APRIL Newsletter. Friction: You Can’t Improve What You Can’t See

The pace and intensity of enterprise transformation efforts have increased as organizations look for ways to grow and get more done – without constantly increasing headcount. Not surprisingly, they’re turning to tech, with 63 percent of CFOs looking to boost IT or digital transformation spending as a way to increase efficiency.

One thing not many are doing as part of these efforts, however, is measuring the impact of that technology on work. Adding new tech without addressing the underlying processes that may already cause friction* not only won’t improve friction, it might create more.

 *Friction = is what slows work down – the inefficiencies, blockers, and extra steps workers face when using enterprise systems and processes to get things done.

NEWS

FOUNT Spotlighted by Comcast NBCUniversal LIFT Labs 

Number of the Month

FOUNT in Action: Support a Smooth Merger with Pre- and Post-Integration Benchmarking

Industry: Semiconductor & Software 

Problem: A large technology company was preparing for a major acquisition. While both companies had solid internal processes, leadership wanted a way to ensure the integration didn’t introduce new inefficiencies in workflows or degrade the employee experience.

Action: FOUNT helped the company establish pre-merger benchmarks across key moments of work, allowing leadership to quantify what was working well and what needed revisions. Post-merger, a follow-up measurement was planned to assess how the integration was going.

Result: Early signs of friction (e.g., unclear equipment request workflows, fragmented knowledge hubs) were flagged, giving teams a chance to fix them before they became systemic. The transformation is an ongoing, multi-year project. We will assess benchmarks in a dozen focus areas throughout the process.

Product Feature: Get Insights from External Tools Faster Than Ever

When you next log in to FOUNT, you’ll find that you can do a direct data upload from third-party survey tools like Medallia , Qualtrics , and LimeSurvey GmbH. This automated upload makes it much easier to go from import to insight.

It also brings users of third-party survey tools one step closer to the real-time data visualization you get when you use FOUNT’s own survey tool.

Bottom line: You’ll save time, reduce errors, and get to the insights your employee data reveals faster.

Most Recent Blog Posts

5 Friction Trends for 2025

• Organizations are undertaking digital transformations to increase productivity, but expected gains aren’t there. The reason? Friction.
• Because the new tech is meant to improve work, it’s important to understand exactly how work gets done.
• Most organizations aren’t measuring the right things, which is why friction is stalling or upending their transformation efforts.

💻Spot the trends in your org

Build vs. Buy: 6 Questions to Ask Before You Try to DIY Friction Measurement

1. What is your survey tool designed to do?
2. Does your survey data highlight targeted improvement opportunities?
3. Will your system scale?
4. Where will you get your survey questions?
5. What will your time to value be?
6. What will your maintenance costs be?

🧰 Get the full breakdown

Process mining vs. employee engagement vs. friction data

You can’t improve what you can’t see, and you can’t see what you don’t measure. This article explains how three types of metrics can provide a better picture of what’s happening in an organization:

• Process mining tracks everything digital.
• Employee engagement tracks how workers feel about their work.
• Friction data tracks obstacles to getting work done.

Friction data complements the other two by illuminating exactly where problems exist so you can focus on fixing the right thing.

📚 Read Artice

Articles We Recommend

📖 Employees Won’t Trust AI if They Don’t Trust Their Leaders

Even as AI adoption increases, employee trust in the tech is falling. Leaders who recognize the value in AI can reverse the trend by ensuring it’s trustworthy. That means taking pains to make sure its outputs are accurate and reliable. Also important: you can’t outsource genuine care to a robot. For best results, leaders need to keep the work of empathy firmly in their realm.

📖 Future of Work Trends 2025: Strategic Insights for CHROs 

A refreshingly clear-eyed look at AI, the potential impacts of losing expertise to retirement, and how loneliness might become a business liability. We found #7 particularly intriguing: 

Until next time,

FOUNT Global team