Delivering Next-Generation Employee Experiences with the Citrix Workspace Platform

Recognizing that enthusiastic and empowered employees achieve at a far greater level, the most successful organizations have made a positive employee experience a central part of their operating strategy. But plans to improve the employee experience were knocked askew when the pandemic hit and remote work became the norm, whether the business was ready or not. Organizations had to find ways to improve the remote employee experience overnight. To their credit, IT teams and management were largely successful. However, it is now time to move past scramble mode and implement strategic solutions that enhance employee experiences.

An important change will be the ability to support both in-office and remote work seamlessly. Employees are going to go back to the office for at least a few days per month if they can do so safely. This will give rise to “hybrid work,” with a focus on letting staff get work done regardless of location.

The key to supporting both hybrid work and an improved employee experience is the right digital tool, typically an intelligent digital workspace platform. The modern digital workspace provides employees with the consistent environment they need as they move between work locations. And for many organizations, the digital employee experience will define the overall employee experience. This makes choosing the right workspace platform essential.

The Importance of the Digital Workspace Platform
The digital workspace platform eliminates common limitations of current digital employee experiences. It allows employees to focus on getting things done, not on the operation, integration, and management of numerous disparate, consumer-grade apps. The most important improvements in the employee experience provided by a digital workspace platform include:

• Information availability: Ad hoc remote and home users are a potential source of cyber-security threat, leading organizations to lock down files and data. This makes getting the job done difficult. The digital workspace makes it easy to securely and possibly proactively deliver all the information the employee needs to optimize productivity.
• Freedom from the security burden for employees: Even before the pandemic, many firms made employees the first line of cyber defense. Employees often had to install and run first-line defenses. This made them nervous and fearful that, without intention, they would cause a breach. The digital workspace provides a complete security stack automatically without employee involvement.
• Simplicity: The digital workspace puts all the employee’s tools in a single, comprehensive platform. Tasks such as individual app sign-on are eliminated with single sign-on (SSO). And employees can simply click on any app in their workspace and get the latest version. Employees no longer need to worry about tracking versions or updating applications.
• Better integrations: IT teams can build integrations between apps or services once and deploy them to every employee automatically. These integrations will improve workflow and eliminate the need for employees to duplicate data input for multiple apps. Better integration streamlines work and boosts productivity.

A modern digital workspace makes employees feel more productive, less frustrated, and faster, regardless of location. Management and HR teams also benefit because it is easier to attract and retain talent, and better support for remote work can be a factor. A revealed that more than 80% of managers believe providing effective access to apps and data is essential to a positive employee experience. And nearly 85% agree or strongly agree that a poorly chosen or implemented digital workspace has a negative impact on the employee experience.

The Digital Workspace in Use Today
The two examples below show real-life benefits from deploying a digital workspace platform.

• Online marketplace eBay uses the Citrix Workspace platform for both employees and partners. All legacy and SaaS apps are now in one place for the users. And with the Citrix platform, eBay is using AI to proactively fix problems and ensure performance. Reduced friction ensures a great employee and partner digital experience.
• City National Bank of Florida is already using Citrix to support digital transformation activities. After automating the loan application process using this new digital platform, it has funded 9,600 loans in the last three months. Using legacy systems, that would have taken 14 years. In addition, using automation and the Citrix Workspace, it has improved CRM interaction so that it now only takes two screens to do what used to take many more.

These two examples show only a fraction of the benefits possible. Making digital systems simpler to use removes the demand for employees to be mini-IT admins. This dramatically improves their experience. Citrix Workspace empowers the organization to meet the challenges of Hybrid Work while improving how employees interact with digital tools.