How to keep your employees happy: Give them good technology

Employees who are not satisfied with their workplace technology will stop earlier, a study finds, and it is up to employers to remedy this.

Video: Why do people quit technical jobs?
Reasons range from being recruited to dislike in the office environment. The most important reason, however, is poor treatment.

A report from IT research firm Enterprise Strategy Group examines how technology influences work professionals, what it does to their work / private life and what kind of technical employees employees want to offer.

The 35-page report is packed with information for organizational leaders who are curious about the technical habits, desires and opinions of their staff, but an important point is that it is better than the rest: if employees are not satisfied with the technology, reuse it in In their daily work, two-thirds of them would consider finding another job.

With this in mind, here are three things in the report that business leaders should notice when they consider how to keep their employees happy, at least when it comes to technology.

SEE: 10 ways to communicate more effectively with customers and colleagues (free PDF) (TechRepublic)

1. Be careful with overloading the communication

More than a third of the respondents (43%) say that they have difficulty keeping up with the enormous amount of communication that they are expected to have to maintain at work.

These distractions mainly come in the form of e-mail, of which the average respondent receives 40 per day. Along with other forms of digital communication, such as text messages, phone calls and instant messaging, employees receive an average of 79 work-related communications per day.

This flood of communication does not have to be a problem and meeting a satisfactory benchmark is not difficult: respondents who say that their communication load is usually manageable, received 70 or fewer communications per day. The happiest employees report that they receive 50 or fewer work-related communications a day – that is a more difficult standard to meet, but an important one if managers don’t want to emphasize that employees only have communication.

2. Set clear standards for BYOD and company-issued devices

Organizations opposed to the BYOD revolution have lost: 54% of employees “expect to be able to use the same smartphone, laptop or tablet for both business and personal tasks,” the report said.

In addition to shared use of devices, 71% want personal information about devices they use for their work to remain private, regardless of whether they are issued by a company or are personally owned.

With those expectations comes a security congress: how do organizations protect sensitive business data while still respecting employee privacy? Mobile device management tools do not always distinguish between private and company data, and if an organization starts protecting its data, some personnel information may be collected during the process.

Organizations must establish very clear standards for devices that are both in personal possession and issued by companies. Ensure that employees know what kind of device management there is, what acceptable use is, and what they can expect if a device is lost or stolen.

SEE: BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) policy (TechRepublic Premium)

3. Listen and respond to the technical desires of employees

The report contains a long list of what respondents said they wanted in the field of workplace technology, and it is a list that leaders should pay attention to, especially considering how easily some of the items could be implemented:

• 33% want a simplified password / login process, such as a password manager or biometric ID methods;
• 30% want their organization to offer more technical training (and 83% expect at least some);
• 29% want their organization to allow more remote work, and;
• 27% want newer devices, whether they are newer PCs or mobile devices.

These desires are a collection and although most organizations can benefit from implementing one or more, it is important for individual companies to determine what their employees want.

Organizations need to gauge their members to find out what kind of technological changes they want. If possible, try to implement some of these changes. With two-thirds of employees who are likely to consider stopping if their technical needs are not met, it is worth finding out what they want before good talent walks out the door for an avoidable reason.

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