Explore the impact of workplace technology on employee motivation and how businesses can leverage user-centric design.
We sat there, completely absorbed, eagerly listening to the wisdom coming from our most senior systems engineer, Jim. He and other experienced engineers in the plant had taken it upon themselves to bring in the rookies and show them the ropes. This included me, in the beginning months of my first job out of engineering school. It was a bit of a shock, transitioning from the lighthearted, activity-filled days of university to navigating a soot-covered industrial facility that was grinding away at a complex, never-ending digitization process. But as Jim shared with us how to navigate the ups and downs of the job and the importance of building relationships with the frontline workforce, I became excited about my new career. That is, until he ended his talk with something I didn’t know if I entirely agreed with; he said “remember, it’s just a job.”
While I think Jim’s intent was to alleviate the stress of expectations and the occasional “project from hell,” it was hard not to catch what felt like a hidden message: the role I was entering was frequently an unpleasant one. But as I soon found out, the friction in my new role didn’t merely stem from the demands of the job, but also from competing internal forces. Primarily between management and the frontline workforce; the latter – whose work-life quality had been of minimal consideration in the planning of the digital transformation – was making its opinion known.
Management efforts that “checked the box” for a successful digital transformation did not win the approval of the frontline. Many of them were accustomed to a variety of engaging and colorful analog dials, levers, switches, handwheels sight glasses, and gauges which had been mostly replaced by computer monitors with overly uniform, monochromatic buttons and an array of mind-numbing digital readouts – not to mention the increase in potential failure modes which made troubleshooting a more involved and complex process. The pushback was inevitable. Or was it?
According to research highlighted by a Harvard Business Review article back in 2015, there are several factors that explain peoples’ drive to work and several company processes that influence employee motivation.[1] The process that overwhelmingly had the highest potential to influence employee motivation, for good and for bad, was role design. If a worker’s role changes from the immersive experience of working with several interesting and tactile machine interfaces to staring at a screen and clicking a mouse button, you can bet there will be, on average, a shift in motivation.
So how does one leverage role design (or redesign) to improve, or at a minimum retain, work-life quality when transitioning to digital technologies? In short, make the experience of the users a priority, and consider not just what technology gives the users, but also what it may be taking away. Automating tasks and making new applications that streamline business processes, but tank employee motivation and work life quality, imposes more of a cultural debt than providing a positive digital transformation. In the story above, the interfaces were eventually updated to provide a more human-friendly experience that improved work-life for the frontline workforce, but in many ways the frustration of the initial transition still lingered.
Often in a new application, user interface and user experience (UI/UX) is seen as the cherry on top. The problem with that perspective is it implies that UI/UX may or may not be a part of the application, when in reality users will interface with your application, and they will have an experience. Whether or not that interface and experience is deliberately designed to increase the possibility that users adopt it, and are productive with it, is the real decision at hand. Back when companies were just beginning to consider moving towards digital solutions in the 90s, before Steve Krug’s Don’t Make Me Think (2000), few people knew the difference between a good user experience and a bad one. Today, if you’ve used a computer or phone that has internet access and social media (i.e. everyone), you know. It may be hard to nail down what it is that makes a website or an application look clean and feel seamless, but it has a very real effect and it produces very quantifiable results.[2] People often won’t notice a good user experience – it feels natural, and that’s good. But they will definitely notice a bad one, especially in today’s world with so many great comparison examples.
We all know that a significant portion of our days and lives revolve around work,[3] which has an inseparable impact from our overall well-being. Jim’s generation was tough. If you could bear the work, you’d show up to work every day, on time, do your work, and you wouldn’t complain. I respect that attitude. But as a software developer and consultant, I want to help design people’s workplaces to be somewhere they enjoy working – somewhere that minimizes the number of times they tell themselves, “It’s just a job.”
At Keller Schroeder, I’ve been lucky enough to experience the flipside of a digital transformation[4] and the positive impact technology and a well-designed user experience can have on roles within a company. Given the advent of generative AI, the massive potential for redesigning roles is more complex than ever. If you want to look at implementing generative AI, web applications, or other tech related solutions, reach out to us. We’d love to help you make your tech work in a way that meaningfully enhances the work you do and the customers you serve.
References:
- Harvard Business Review. How Company Culture Shapes Employee Motivation. 2015. https://hbr.org/2015/11/how-company-culture-shapes-employee-motivation. Accessed March 6, 2025.
- Forrester Research. The Business Impact of Customer Experience. 2008. https://www.forrester.com/report/the-business-impact-of-customer-experience/RES45189. Accessed March 6, 2025.
- US Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics. Average hours per day spent in selected activities on days worked by employment status and sex. 2023. https://www.bls.gov/charts/american-time-use/activity-by-work.htm. Accessed March 6, 2025.
- Keller Schroeder. Digital Transformation Framework. (n.d.). https://www.kellerschroeder.com/digital-transformation-framework/.
Written By:
Ben Hogan
Application Consultant
Applications Solutions Group
