Workday Global Survey: Finance, HR, and IT Leaders Reveal Top Barriers to Digital Transformation Post-Pandemic
55% of Senior Business Leaders Surveyed Say Their Digital Strategy is Outpaced by Business Demands, Widening the Digital Acceleration Gap
Business Leaders Are Prioritizing Data Accessibility, Employee Experience to Accelerate Digital Transformation Progress
In the report, "Closing the Acceleration Gap: Toward Sustainable Digital Transformation," Workday surveyed 1,150 global senior business leaders to understand the pace of digital transformation over the course of the past two years and the biggest barriers to success. The findings revealed that while finance, HR, and IT leaders recognize the importance of digital transformation, 55% of respondents say their digital strategy is always or often outpaced by the demands of the business. As a result, the digital acceleration gap is widening, where business needs are changing faster than the technology, processes, and culture required to keep pace. In response, leaders are adopting a more sustained approach to transformation by prioritizing access to data and employee experience.
To help close the acceleration gap, business leaders across the three functions are focusing on:
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Finance leaders: Unified, fast data.
More than half of finance leaders (51%) say that one of the most important elements to accelerating planning, execution, and analysis cycles is new technologies that can help integrate data between disparate systems and break down internal data silos. Yet, 61% say that technology that unifies financial, people, and operational data is their most pressing need, with 64% admitting that it takes weeks — or more — to get results at the end of a reporting period. -
HR leaders: Employee experience and skills development.
Amid the Great Resignation, organizations increasingly focused on skills to help improve recruiting, retention, and overall employee experiences. According to the survey, 25% of HR leaders rank resilience and adaptability first among skills that will ensure teams can continuously meet business demands as they evolve. Further, 50% of HR leaders say positive employee experiences are most important to accelerating transformation across the business. -
IT leaders: Breaking down silos to drive automation.
While CIOs hold the key to data-fueled transformation, many are overwhelmed by the pace of change as legacy constraints and data silos are top barriers to digital transformation, according to the survey. Only 42% of IT leaders are confident in their teams' ability to adopt cloud technologies without legacy constraints. Further, half of IT leaders (50%) are struggling to keep pace with service upgrades as part of legacy technology, with 59% saying it can take weeks or months to change an automated business process.
Workday helps organizations close the digital acceleration gap with Workday enterprise management cloud, which provides a unified view of financial, people, and operational data to help enable organizations to adapt and stay ahead of the accelerating pace of change.
Comment on the News
"Digital transformation is no longer a choice – it's necessary to keep pace in today's changing world. Yet, as the study shows, there's an acceleration gap organizations need to address to help ensure their digital journeys keep pace with the growing and evolving demands of their business," said
About the Survey
Workday surveyed 1,150 senior business leaders in
In addition to this quantitative research, between September and
For More Information:
- Download the report "Closing the Acceleration Gap Toward Sustainable Digital Transformation."
- Read the blog "Global Study: Leaders Looking for More Sustainable Digital Transformation Pace."
- Listen to the podcast "Workday Podcast: Are Businesses Facing a Digital Reckoning?"
- To learn more about digital transformation and how to get started, visit here.
About Workday
Workday
is a leading provider of enterprise cloud applications for finance and human resources, helping customers adapt and thrive in a changing world. Workday applications for financial management, human resources, planning, spend management, and analytics have been adopted by thousands of organizations around the world and across industries — from medium-sized businesses to more than 50% of the Fortune 500. For more information about Workday, visit workday.com.
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