Remember to position the transition so your programme doesn’t go off track…
During a technology transformation programme, it’s full steam ahead to get employees on the technology adoption train. Organisations are focused on providing up-to-date content, ensuring everyone knows where it is and has access to it. Plus, attention is paid to employees having the skills to use the technology.
However, post-programme, when you’ve moved onto the ‘next thing’ it’s easy to forget that employees – new and existing – must be kept current on the technology. To truly embed your technology with employees, and escape ‘shiny new toy’ syndrome, how you position the transition to it being an in-motion programme is critical.
Here’s some top tips on how to keep IT relevant and topical, so your adoption train doesn’t go off the rails or run out of steam…!
Give news joiners a first-class on-boarding experience
New joiners are the best employees to drive the technology change culturally. For them, the technology doesn’t represent a ‘new way of working’…it’s the ‘only way of working’ that they will know. Make it an outstanding educational experience for them so they’re quickly up-to-speed with how you work!
Training on the technology should be a focal point of their on-boarding programme, and don’t rely on them finding relevant content through the self-service model alone. Present them with a pack that explains the organisation’s vision for using the technology, what’s in it for them and how it applies to their ways of working. Direct them to ‘how-to…’ guides and videos so they can build upon their knowledge and skills in their own time.
Serve employees with ‘in-date’ content
On a train you wouldn’t serve customers with out-of-date food, so at work do your best to not serve employees with out-of-date content. Most organisations operate a ‘self-serve’ model directing employees to an intranet to learn about the technology that they’re using. However, without the correct processes, content can become dated and stop serving the purpose.
How can you keep employees fed with in-date content? Set up a mini committee comprising of communication, training, technical, champion and executive members. Run a monthly audit of content, hold a monthly review meeting, and determine which content needs removing, refreshing or adding to the intranet. Shake it up with a mix of video and written content, tell success stories, and share the updates through your support and champions’ networks, and via as many communications channels as possible. This approach keeps the technology in employees’ thoughts.
Make it a modern experience with the latest features
How happy are we when we board a modern train and find features like plugs to hook into and easy-to-access Wi-Fi? To keep employees engaged and happy, you must ensure they are aware of the latest features the technology can offer and how it will benefit them. For example, The Inform Team doesn’t only talk the talk – we walk the walk by giving monthly updates on the latest features available from Microsoft and translating what it means for us, and our customers
Organisations have two responsibilities – to provide employees with the latest plug-ins and versions of the technology, and to tell and educate their employees about them. These two responsibilities (including the processes and outputs) should form part of the discussions in the monthly committee meetings (see above).
The goal for every programme should be that no employee tries to hop off the technology adoption train at the first stop or subsequent stops. Like a train, you keep your programme full of fuel so it reaches its destination. The Inform Team fuels the train by taking an Excite, Equip, Embed™ approach
