At a Glance
- Organisations are investing in more and more digital solutions, but employees are struggling to adopt them, which is reducing productivity.
- To ease the integration of a new application into your organisation’s workflow and minimise disruption, a well-defined digital adoption plan is essential.
- Instead of focusing on a single application, a successful digital transformation focuses on a comprehensive suite of solutions, including effective change management that can drive lasting change.
There are hundreds, if not thousands of new applications and technology suites on the market. Since 2015, there has been a steady increase in the adoption of software solutions by businesses. In 2022, organisations worldwide were using an average of 130 digital apps.
This proliferation of technology has led to increasing employee resistance to adopting new tools. This is because the growing number of digital applications place additional burden on employees, often outweighing any productivity gains. As a result, many employees remain reluctant to change their “old ways of working” and continue to use legacy solutions or approaches, such as Microsoft Excel for all tasks.
The problem is that organisations invest in technology with the intention of making their employees’ jobs easier. However, they often overlook an important aspect of how effectively employees use these invested apps.
Too many systems, too much work
Imagine your organisation has over 100 different digital solutions. Your department probably only relies on 10 of these solutions. This situation can become particularly burdensome when it comes to cross-departmental collaboration, as many applications are deployed that are typically tailored to address department-specific issues.
Now consider this scenario when your organisation introduces a new tool with specific operational goals in mind. This addition requires reconfiguration of existing processes and tools to ensure the seamless integration with the new tool. As a result, this increases the burden on employees as they are forced to relearn or research the tools, which may end up duplicating what they are already doing.
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Ready for a change in your organisation?
Four-step approach to digital adoption excellence
Integrating a new application into your organisation’s workflow and processes can be challenging. These changes need to be managed effectively. A thorough understanding of existing applications, their usage, effectiveness and how they support business processes is essential to minimise disruption.
To overcome these challenges, organisations are recommended to develop a well-defined digital adoption plan. This will ensure that both the organisation and its employees are prepared for the necessary organisational changes.
During this phase, organisations should design and implement activities that support a successful digital adoption plan. Here are four steps to consider when implementing this approach:
1. Define the business’s intended use of digital solutions
Ensure the suitability of digital solutions by clearly defining and aligning it with business needs, prioritising them over IT needs. This will ensure that digital solutions support and enhance business processes with all the necessary functionalities.
2. Develop a comprehensive training plan using digital training and adoption solutions
Guide employees through the complexities of digital solutions with contextually relevant training, coaching, or onboarding programmes. Provide employees with easy-to-access walk-throughs and documentation to facilitate their familiarisation with the new tools.
Take a strategic approach to training, as it can instil a proactive mindset and encourage employee initiative. For example, empowering employees with the right training will enable them to learn and adopt digital solutions, which in turn will encourage collaboration, knowledge sharing, and open communication across the organisation.
3. Measure the effectiveness of training, before and after the implementation of digital solutions
By assessing the impact of training interventions, organisations can identify areas for improvement, and optimise workforce readiness.
4. Track adoption rates using insights throughout the lifecycle of the digital solution
A successful digital transformation means there is a high level of adoption of digital solutions. Monitor adoption by collecting and analysing usage data even after the “go-live”. Understand the insights to discover value and identify opportunities to improve effectiveness or business processes.
As organisations move through these four steps, it not only promotes extensive employee engagement with newly implemented solutions, but also generates data for in-depth analysis that can facilitate future decisions. This synergy of advanced technology and strategic insight ensures a seamless adoption process and maximises the benefits of the new solution.
It should be noted that the above steps do not have to be used sequentially. Rather, organisations should revisit them and make modifications whenever you identify a misalignment in the adoption rates of the digital solutions.
Renoir can also implement a digital layer solution on top of the new application being rolled out to enhance training and adoption.
A bespoke solution to take your organisation into the future you envision
Instead of focusing on a single application, a successful digital transformation focuses on a comprehensive suite of solutions. Part of the solution includes effective change management that can drive lasting change.
At Renoir, we design your digital transformation journey with a structured, four-step approach designed to bring about procedural change within the organisation. The first stage is to raise awareness of the change. This sets the stage for what follows, where employees are informed about the purpose and potential benefits of new applications that would be introduced across the organisation.
The next stage focuses on changing employees’ behaviour. They are guided not only to comply with the new system, but also to understand it and begin to integrate it into their day-to-day operations.
The final step in this journey is the implementation of a new application on an organisation-wide scale. This phase aims to create a sustainable solution that becomes a permanent fixture within the organisation’s operational landscape.
Our team of change management experts has over 25 years of experience using our behavioural and cultural change methodologies to help organisations adopt new cultures and practices. We understand that there is no one-size-fits-all approach. Organisations need to develop a clear plan tailored to their specific needs, resources, and circumstances.
We offer a full range of digital transformation services.
