Study finds half of UK public sector employees unhappy with digital experience

A new survey sheds light on the challenges today’s digital workplace poses across the UK public sector, with 50% of staff revealing they are unhappy with the digital experience their organisation is providing. 

The survey, conducted by digital employee experience organisation Lakeside Software, took into account the opinions of 400 public sector employees to identify key issues and opportunities to improve.  

Despite adopting new technologies and work models, 82% of respondents reported feeling "frequent" or "occasional" frustration with their digital workplace experience.

Reported issues stem from IT systems that often hinder public sector workers’ ability to complete tasks effectively. This has been shown to lead to job dissatisfaction and retention challenges, with one in ten staff members (11%) stating that they considered leaving their jobs due to the severity of the IT issues they face.  

Connection problems emerged as the most prevalent IT issues, affecting 68% of respondents, while slow-running and application-related challenges (56% and 55%, respectively) followed closely behind. 

Notably, however, not all problems are reported or fixed. The data finds that 23% of respondents rarely or never report IT issues, resulting in a state of “silent suffering” that creates blind spots for IT teams to resolve issues that may affect multiple staff at once, the report states. 

Against this backdrop, it’s clear that while digital adaptation at large has been successful across the public sector, meeting the unique needs of the end user will require ever-improving digital capabilities along with a cultural shift and an appropriately skilled workforce.