As Riverbed, the leader in Unified Observability, prepares to make another appearance at GITEX 2023, the Company unveiled the Middle East findings of its latest research on the Digital Employee Experience. The research found that organisations today must employ high standards for the digital employee experience (DEX) in order to remain competitive and retain talent, in particular for younger generation employees who would otherwise consider leaving the company. In line with this, the company is focusing its presence at GITEX (Concourse 2 – Stand 18) around demonstrating how organisations can ‘Deliver Exceptional Digital Experiences with Unified Observability and Acceleration.’
Middle East Millennials and Gen Z Employees Have High Digital Experience Expectations
The Riverbed Global DEX Survey commissioned by Riverbed and conducted by Sapio Research, uncovered that Millennial and Gen Z employees have the highest technology and digital experience expectations in the workplace, with 64% of decision-makers in the UAE and Saudi Arabia saying younger generation employees are the most demanding of IT’s time, and nearly all (97%) of respondents believing they will need to provide more advanced digital experiences to meet their needs.
Seventy-two percent of regional leaders surveyed believe that if an organisation fails to deliver the seamless digital experiences that the younger generation employees now demand, they would consider leaving the company and over half (53%) say if digital experience expectations aren’t met, it would impact the company’s reputation and the business overall. Interestingly, half of leaders in the UAE and Saudi Arabia say a seamless digital experience is most likely to keep their workforce engaged, surpassing traditional office perks such as free coffee and snacks (14%).
It’s no surprise then that 98% of leaders in the UAE and Saudi Arabia say delivering a seamless DEX is important, (64% say it’s critically important) to remaining competitive. And with heightened digital expectations, and talent, productivity, and competitiveness at risk, almost all respondents (97%) say investing in DEX is among their top priorities for the next five years.
“The Middle East has a particularly large youth demographic. With Millennial and Gen Z individuals making up significant portions of the workforce, ensuring digital systems meet their expectations is becoming key to attracting and retaining top talent,” said Mena Migally, Regional Vice President, Emerging EMEA, at Riverbed. “At GITEX this year, our team will be present in full strength as we seek to engage with attendees and demonstrate how they can overcome growing IT complexity, and take proactive steps to enhance digital employee experiences.”
Obstacles to Delivering a Seamless DEX
At a time when the digital experience is business critical, 94% of UAE and Saudi leaders cited at least one major obstacle or gap to delivering a seamless DEX. Respondents identified budget constraints (36%), IT talent/skills shortages (32%), lack of sufficient observability tools (31%), lack of appropriate SaaS or cloud services (31%), and too much data (26%), and too many monitoring tools (26%) as the top obstacles hindering their ability to deliver on the digital employee experience.
Accelerating the Digital Experience: Unified Observability a Must-Have for DEX
In the last few years, the push to hybrid working environments has resulted in IT leaders taking a bigger role in the C-suite, and leaders say technologies, such as AI and unified observability, are playing an important role in delivering on the digital experience. Riverbed’s focus on leveraging GITEX to highlight Unified Observability as a solution to address the IT infrastructure complexity organisations face is based on the fact that almost all (97%) of regional respondents believe more investment into unified observability platforms would allow for a better employee and customer digital experience.
Additionally, UAE and Saudi leaders believe that these technologies – AI (54%), Cloud (50%), Digital Experience Management solutions (43%), Application/Network Acceleration technology (36%), and Automation (34%) – are crucial for organizations looking to remain competitive in today’s marketplace.
“At GITEX last year, we saw an overwhelmingly positive reception to our newly unveiled Alluvio Unified Observability portfolio. Now, a year later, we are excited to demonstrate the powerful new capabilities we have added to this industry leading platform,” said Migally. “Moreover, through our presence on the stands of our regional distributors – Crestan, Mindware, and StarLink – we are highlighting our deep commitment to the region, which augments the value proposition of our solution portfolio.”
Methodology
The Riverbed Global Digital Employee Experience Survey 2023 polled just over 1,800 global IT and business decision makers representing companies with over $250 million in annual revenue across 10 countries, including the UAE and Saudi Arabia. Their industries include finance/insurance, oil and gas, government/public sector, healthcare/pharmaceutical, manufacturing, retail, and professional services. The survey was conducted by Sapio Research in May 2023.
Explore HRtech News for the latest Tech Trends in Human Resources Technology.