It’s not new news that many organisations have accelerated the deployment of collaborative tools in light of the COVID-19 pandemic, but several weeks in, how well are users adapting to using these tools?
It’s clear that collaborative technology in the workplace can engage employees, increase productivity and improve organisational performance. However, without users being able to and willing to adopt these technologies, none of these benefits can be achieved. During these exceptional times of high levels of remote working, user adoption is even more difficult than in an office environment.
This article provides key points to consider when deploying collaborative tools to your workforce to reduce the frustration and sense of alienation new technologies can bring, and ultimately, enable your people to work efficiently.
Empowering your Workforce
It is especially important to empower your workforce in the current climate we are facing, given the need for large numbers of colleagues working remotely to meet and share information with each other, while juggling family and work responsibilities.
Looking forward, as organisations strive to find a good balance of employee satisfaction, engagement and productivity, we will find these to be strong incentives to adopt more flexible ways of working. Providing the right collaborative tools and ensuring your users can fully utilise them is critical to meeting your strategic goals as a business.
8 Recommendations to Successful User Adoption
If you are deploying new technology in your organisation and looking to drive user adoption, you should consider the following eight recommendations:
- Investigate user profiles and their use cases to better understand what kind of support your people need
- Keep user experience at the heart of everything you do
- Establish a network of champions who can help you manage change throughout the organisation
- Provide varied and flexible training – everyone learns in a different way, so providing several options will help people on their personal journey towards a more digital workplace
- Tailor your communication approach to your users – use alternative methods to engage your workforce and bear in mind that all users pick up technology at different rates
- Monitor adoption and satisfaction separately – it’s possible to have high adoption with poor satisfaction
- Do not deploy technology without any thought for processes or people – this will negatively impact adoption
- Keep security at the forefront of your transformation to protect corporate data on all devices
Final Piece of Advice
At Wavestone, we are committed to helping our clients adapt so that they are ready for the challenges and opportunities of a different, digital working world. If you would like to discuss any of the points in this article or think Wavestone could help your organisation, please get in touch.
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Asha Sanderson-Frimpong
Wavestone
David Marsh