Employee experience encompasses all interactions between employees and the organization. This includes every aspect of these interactions, such as expectations, demands, and needs of employees; the ways they are expressed and heard; the organization's actions in response to these demands and feedback; the manner of delivering responses; and, ultimately, how employees perceive and evaluate these actions in alignment with their expectations and personal standards.
Building on this concept, digital employee experience refers to the dynamics of all digital and technological interactions between employees and the organization. While the HR department is the frontline in designing and creating employee experiences, designing digital experiences requires active collaboration between HR and IT departments, as digital experience resides within the technological domain. Thus, the literature on digital experience originates from the field of technology and has been adapted for HR purposes.
Exploring Digital Employee Experience Through Technology Literature
The term user experience (UX) serves as an umbrella for customer experience, consumer experience, employee experience, or any user’s interaction with a system. User experience encompasses the feelings of a user interacting with a system (e.g., website, software, application) and is defined by the following elements (Raya, 2017):
- Usability: Is the system easy to use?
- Learnability: Is the system easy for new users to learn?
- Desirability: Do users enjoy interacting with the system?
- Value: Is the system inherently valuable and beneficial?
For instance, consider Amazon's website, which exemplifies a useful and practical platform. Forty-four percent of American households have a Prime membership, and 44% of online shoppers begin their product searches on Amazon. This popularity highlights Amazon’s strong UX design, making it the default choice for many online consumers (Raya, 2017).
Employee Digital Experience: A Reflection on User Experience
Now, imagine your organization’s digital tools and systems. Do they offer a pleasant experience? Have you or your colleagues ever abandoned a task due to system inefficiencies? Was your first experience with your organization's intranet easy, or did it involve difficulties? Did you need to repeatedly ask for help or consult a user manual? If yes, then you may have experienced poor user experience.
Employee digital experience refers to all digital interactions employees encounter at work (Robertson, 2018) or all digital interactions between employees and their organization (Tout Farmer Group, 2019). These interactions can be categorized into:
- Workflows and productivity: (e.g., project management, analytics, customer relations)
- Communication and collaboration: (e.g., emails, social networks, phone calls, online meetings)
- HR systems: (e.g., recruitment, training, compensation, performance management)
For a positive digital employee experience, organizations must evaluate every user-facing element, including employee portals, intranets, CRM systems, HR information systems, and any other tools employees interact with. The shortcomings often stem from one of these four factors: usability, learnability, desirability, and inherent value.
Quality of Digital Experience
Quality of experience (QoE) refers to the extent of enjoyment or frustration users feel when interacting with a system or service (Callet et al., 2013). QoE reflects the degree to which a system meets user expectations, considering both its technological features and the human dimensions of users (personality, circumstances, etc.), which directly affect user experience.
According to Roto and Egger (2014), QoE is defined as the degree of enjoyment or frustration experienced by a user while interacting with a system. The term "experience" in this context highlights the user's reflective evaluation of the system, incorporating their expectations and specific human factors. Simply put, QoE represents the degree of satisfaction or dissatisfaction experienced during human-system interaction.
In the past, QoE research was often limited to multimedia systems, focusing on aspects like signal quality in audio, video, or streaming services. However, parallel studies in usability and UX focused more on the functional or hedonic aspects of user interaction. A less-explored dimension is the motivation users derive from system use, which pertains to the integrated meaning and understanding they gain over long-term usage. Motivation, alongside functionality and aesthetics, significantly influences user loyalty and long-term experience.
Psychological Needs of Users
The fulfillment of users’ psychological needs significantly influences their happiness and satisfaction. This notion draws from Maslow's hierarchy of needs, which outlines five basic human needs: physiological, safety, belonging, esteem, and self-actualization. In technology-related contexts, Deci and Ryan’s self-determination theory highlights specific needs such as competence, relatedness, and autonomy.
Sheldon et al. (2001) identified ten psychological needs relevant to user experience, including:
- Security
- Influence/Reputation
- Financial and Luxury Value
- Self-esteem
- Autonomy
- Competence
- Relatedness
- Hedonic Motivation
- Physical Advancement
- Self-actualization
Research shows a strong correlation between fulfilling these needs and positive user experiences with digital systems. Among these, needs such as motivation, relatedness, competence, and reputation are especially influential.
The Three Dimensions of User Experience: The HEP Cube
The HEP cube is a framework for evaluating systems across three dimensions: hedonic, pragmatic, and eudaimonic. It allows for comparing systems based on their pleasure, functionality, and alignment with meaningful user goals. For instance:
- A video streaming app prioritizes hedonic aspects.
- An educational software should balance all three dimensions to ensure both usability and meaningful engagement.
- A smart parking system should primarily emphasize ease of use (pragmatic).
Using Sheldon’s ten psychological needs, we can map user needs onto the HEP cube dimensions. For example, self-actualization is linked to eudaimonic aspects, while security spans all three dimensions.
Practical Implications of Digital Employee Experience
Digital employee experience is a tripartite relationship among the organization, the system, and employees. The organization procures the system and sets the work environment, aiming to achieve its goals. Employees, on the other hand, have personal needs like income, growth, and self-actualization, alongside their sense of responsibility for completing tasks.
To create a positive digital employee experience:
- Differentiate between organizational objectives and employee preferences.
- Address usability (ease of use) and hedonic aspects (enjoyment) to enhance user satisfaction.
- Recognize eudaimonic factors like meaningful work and long-term skill development, which foster system acceptance and commitment.
Ultimately, a balanced approach that considers all three dimensions—hedonic, pragmatic, and eudaimonic—ensures a sustainable and engaging digital experience for employees.
