Today, organizations of all sizes are experiencing a digital transformation. Irrespective of the industry or sector, the majority of businesses are implementing technology to better serve their customers and drive more revenue. During the transition, it is very common to hear these companies gripe –“We’ve spent an obscene amount of money on that tool, but people are still not using it.” According to an MIT Sloan study, most organizations consider adoption of new technologies to be at the top of their lists for future success. However, most of their employees find the process “complex and slow”. Why does this happen?
Employee engagement is paramount to drive tech adoption
When deploying a technology, businesses often forget employees are the ones who perform and deliver value; technology merely helps them do that better. When you implement technology without considering if it’s actually going to make the user’s job easier, they won’t have the incentive to use it. When you frame technology through the context of your employees, you can achieve the kind of engagement you need to drive high returns on your tech investments.
When employees aren’t fully involved with management’s tech initiatives, money and time get wasted. This is one of the main reasons why, despite having enterprise-issued technology at the workplace, employees turn to non-approved apps or tools. Staff are familiar with and comfortable using these platforms, and hence perform tasks more efficiently. That said, this also puts your organization’s security and privacy at risk. How do you find the perfect happy medium?
Choose technology with care
No matter what technology you’re planning to purchase for your organization, frame it through the interests of those who will use it daily. Don’t get swayed by functionality alone; consider the end user. Also, technology that requires a massive learning curve are almost always rejected by employees. Therefore, get your team to do multiple trials, listen to their feedback, and then spend your money on the best tech tool for their needs. This will ensure its adoption across all levels of your organization.
Spread awareness
According to 2013 US Mobile Enterprise Risk Survey, 38 percent of workers in U.S. companies are not aware of BYOD (“Bring You Own Device”) policies existing in their organization. The lack of knowledge about the potential dangers causes employees using their own devices or cloud-based applications to risk the security of the organization. To help combat this “Shadow IT” show your employees the positive sides of using your enterprise technology and explain how it can help them work productively without inviting any risks for the organization.
Show, don’t tell
While putting forth your argument for a new technology, you need to walk the walk, not just talk the talk. Prove that the technology actually works. According to experts, a better approach is to build a team of tech champions and loyal adopters by convincing a handful of employees to try the new technology for an initial period. Once they experience the benefits, they’ll not only promote the new tool among their co-workers but they’ll also help others acclimatize to it.
If we want our employees to buy into our tech initiatives, we need to be more steadfast in helping them understand why we are investing in them. Incentivizing your teams to embrace your tech adoption strategy is a great way to engage employees. Engagement is critical to achieve buy in from all levels of the organization.
This post was brought to you by IBM for MSPs and opinions are my own.
This article was first published on Converge.xyz
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