Conceptualizing the digital employee experience

Abstract

Purpose

One of the hottest topics in today’s professional and academic debates is digital transformation; some even prefer to use the term “digital business transformation” that is more in line with the business aspects of transformation. On the other hand, in today’s workplaces, human resource (HR) approaches have come into a new era named employee experience (EX). The digital employee experience (DEX), one of the outcomes of entrancing digital transformation in workplaces, has revolutionized the business world by shifting the priorities of organizations from focusing solely on the needs of managers to focusing on all the employees and their experiences in the workplace. Despite the importance of this concept, there is not a unified and complete definition for it. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to conceptualize the DEX.

Design/methodology/approach

In this study, a systematic literature review was conducted in academic and professional databases, and then to complete and confirm the definition, 11 academic and professional experts in the field of HR and digital transformation in the country were interviewed.

Findings

A definition of the DEX was provided that covers previous gaps about defining this concept.

Research limitations/implications

It should be noted that research on conceptualizing EX rather than DEX has been conducted on academic grounds, and in the professional world, there have been some initial attempts on conceptualizing the DEX. Therefore, this study was defined as the need to provide a definition of the DEX.

Originality/value

The importance of implementing the positive DEX, on the one hand, and failing to conduct comprehensive studies to understand this concept and provide a precise definition of it, on the other hand, have become critical issues in organizations.

Citation

Gheidar, Y. and ShamiZanjani, M. (2020), "Conceptualizing the digital employee experience", Strategic HR Review, Vol. 19 No. 3, pp. 131-135. https://doi.org/10.1108/SHR-01-2020-0004