The Digital Experience Gap: Would you choose the digital experience you give your workforce?

What should workforce technology give back to your people?

When I explored the NHS Staff Survey data ahead of my recent PeopleFirst speaking session, one contrast stayed with me.

Nearly 73% of staff said their immediate manager valued their work. Yet only 43% were satisfied with how much their organisation valued their work.

There was another revealing pattern. Around 70% felt able to suggest improvements, while fewer than 49% felt involved in decisions about changes affecting their work.

These responses describe different aspects of working life. They don’t explain why those gaps exist, and we should be careful about suggesting that any one piece of tech could close them on its own.

But they made me reflect on a question: how do people experience their relationship with their employer, every day?

Do they feel informed? Can they contribute and see what happens next? Does the organisation make it easy to access the support and opportunities available to them?

Those questions give us a useful starting point for thinking about workforce technology.

A more connected working life is already taking shape

For years, we designed workforce systems around particular organisational needs. Rostering supported workforce planning. Leave processes managed time away. Bank systems helped fill available shifts.

Each served an important purpose, but the experience could feel disconnected to the person using them.

Loop is an example of how those interactions have been brought together.

Putting rosters in people’s pockets gave staff a convenient way to see their working commitments. The ability to book leave and find bank opportunities brought more of their working life into the same app.

That matters. These are decisions that affect life beyond work: making plans around a shift, arranging time with family or choosing an opportunity to earn more.

It also gives us a foundation to build on. Once people have a useful connection to their working day, what else could that connection offer them?

The next step: a more reciprocal experience

At RLDatix, we’ve taken that thinking further with Loop Engage, Locate and Rewards.

The principle is straightforward: workforce technology should create value for the people using it as well as for the organisation.

In my session, I described this as reciprocity. If someone gives their time, shares information or offers feedback, what do they experience in return?

That question changes how we think about the interactions we bring into Loop.

Engage: a conversation people can take part in

Loop Engage brings targeted organisational updates and team communication together with opportunities to share feedback through polls and pulse surveys. It gives organisations ways to reach people and hear from them within the app.

For the individual, the opportunity is to understand what is happening around them, connect with colleagues and contribute their perspective.

The reciprocal part depends on what happens next. When people take the time to respond, leaders need to acknowledge what they have heard and explain what they will do about it, including when change is not possible.

Technology can support that conversation. The organisation has to make it meaningful.

Locate: making “I’m here” useful to both sides

Loop Locate allows staff to confirm their presence through the app, giving managers clearer visibility of attendance and supporting the reconciliation of worked hours.

The employee experience needs equal attention. A simpler way to confirm attendance should support a clearer record of time worked and reduce the need for chasing or correcting information.

Trust is essential here. People need to understand what information they are sharing, why it is needed and how it benefits them. That clarity belongs at the heart of implementation.

Rewards: a benefit people can use beyond their shift

Loop Rewards brings access to discounts and cashback into the app, offering practical savings that can support everyday financial wellbeing.

This broadens the relationship further. The app people use to organise their working commitments can also help them access something of personal value outside work.

Making those benefits visible and accessible gives employers a tangible way to support their people.

If you were to ‘Build your Loop’ what would that give back to your people?

The Staff Survey asks us to pay attention to how people feel about work. Our response needs to extend into the ordinary interactions through which they experience their employer.

Loop already connects important parts of working life. Engage, Locate and Rewards build on that foundation, with more opportunities for staff to participate and experience value in return.

For me, that is the ambition worth exploring: technology that helps an organisation run well while making working life better for the person using it.

Discover how Loop Engage, Locate and Rewards could build on your workforce’s everyday experience.

Speak to the RLDatix team about what your Loop could give back to your people.