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IT Organizations Prioritize Employee Experience by Investing in Remote Workforces

More than half (60%) of IT organizations are investing in improving employee experience to support remote workforce productivity and performance, according to The Changing Role of the IT Leader study by Elastic.


An adaptive business model with employee experience at its core is the key to building business resilience, creating a sustainable competitive advantage, and scaling effectively in times of disruption. Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, the shift to remote and hybrid working models has become a permanent fixture for many global organizations. IT leaders believe that enabling employees to work flexibly will improve the adaptiveness of their organizations and they are investing in technology to improve employee experience and productivity.

"One year into the COVID-19 global pandemic, the data shows it's time for IT leaders to put employee experience at the heart of every technology decision they make," said Kim Huffman, VP, IT, Elastic. "They must quickly and dramatically evolve and accelerate their programs as they work to support their employees and adapt to the next normal and a completely different way of working."

Globally, the partnership between IT and HR is growing stronger, with 57% of IT leaders collaborating more closely with their HR counterparts since the start of the pandemic, as also found in the study. While many IT leaders worldwide have pivoted to an employee-centric approach in their technology decisions, they still face barriers to establish an environment where IT fosters engagement and productivity.

"A deep partnership between HR and IT leaders is crucial when it comes to enhancing employee experience, and that partnership has never been more important than it was over the past year," said Leah Sutton, SVP, Global Human Resources, Elastic. "The combined insight and expertise that both leaders bring ensure that employees aren't bouncing around from IT, to HR, to finance, and more. Rather, employees have a holistic corporate experience that ensures they are supported, informed, and empowered with access to the tools and resources they need to successfully do their jobs."

IT leaders report that 92% of organizations worldwide are in survival or maintenance mode

■ In Asia-Pacific, China (21%) and Japan (16%) are leading with the highest number of enterprises in growth mode, while Australia (78%) has the highest number of enterprises in maintenance mode.

■ In Europe, the Netherlands (64%) and Germany (60%) are struggling most, with the highest number of enterprises in survival mode, and 3 in 5 IT leaders in the surveyed countries said their businesses are fighting to survive.

■ In North America only 7% of enterprises are in growth mode, while three times that number are in survival mode.

60% of IT organizations are investing in improving employee experience to support remote workforce productivity and performance, but don't have access to the budget and tools to do so

■ 63% of organizations are prioritizing a shift to digital business by focusing on democratizing employee access to data by evolving their data architectures to reduce data silos.

■ 57% of IT leaders globally have seen their budgets cut over the past 12 months, with 33% experiencing budget cuts of 10% or more.

■ 60% of IT leaders do not yet have the right tools, policies, and procedures to support a remote workforce.

Methodology: For this study, The Changing Role of the IT Leader (April 2021) — commissioned by Elastic — Forrester Consulting conducted a global online survey of 1,000 CIOs and IT decision-makers and select in-depth interviews with CIOs and IT leaders in Australia, China, France, Germany, India, Japan, the Netherlands, North America, Singapore, and the United Kingdom.

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IT Organizations Prioritize Employee Experience by Investing in Remote Workforces

More than half (60%) of IT organizations are investing in improving employee experience to support remote workforce productivity and performance, according to The Changing Role of the IT Leader study by Elastic.


An adaptive business model with employee experience at its core is the key to building business resilience, creating a sustainable competitive advantage, and scaling effectively in times of disruption. Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, the shift to remote and hybrid working models has become a permanent fixture for many global organizations. IT leaders believe that enabling employees to work flexibly will improve the adaptiveness of their organizations and they are investing in technology to improve employee experience and productivity.

"One year into the COVID-19 global pandemic, the data shows it's time for IT leaders to put employee experience at the heart of every technology decision they make," said Kim Huffman, VP, IT, Elastic. "They must quickly and dramatically evolve and accelerate their programs as they work to support their employees and adapt to the next normal and a completely different way of working."

Globally, the partnership between IT and HR is growing stronger, with 57% of IT leaders collaborating more closely with their HR counterparts since the start of the pandemic, as also found in the study. While many IT leaders worldwide have pivoted to an employee-centric approach in their technology decisions, they still face barriers to establish an environment where IT fosters engagement and productivity.

"A deep partnership between HR and IT leaders is crucial when it comes to enhancing employee experience, and that partnership has never been more important than it was over the past year," said Leah Sutton, SVP, Global Human Resources, Elastic. "The combined insight and expertise that both leaders bring ensure that employees aren't bouncing around from IT, to HR, to finance, and more. Rather, employees have a holistic corporate experience that ensures they are supported, informed, and empowered with access to the tools and resources they need to successfully do their jobs."

IT leaders report that 92% of organizations worldwide are in survival or maintenance mode

■ In Asia-Pacific, China (21%) and Japan (16%) are leading with the highest number of enterprises in growth mode, while Australia (78%) has the highest number of enterprises in maintenance mode.

■ In Europe, the Netherlands (64%) and Germany (60%) are struggling most, with the highest number of enterprises in survival mode, and 3 in 5 IT leaders in the surveyed countries said their businesses are fighting to survive.

■ In North America only 7% of enterprises are in growth mode, while three times that number are in survival mode.

60% of IT organizations are investing in improving employee experience to support remote workforce productivity and performance, but don't have access to the budget and tools to do so

■ 63% of organizations are prioritizing a shift to digital business by focusing on democratizing employee access to data by evolving their data architectures to reduce data silos.

■ 57% of IT leaders globally have seen their budgets cut over the past 12 months, with 33% experiencing budget cuts of 10% or more.

■ 60% of IT leaders do not yet have the right tools, policies, and procedures to support a remote workforce.

Methodology: For this study, The Changing Role of the IT Leader (April 2021) — commissioned by Elastic — Forrester Consulting conducted a global online survey of 1,000 CIOs and IT decision-makers and select in-depth interviews with CIOs and IT leaders in Australia, China, France, Germany, India, Japan, the Netherlands, North America, Singapore, and the United Kingdom.

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Cloud computing has transformed how we build and scale software, but it has also quietly introduced one of the most persistent challenges in modern IT: cost visibility and control ... So why, after more than a decade of cloud adoption, are cloud costs still spiraling out of control? The answer lies not in tooling but in culture ...

CEOs are committed to advancing AI solutions across their organization even as they face challenges from accelerating technology adoption, according to the IBM CEO Study. The survey revealed that executive respondents expect the growth rate of AI investments to more than double in the next two years, and 61% confirm they are actively adopting AI agents today and preparing to implement them at scale ...

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A major architectural shift is underway across enterprise networks, according to a new global study from Cisco. As AI assistants, agents, and data-driven workloads reshape how work gets done, they're creating faster, more dynamic, more latency-sensitive, and more complex network traffic. Combined with the ubiquity of connected devices, 24/7 uptime demands, and intensifying security threats, these shifts are driving infrastructure to adapt and evolve ...

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The development of banking apps was supposed to provide users with convenience, control and piece of mind. However, for thousands of Halifax customers recently, a major mobile outage caused the exact opposite, leaving customers unable to check balances, or pay bills, sparking widespread frustration. This wasn't an isolated incident ... So why are these failures still happening? ...

Cyber threats are growing more sophisticated every day, and at their forefront are zero-day vulnerabilities. These elusive security gaps are exploited before a fix becomes available, making them among the most dangerous threats in today's digital landscape ... This guide will explore what these vulnerabilities are, how they work, why they pose such a significant threat, and how modern organizations can stay protected ...

The prevention of data center outages continues to be a strategic priority for data center owners and operators. Infrastructure equipment has improved, but the complexity of modern architectures and evolving external threats presents new risks that operators must actively manage, according to the Data Center Outage Analysis 2025 from Uptime Institute ...

As observability engineers, we navigate a sea of telemetry daily. We instrument our applications, configure collectors, and build dashboards, all in pursuit of understanding our complex distributed systems. Yet, amidst this flood of data, a critical question often remains unspoken, or at best, answered by gut feeling: "Is our telemetry actually good?" ... We're inviting you to participate in shaping a foundational element for better observability: the Instrumentation Score ...

We're inching ever closer toward a long-held goal: technology infrastructure that is so automated that it can protect itself. But as IT leaders aggressively employ automation across our enterprises, we need to continuously reassess what AI is ready to manage autonomously and what can not yet be trusted to algorithms ...

Much like a traditional factory turns raw materials into finished products, the AI factory turns vast datasets into actionable business outcomes through advanced models, inferences, and automation. From the earliest data inputs to the final token output, this process must be reliable, repeatable, and scalable. That requires industrializing the way AI is developed, deployed, and managed ...