Source: e3zine.com. The findings summarized below are drawn from a VMware-commissioned global survey of employees, human resources (HR) professionals, and IT decision makers across industries and geographies.
VMware released results of a global survey examining the digital employee experience — how much it matters, how well organizations are delivering it, and what can be done to improve it. The survey polled employees, HR professionals, and IT decision makers across multiple industries and regions. Its headline finding: enabling a positive digital employee experience — characterized by device choice, seamless app access, and remote work capability — correlates strongly with an organization’s competitive position, revenue growth, and employee sentiment.
“Too often, the conversation about digital transformation focuses on the technology and leaves out a key ingredient to a winning strategy – attracting and retaining the best talent. To compete for the best talent, companies are prioritizing employee experience; which encompasses technology, workstyle and culture. Leaders committed to improving employee experience are adopting the digital workspace, a concept VMware pioneered three years ago. A digital workspace platform fuels modern digital experiences, which our survey revealed as being critically important to current and prospective employees as well as improving other key business outcomes.”
— Shankar Iyer, Senior Vice President and General Manager, VMware
Digital Employee Experience Favors Business Growth
Employees’ ability to access the applications and information they need — from any device or location — directly affects their capacity to plan, collaborate, and execute. The VMware survey found that providing a seamless digital experience positively impacts business outcomes including revenue growth, employee morale, and talent acquisition.
Organizations that rank as competitive leaders are significantly more likely to have employees who report a good digital experience at work, compared to those at companies identified as industry “followers.”
A particularly striking data point: 80% of employees at companies experiencing more than 15% revenue growth report they can easily find and install the right app for any new task or process at work. By contrast, only 42% of employees at underperforming or flat-growth companies say the same. This gap suggests that frictionless access to tools is not merely a convenience — it is a measurable business differentiator.
Digital Experience Retains and Attracts Top Talent
Beyond revenue metrics, the survey found that digital employee experience has a significant impact on workforce sentiment and an organization’s ability to recruit.
Respondents whose organizations give them the ability to work from anywhere were considerably more likely to express pride in their employer. Compared to those without location flexibility, they were also more likely to report that their organization:
- Has a progressive culture (71% vs. 28%)
- Is recognized as a top place to work (70% vs. 29%)
- Provides good work-life balance (69% vs. 30%)
On the recruitment side, digital tooling is increasingly a factor candidates weigh before accepting an offer. 73% of survey respondents agreed that the flexibility of tools — including technology choices, apps, and devices — would influence their decision to apply for or accept a position at a company. For organizations competing for skilled technical talent, this finding carries direct hiring strategy implications.
The Gap Between What IT Thinks It Delivers and What Employees Experience
One of the more revealing findings involves the perception gap between IT departments and the employees they serve. The numbers highlight a substantial disconnect:
- 95% of IT decision makers claim they provide employees with the digital tools needed for their jobs.
- Yet 42% of employees (nearly half) say they do not have the digital tools they need.
A similar gap exists around employee voice in technology decisions:
- 83% of IT decision makers say employees have a say in which digital technologies they use.
- But 64% of employees feel they have no voice in those decisions.
Despite these divergent perceptions of delivery quality, both groups agree that improving digital employee experience should be a top organizational priority. 87% of IT respondents and 78% of employee respondents share this view — a rare area of consensus that points to an actionable mandate for leadership.
Digital Employee Experience Is a Cross-Functional Responsibility
The VMware study surfaced an additional organizational challenge: confusion over who ultimately owns the digital employee experience. Depending on whom you ask, a different executive is identified as the accountable party:
- IT decision makers most often pointed to the Chief Information Officer (CIO).
- HR decision makers most often identified the Chief HR Officer (CHRO).
- Employees most often cited the Chief Executive Officer (CEO).
This fragmented ownership model can lead to siloed initiatives and inconsistent experiences. Notably, 89% of all respondents — regardless of role — believe that HR and IT could collaborate more effectively to improve the digital experience for employees. The data suggests that ownership ambiguity, not lack of intent, is the primary barrier to progress.
Key Takeaways for DevOps and IT Leaders
For DevOps, platform engineering, and IT operations teams, the VMware survey results translate into several practical considerations:
- Measure employee-facing tool experience, not just uptime. System availability metrics do not capture whether employees can actually find and use the tools they need. Consider internal satisfaction surveys or tooling friction audits.
- Close the perception gap with feedback loops. The 95% vs. 42% split on tool satisfaction points to a lack of structured feedback mechanisms between IT and end users. Regular surveys, shadowing sessions, or embedded support models can surface hidden friction.
- Make device and app flexibility a first-class engineering concern. Supporting BYOD, cross-platform app delivery, and remote access is no longer a nice-to-have — it correlates with recruiting outcomes and revenue performance according to this survey.
- Establish cross-functional ownership. Digital workspace initiatives that sit entirely within IT or entirely within HR tend to miss important dimensions. A joint IT-HR product team with clear executive sponsorship is more likely to succeed.
- Frame digital experience improvements as business investments. The link between seamless tooling and revenue growth provides a compelling narrative for budget requests and leadership buy-in.
The full VMware Digital Employee Experience survey report and methodology were originally covered by e3zine.com. VMware’s Workspace ONE platform is positioned as the vendor’s primary product for delivering the digital workspace capabilities described in the survey.