When it comes to introducing innovation and change using unfamiliar technologies, it's no surprise that some leaders are bound to face potential challenges and pushback from some of their team members who prefer to stay in their comfort zone.
It's normal for employees to be concerned about something they don't fully understand, especially if they're afraid to fail. Therefore, leaders should listen to understand their staff's growing pains and come up with a variety of methods to make the learning curve fun and beneficial for everyone. To get them started, 14 members from Forbes Human Resources Council share their best practices to get employees on board and motivated about using the latest digital tools designed to make their workflow and daily team communications run smoother.
Members pictured from left to right.
Photos courtesy of individual members.1. Implement The Tool Of 'Gamification'
Helping employees adapt and adopt new technology is all about pace and agility. Apart from traditional tech training and change management methods, the technique of “gamification” works wonders with extraordinary business and talent outcomes. I have tested this among diverse generations of the workforce and have observed transformational outcomes with speed. - Christina Augustine, World Vision Canada
2. Choose A Multi-Service Software Platform
Organization leaders should pick a single technology tool that isn’t integrated with other HR software providers, covers everything from onboarding and payroll to retirement and empowers employees to own 100% of their data. By doing so, their teams will have the best chance of high adoption. This strategy allows employees to enter data just once and focus on value-added work, which increases engagement and makes them more productive. - Jennifer Kraszewski, Paycom
3. Build A Culture Of Innovation And Experimentation
Create an environment that encourages innovation and experimentation with new technologies. This can involve creating spaces to foster creativity and open dialogue, providing training on the latest technologies and encouraging employees to take risks and share ideas. Provide resources such as mentors and support systems to help employees learn how to use new technology. - Jonathan Romley, Lundi
4. Get Employees Excited About New Opportunities To Grow
Inspire, evoke and compel employees to embrace change. There is a human side to transformation. To evoke commitment and true adoption, you must secure buy-in. Connect the change to a deeper sense of purpose or a vivid new future. Bring the solution to life in creative, inspiring ways to help others see the benefits and new opportunities. Use storytelling, a new frame or a different medium to communicate in a more compelling way. - MJ Vigil, DispatchHealth
Forbes Human Resources Council is an invitation-only organization for HR executives across all industries. Do I qualify?
5. Communicate And Be Patient
Leaders need to communicate and demonstrate patience! Provide mandatory information and group training sessions, including "cheat sheet" handouts and build out of FAQs. More importantly, form a cross-departmental team of “new tech evangelists” during the deployment process. These individuals will be integral to espousing the benefits and talking through the tech platform during and after launch. - Maria Miletic
6. Explain The 'Why' To Employees
Think of Connect the Dots; it's the kind of puzzle with a sequence of dots that when connected by a line reveals an object or image. Make that image the opportunity to perform any job more efficiently and effectively. Essentially, help your people get excited about adapting new tech by helping them understand the "why" or benefit to them for doing so. - Bryan Passman, Hunter + Esquire
7. Practice The Reverse Mentorship Scheme
The reverse mentorship scheme is a very effective learning strategy when it comes to acquiring digital skills. It pairs more experienced hires with recent graduates and enables a smooth, fun transfer of knowledge and provides great insights into how youth use technology in their day-to-day lives. The bonus is that the tables can turn and the mentee becomes a mentor and career sponsor. - Catalina Schveninger, Catalina S.
8. Write A Technology Guidebook
It all starts with explaining the "why." A good technology ideally allows people to do their job better, faster and more efficiently. Once the "why" is clear, and it's tied back to KPIs, one initiative that can help them is providing some additional handholding through a guidebook on how to learn. This can be done using technology without much effort. - Smarthveer Sidana, HireQuotient
9. Stand By Your Employees During The Learning Curve
Employees may often resist something because of their fear of the unknown and failure. So, it is important for the leaders to make them feel that the organizations will stand by them should there be any errors while the employees transition to the new technologies. These messages can be conveyed during the planned training programs to educate employees on the new technologies. - Prakash Raichur, Taghleef Industries
10. Call On Your Super Tech Users To Be Training Ambassadors
When adapting to new technology, it will be important to provide different learning opportunities based on an employee's role through webinars, Q&A sessions, how-to documents and experiential learning. Identify super users in each department to help increase the learning and rate of adapting to the new technology. Providing contests or incentives for friendly competition could aid in adoption. - Sherry Martin, Government Administration
11. Launch A Seed Program For New Tech Testing
One way an organization can implement the adoption of new tech is to create a seed program. Through the program, the company can loan new technology to employees to try. After some period of time, the employee writes a report about the new tech, how it improved efficiency, how easily it was integrated and more. Assigning a mentor to the new product also provides expert support to the users so they have someone to turn to for help. - Gordon Pelosse, CompTIA, the Computing Technology Industry Association
12. Consider Your Employees' Different Learning Styles
A holistic approach starts with securing buy-in, not only in launching the new technology but also in choosing the tech. Explain the "why," what challenges the tech solves and how it will help the end user. Then move on to adoption. Provide pre-launch and post-launch (ongoing) training in different mediums catering to different learning styles. - Teresa Martins, Madison Logic
13. Make Learning Technology Fun And Useful
Make it fun and useful for your staff members. Show them quick tips and tricks that can save time and help people enjoy it so it’s not a burdensome process. Appoint one person on each team as the tech guru who can teach a helpful hint every day so that the team enjoys learning and has fun with it. - Rohini Shankar, Nations Benefits
14. Host A 'Tech Week' To Address Any Challenges
After conducting a survey of where the tech challenges are, companies should host a "Tech Week" with training sessions on how to successfully operate in those fields. A virtual setup may be most useful to allow persons to log on and see it in action. It allows persons to not hide in shame because of their lack of knowledge and also provides a non-distracting time slot to allow them to focus. - Tiersa Smith-Hall, Impactful Imprints, Training & Consulting
