A report from the digital workflow company ServiceNow offers advice on how employees can handle digital transformation better.
Digital transformation: business modernization requires a new mindset
Digital transformation is now more important than ever, but some organizations are more difficult to change than others.
Digital transformation is an important strategy for many companies struggling with a rapidly changing business environment.
The increased application of technology is a crucial element for staying competitive, winning and retaining customers, reducing costs and streamlining activities.
But employees who are in the middle of digitizing the workplace often see the process differently. Forced to learn new and unknown tools and technologies, many employees can feel challenged, anxious and stressed.
In its Culture Issue on Tuesday, ServiceNow investigated the impact of digital workflows on people. In an article entitled “Key lessons for successful digitization,” the digital workflow company offers several recommendations for companies designed to make digital transformation easier for employees.
SEE:
Digital transformation: a cheat sheet
(TechRepublic)
To analyze the subject of workplace digitization, ServiceNow’s Cultural Problem has used two ethnographic studies conducted by the Habitus Insight research agency. By using ethnography, a method whereby researchers live together and participate in the lives of the research participants, Habitus Insight looked at the question of whether process automation improves the work experience for knowledge and service employees.
For his research, the Habitus Insight team interviewed and followed around 20 employees at a large health system in Australasia and a US government agency. In total, the team collected more than 80 hours of video footage and 60 hours of audio recordings to see how both organizations digitize workflows and integrate automation into their activities.
Across both organizations, the researchers discovered that certain employees resisted change and that some were afraid of learning new technology or were afraid of failing. Other employees felt stressed by the disruption technology applied to their work routines. Some employees put obstacles in the way of change makers. A small number of employees even left their jobs.
Based on the research and results, ServiceNow has developed six key recommendations or lessons that organizations and executives should follow to help employees cope with digital transformation.
Develop a culture of change. Organizational change must be implemented in such a way that employees can adapt to new ways of working. The goal is to create a culture in which employees come to work expecting to learn these new ways and not just manage repetitive tasks. For example, implementing a new customer service management system with a large workforce needs to be implemented gradually so that employees can get used to it and grow to understand its impact on their position.
Work together at all levels of your organization. In both organizations participating in the survey, service provider employees appreciated the way they were listened to by leaders and technology professionals in times of change.
As an example, a manager in charge of the team planning patient appointments in the Australasian health system said that the experience of working together to use a new planning system has strengthened her team and improved collaboration with other departments.
As another example, the chief digital officer said for the same organization that this process is essential to ensure that any new technology is easy to use. She emphasized the need for dialogue between all users of new systems and the IT department so that problems can be expected and solved. She called this process the “co-design of the user experience.”
Clarify expectations. At the US state agency included in the study, leaders said the new customer service management system followed the time employees took to complete a customer task. As such, employees were afraid they would be followed at speed. The leaders of the agency explained that the system was not there to spy on employees, but to investigate customer service processes to measure and manage the overall performance of the agency.
Nevertheless, employees now realize that their time is being measured with customers. But according to management, that step has improved their focus and has asked them to ask questions and make suggestions to improve workflows.
View benefits. Digital workflows such as customer service management, patient planning, task planning and recruitment tracking can benefit all employees. Employees can work more efficiently and effectively. Workloads become more manageable. Stress is often reduced. Remote online access to e-mail, video conferencing and other services enable employees to work from anywhere. These benefits can more than offset the challenge of learning new ways of working.
Focus on mission. Automating the digital workflow reinforced the core mission of the organization, according to an employee of the Australasian healthcare system. Responsible for hospital and community-oriented services for the elderly, this employee said that the personalized approach to patient care had not changed. “It’s just that we have to use technology to make it as easy as possible for our employees to do it,” she said.
Train employees. Organizations should never make assumptions about existing levels of digital literacy, especially when introducing systems that require skills that do not appear in older job descriptions. Both the Australasian health care company and the American government institute are developing training for digital literacy for employees, programs that have been well received so far. In the best cases, training should eliminate the fear of employees being left behind or out of date. Managers also said that employees get involved when asked to submit feedback ideas and can see change as it happens.
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