The evolution of employee experience: From factory floor to digital workplace

When we consider the evolution of the workplace, it’s no surprise that we’ve seen a shift in organizational priorities and a move away from utility toward employee sentiment; we’ve transitioned from a focus on employee’s physical work experiences to their digital ones.

When hybrid working is commonplace, digital employee experience is the employee experience. And IT has become one of its most important drivers.

In this article we explore:

• Pre-digital employee experience
• The evolution from physical to digital employee experience 
• Why employee experience matters 
• IT as the engine for modern employee experience 
• Turning digital employee experience into a business advantage
• Conclusion

Pre-digital employee experience

Employee experience, often shortened to EX, is not a modern concept and is a core contributor to business outcomes. Its foundations go back more than a century and reflect how work itself has evolved.

In the early twentieth century, organizations focused almost entirely on physical working conditions. Industrial engineering aimed to optimize output, safety, and efficiency by improving factors such as lighting, equipment design, and workload. Productivity depended on the physical environment.

As office and knowledge work expanded, priorities shifted toward employee engagement. Retention, motivation, and satisfaction became measurable through surveys and engagement models. Organizations began linking engagement levels to performance, turnover, and long-term growth.

The next phase introduced continuous feedback and response. Pulse surveys and sentiment analysis helped organizations understand culture, identify risks, and respond faster to issues. In some cases, employee feedback even helped predict operational failures before they happened.

Each stage reflected the dominant workplace reality of its time. Each also paved the way for the next shift.

The evolution from physical to digital employee experience

The most significant change in employee experience came with the widespread adoption of remote and hybrid work. For many employees, digital tools replaced the physical office almost overnight. Devices, applications, networks, and collaboration platforms became the primary connection between employees and their organization.

When those digital tools work well, employees stay productive and focused. When they fail, friction shows up immediately as lost time, frustration, and disengagement. This is why digital employee experience, or DEX, has become central to modern EX strategies.

DEX focuses on how employees experience their digital environment every day, from device performance and application stability to connectivity and security. Rather than reacting to problems after users complain, DEX helps IT teams detect and resolve issues proactively. It shifts IT from firefighting to experience management.

Why employee experience matters

Employee experience has always influenced business outcomes, but in a digital-first workplace, the impact is stronger and more immediate.

When digital experiences fall short:

• Productivity drops as employees deal with slow devices and unreliable applications
• Retention suffers as frustration builds and engagement declines
• Customer experience deteriorates because employees cannot deliver consistent service

Poor digital employee experiences and broken workflows have a negative impact on business. Strong digital employee experiences, however, deliver the opposite effect.

When employees have seamless digital experiences, they spend less time troubleshooting technology and more time doing meaningful work. This directly supports productivity, wellbeing, and job satisfaction. 

Employee experience is also closely linked to customer experience. Engaged employees are better equipped to serve customers, solve problems, and represent the brand positively. Improving EX often leads to measurable improvements in CX.

IT as the engine of modern employee experience

One thing is clear: IT plays a defining role in how employees experience the workplace today. After all, employees rely on digital tools every day. That makes IT responsible for much more than uptime. IT helps to shape how work feels.

To deliver a strong digital employee experience, IT teams need:

• Real-time visibility into endpoint performance and user experience
• A proactive approach and the ability to resolve issues before they disrupt work
• Automation to reduce manual effort and recurring problems

This is where modern digital workplace platforms make a difference. They help organizations move from reactive support to proactive experience management. With real-time insights, secure remote connectivity, and automation, IT teams can reduce friction across the digital environment and keep employees productive wherever they work.

With solutions like the TeamViewer ONE digital workplace platform, organizations gain visibility across endpoints, applications, and user experience. This helps IT teams work proactively, resolve issues faster, automate fixes, and demonstrate their impact on the business.

Turning digital employee experience into a business advantage

It’s time to think about digital employee experience (DEX) as a business lever. Because when organizations invest in proactive DEX practices, the impact extends well beyond IT operations, and the business benefits are clear:

• Higher productivity and fewer digital disruptions
• Improved employee retention and lower replacement costs
• Better customer experiences driven by engaged, empowered employees

Employee experience has always evolved alongside the workplace. From factory floors to office environments and now hybrid work, each shift has redefined what employees need to perform at their best. Today, digital experience sits at the center of that evolution.