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Retention of Millennial and Gen Z Employees Rests Heavily on Digital Employee Experience

Survey of Over 1,800 IT Business Decision Makers Finds CIOs, IT Teams Acting as Chief Talent Officers
Mike Marks
Riverbed

As Gen Z and Millennials become a larger part of the workforce, expectations for the Digital Employee Experience (DEX) have never been higher, according to Riverbed's Global Digital Employee Experience Survey of 1,800 IT business decision makers worldwide.

The rising influence of these digital natives, the shift to hybrid work, and limited resources have put tremendous pressure on IT teams to deliver exceptional DEX — or risk losing talent and productivity. Because of the need to attract and retain top-level Gen Z and millennial talent, some HR teams are calling CIOs and their IT teams the new Chief Talent Officers.

Millennials and Gen Z have the highest technology and digital experience expectations in the workforce, with 91% of IT leaders stating that they must provide more advanced digital experiences to meet the digital natives' needs to keep them engaged and productive at work. Respondents (89%) also believe that younger generation employees place increased pressure on dwindling IT resources, including smaller staffs.

Other key findings from the survey include:

■ 95% of business and IT leaders surveyed said delivering a seamless DEX is important to remain competitive.

■ 68% said younger employees may leave the company if digital needs aren't met.

■ 95% can identify at least one major obstacle to delivering a seamless DEX.

■ 94% said Unified Observability is important to competitiveness and DEX.

Survey respondents also believe that delivering better digital experiences is getting harder – not easier. They identified several obstacles in their path, including budget constraints (36%), IT talent/skills shortages (35%), lack of sufficient observability tools (29%), too much data to manage (28%), and a lack of appropriate SaaS or cloud services (29%). To counter these challenges, 81% of IT leaders polled have set aside budget to retrain their staffs, with 86% believing that the use of Unified Observability technology with greater automation and AI support can help close the skills gaps.

Unified Observability Is Key to Exceptional DEX

The move to hybrid/remote work, rapid cloud deployments and the need to keep digital native workers engaged on the job has resulted in IT leaders taking on bigger roles across their organizations. Technology is now a strategic driver of business growth as well as a recruiting tool to keep newly arriving younger workers as engaged and productive as possible at work. Given these trends, 89% of survey respondents plan to accelerate digital experience adoption and implementation, with 91% stating that they must make greater investments in Unified Observability solutions.

Unified Observability enables organizations to effectively monitor and analyze their entire digital infrastructure, including networks, apps, and user experiences. This holistic view allows them to proactively identify and address issues or bottlenecks that may impact performance, productivity, and employee or customer satisfaction. With real-time insights into their digital ecosystem, organizations can make informed decisions, optimize operations, and deliver a seamless digital experience for both employees and customers.

In addition to Unified Observability, survey respondents will also rely heavily on a mix of new and familiar technologies to shape the future workplace and improve DEX. These technologies identified below are expected to play a larger role in enhancing business operations, employee productivity and overall digital experiences over the next 18 months:


In late 2023 and throughout 2024, we will see IT leaders make deeper investments in DEX and in solutions such as Unified Observability and AI, particularly as the hybrid/remote work trend continues to flourish. By placing greater emphasis on these areas, they will empower their teams to dramatically improve their digital workplaces while helping their organizations attract and retain top young talent, outperform competitors, and drive sustainable long-term growth. By prioritizing the IT initiatives and investments that heighten DEX, IT teams can create a more productive work environment that, in turn, leads to higher employee engagement, greater customer satisfaction and overall business success.

Mike Marks is VP of Product Marketing at Riverbed

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Retention of Millennial and Gen Z Employees Rests Heavily on Digital Employee Experience

Survey of Over 1,800 IT Business Decision Makers Finds CIOs, IT Teams Acting as Chief Talent Officers
Mike Marks
Riverbed

As Gen Z and Millennials become a larger part of the workforce, expectations for the Digital Employee Experience (DEX) have never been higher, according to Riverbed's Global Digital Employee Experience Survey of 1,800 IT business decision makers worldwide.

The rising influence of these digital natives, the shift to hybrid work, and limited resources have put tremendous pressure on IT teams to deliver exceptional DEX — or risk losing talent and productivity. Because of the need to attract and retain top-level Gen Z and millennial talent, some HR teams are calling CIOs and their IT teams the new Chief Talent Officers.

Millennials and Gen Z have the highest technology and digital experience expectations in the workforce, with 91% of IT leaders stating that they must provide more advanced digital experiences to meet the digital natives' needs to keep them engaged and productive at work. Respondents (89%) also believe that younger generation employees place increased pressure on dwindling IT resources, including smaller staffs.

Other key findings from the survey include:

■ 95% of business and IT leaders surveyed said delivering a seamless DEX is important to remain competitive.

■ 68% said younger employees may leave the company if digital needs aren't met.

■ 95% can identify at least one major obstacle to delivering a seamless DEX.

■ 94% said Unified Observability is important to competitiveness and DEX.

Survey respondents also believe that delivering better digital experiences is getting harder – not easier. They identified several obstacles in their path, including budget constraints (36%), IT talent/skills shortages (35%), lack of sufficient observability tools (29%), too much data to manage (28%), and a lack of appropriate SaaS or cloud services (29%). To counter these challenges, 81% of IT leaders polled have set aside budget to retrain their staffs, with 86% believing that the use of Unified Observability technology with greater automation and AI support can help close the skills gaps.

Unified Observability Is Key to Exceptional DEX

The move to hybrid/remote work, rapid cloud deployments and the need to keep digital native workers engaged on the job has resulted in IT leaders taking on bigger roles across their organizations. Technology is now a strategic driver of business growth as well as a recruiting tool to keep newly arriving younger workers as engaged and productive as possible at work. Given these trends, 89% of survey respondents plan to accelerate digital experience adoption and implementation, with 91% stating that they must make greater investments in Unified Observability solutions.

Unified Observability enables organizations to effectively monitor and analyze their entire digital infrastructure, including networks, apps, and user experiences. This holistic view allows them to proactively identify and address issues or bottlenecks that may impact performance, productivity, and employee or customer satisfaction. With real-time insights into their digital ecosystem, organizations can make informed decisions, optimize operations, and deliver a seamless digital experience for both employees and customers.

In addition to Unified Observability, survey respondents will also rely heavily on a mix of new and familiar technologies to shape the future workplace and improve DEX. These technologies identified below are expected to play a larger role in enhancing business operations, employee productivity and overall digital experiences over the next 18 months:


In late 2023 and throughout 2024, we will see IT leaders make deeper investments in DEX and in solutions such as Unified Observability and AI, particularly as the hybrid/remote work trend continues to flourish. By placing greater emphasis on these areas, they will empower their teams to dramatically improve their digital workplaces while helping their organizations attract and retain top young talent, outperform competitors, and drive sustainable long-term growth. By prioritizing the IT initiatives and investments that heighten DEX, IT teams can create a more productive work environment that, in turn, leads to higher employee engagement, greater customer satisfaction and overall business success.

Mike Marks is VP of Product Marketing at Riverbed

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According to Auvik's 2025 IT Trends Report, 60% of IT professionals feel at least moderately burned out on the job, with 43% stating that their workload is contributing to work stress. At the same time, many IT professionals are naming AI and machine learning as key areas they'd most like to upskill ...

Businesses that face downtime or outages risk financial and reputational damage, as well as reducing partner, shareholder, and customer trust. One of the major challenges that enterprises face is implementing a robust business continuity plan. What's the solution? The answer may lie in disaster recovery tactics such as truly immutable storage and regular disaster recovery testing ...

IT spending is expected to jump nearly 10% in 2025, and organizations are now facing pressure to manage costs without slowing down critical functions like observability. To meet the challenge, leaders are turning to smarter, more cost effective business strategies. Enter stage right: OpenTelemetry, the missing piece of the puzzle that is no longer just an option but rather a strategic advantage ...

Amidst the threat of cyberhacks and data breaches, companies install several security measures to keep their business safely afloat. These measures aim to protect businesses, employees, and crucial data. Yet, employees perceive them as burdensome. Frustrated with complex logins, slow access, and constant security checks, workers decide to completely bypass all security set-ups ...

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Cloudbrink's Personal SASE services provide last-mile acceleration and reduction in latency

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In high-traffic environments, the sheer volume and unpredictable nature of network incidents can quickly overwhelm even the most skilled teams, hindering their ability to react swiftly and effectively, potentially impacting service availability and overall business performance. This is where closed-loop remediation comes into the picture: an IT management concept designed to address the escalating complexity of modern networks ...

In 2025, enterprise workflows are undergoing a seismic shift. Propelled by breakthroughs in generative AI (GenAI), large language models (LLMs), and natural language processing (NLP), a new paradigm is emerging — agentic AI. This technology is not just automating tasks; it's reimagining how organizations make decisions, engage customers, and operate at scale ...

In the early days of the cloud revolution, business leaders perceived cloud services as a means of sidelining IT organizations. IT was too slow, too expensive, or incapable of supporting new technologies. With a team of developers, line of business managers could deploy new applications and services in the cloud. IT has been fighting to retake control ever since. Today, IT is back in the driver's seat, according to new research by Enterprise Management Associates (EMA) ...

In today's fast-paced and increasingly complex network environments, Network Operations Centers (NOCs) are the backbone of ensuring continuous uptime, smooth service delivery, and rapid issue resolution. However, the challenges faced by NOC teams are only growing. In a recent study, 78% state network complexity has grown significantly over the last few years while 84% regularly learn about network issues from users. It is imperative we adopt a new approach to managing today's network experiences ...

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