doing their job.?

Consumer apps show the way. Website builders, for instance, make creating an online presence easy for small businesses. Intuitive interfaces and flexible building blocks give owners control to match sites to their brand and offerings.

Now, cloud-based platforms bring consumer-grade usability to enterprises. When software adapts to users, rather than users adapting to software, productivity and creativity flourish.

Of course, ease of use remains only half the equation. Employees want solutions that not only work smoothly, but also provide the precise functionality their jobs demand. Meeting this bar requires a deep understanding of each user and their goals. But ultimately the users themselves are the subject-matter experts on their own specific workflows and use cases.?

Focusing Design Around the User

Truly intuitive software comes from user-centered design. This philosophy places employee experience first, crafting interfaces and features tailored to enhance their productivity.?

Success requires studying how target users operate. Where do they struggle with unnecessary complexity? How could existing tools better fit their needs? User-centered design seeks to comprehend pain points before ever writing a line of code.

Armed with this insight, developers construct solutions as extensions of the user. Well-designed interfaces feel familiar, allowing adoption free of extensive training. They anticipate and deliver precisely the capabilities each role requires.

This approach perfectly suits consumer apps, leading to platforms users not only adopt but enjoy and find indispensable. Applied to the enterprise, user-centered design unlocks enhanced performance through software employees actually want to use. This is ideal when building a platform from scratch.?

But what if the platform were built with user-driven customization as a first principle?

Where enterprises and their employees could tailor the software to their unique proposition and data set, and modify details to ideally suit distinct use cases?

This is the future that is swiftly arriving.

Unleashing Innovation from Within ?

Legacy platforms trap innovation. Inflexible and fragmented systems prevent institutions from sensing and responding to shifting consumer expectations. Overcoming inertia requires change at the very core of operations.

Customizable enterprise software liberates innovation from within. Empowered users create the upgrades they want most, rather than waiting on backlogged engineering requests. Operations evolve continuously, no longer hampered by outdated tools.

Consider workflows for assessing commercial credit applications. Underwriters best understand required steps and data. When provided intuitive interfaces, they can codify institutional knowledge into sophisticated automated decisioning.

Without needing to open tickets and wait on engineers, agents rapidly translate experience into software. Greater efficiency and consistency result, freeing resources to enhance downstream processes.

Unleashing employee creativity allows institutions to multiply the impact of top talent.

Workers feel valued when given flexibility to mold solutions to the way they operate best. At the same time, software adapts to the latest market conditions far faster than any engineering team could deliver alone.??

The Path to Better Customer Experiences?

Ultimately, user-centered software benefits customers most.

Institutions gain unprecedented agility to meet rising expectations, while employees feel empowered to identify ever-better ways to serve client needs.

Freed from fighting outdated tools, workers focus on the human dimensions of their roles. Software handles routine tasks, providing capacity to build meaningful relationships beyond transactions. When technology enables rather than hinders, customer satisfaction reaches new heights.

Meanwhile, institutions see software become an asset rather than liability. Continuous improvements make scaling smooth and inexpensive, driving down costs even as offerings expand. User-tailored interfaces minimize training needs, speeding onboarding of new hires.

In a rapidly evolving landscape, winning and keeping customers demands technology that facilitates change rather than resisting it.

User-centered design points the way, creating enterprise software that finally delivers on its promise to empower.

The path ahead promises still greater innovation, but realizing this potential starts with solutions users themselves help shape. When technology provides precisely the capabilities workers require to excel, whole institutions transform from the inside out.

Citations:

[1] Dery, K., Sebastian, I.M. & van der Meulen, N. (2017). The Digital Workplace is Key to Digital Transformation Success. MIT CISR Research Briefing, 17(6).