"Wait, so I have to send emails to three different teams in order to get my new employee set up? But I want them to start this coming Monday for a big project I need their help on!" - many a manager in today's enterprise company

This is a common scene at many companies today and employees are getting increasingly frustrated with employee self-service options. After all, they can research, order, and receive a new computer at home within 24 hours, so why should it take 10 times as long at the office?

Customers have traditionally lead the way in demanding better, consumer-centric experiences from companies. But they're not the only ones with higher expectations. Employees are now expecting the same connected, mobile-first, and personalized experience from their workplace that they're accustomed to in their personal, consumer lives. In fact, 71% of them want their employers to provide them with the same level of technology as they use in their personal lives.

What can companies do to improve their employee self-service options and give their organizations a better employee experience?

Use consumer technology at the office

We have such great customer experiences outside of our professional lives that it's disheartening to come back to a stodgy, retro kind of work environment.  According to Salesforce's State of the Connected Customer research, about 71% of employees want their employers to provide them with the same level of technology they use in their personal lives.

So that's more messaging apps like Slack that mimic text messaging and IM platforms; easy ways to share images like Instagram or Snapchat; reminder algorithms that bring up information they talked about last year that may still be relevant (like the "this time last year" reminder of a photo or status update we made on Facebook).

For example, using a messaging app to chat with colleagues around the world. According to Comscore, 91% of our personal mobile phone time is spent on messaging apps. Employees expect the same when they're at the office, instead they're stuck with email and phone calls. Chatbots attached to enterprise messaging apps can help employees do everything from book time off, submit expense reports, schedule meetings, book travel, on-board new employees, and more.

Give IT teams the power to innovate

Top performing companies are already listening to their employees and are empowering their IT teams to construct more connected internal processes and tools. Today, 78% of IT leaders are making digital employee experience projects a higher priority than they were just two years ago.

While communication tools like email won't go away, giving IT teams the power to implement other tools that they can use instead. Such as connecting Workplace with Confluence, letting employees keep just one app open at a time on their desktop. This integration lets them:

• Receive Jira updates in Workplace,

• Create Jira tickets through Workplace, and

• Associate Workplace groups to Jira projects, ensuring the right people are updated.

Align IT with the rest of the company

Previously, IT was seen as the supporting infrastructure to the rest of the company, just providing enough technology and service to keep things moving forward.

As our dependence on technology has increased, so too has ITs role in the organization. Department leaders must work together, so everyone can provide the information and resources they need to do their best work.

Companies know they must align IT with the rest of the company in order to make life easier for everyone. In fact, 67% of IT teams say collaboration is their second highest priority, after security work.

Using better collaboration tools like Confluence ensures that everyone in your organization has visibility into business goals and projects, and can stay ahead of it all. All of your employees will benefit from a tech stack that just "works", without all the headaches of service requests of Jira trouble tickets.

As technology improves and makes our personal lives easier, employees are going to ask for more of the same technology and experience at the office. Blending the personal and professional tech experience will go a long way to removing any friction employees face on the administrative side of their work (which is the part they usually experience the most trouble with).

Incorporating consumer technologies into the self-service tech stack will help improve the employee experience at your organization. And better experiences help increase revenues, lower costs, and generate stronger employee and customer loyalty.