Why Is Software Adoption Critical for a Positive Digital Employee Experience?
Early efforts at digitalization focused on gaining a competitive advantage over later adopters of the technology. However, the nature of work has rapidly changed in recent years and has become an unavoidable necessity. Because more jobs require the use of software and employees frequently use multiple applications, effective software adoption benefits the digital employee experience. It entails assisting your workforce in adopting, implementing, and optimizing new tools and technologies. The effectiveness and quality of the outcomes obtained when an organization employs digital platforms serve as a barometer for digital adoption success. When technology is simple to use, employees may work more efficiently and have a better working experience.
New technologies are quickly implemented, improved upon, and adapted in today’s rapidly evolving workplace, where digital employee experience is critical. Through software (or digital) adoption, employees are assisted in accepting, integrating, and utilizing their digital tools at work. Poor software adoption is a significant barrier for many modern businesses, and it may prevent them from achieving their digital transformation goals. It is always more difficult for digital employees to be happy and healthy. This could harm a company’s productivity, sales, and bottom line, as well as employee morale and engagement.
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The Impact of Software Adoption on the Digital Employee Experience
The digital employee experience is largely determined by software adoption. According to another Userlane study, while everyone uses the software at least once a week, 81% of employees use it daily at work. Furthermore, eighty-eight percent (88%) of workers agree that how easily they can use the software affects their job happiness and productivity. This is undeniably an important aspect of employee engagement and retention, especially in light of the alleged “Great Resignation.” As a result of labor shortages and rising competitiveness, dogfights for the best talent are becoming increasingly desperate. Employees are becoming more aware of their marketability as a scarce and difficult-to-replace resource. Furthermore, as remote employment has become the norm, their perspectives and opportunities have greatly expanded.
The digital experience you provide for your employees reflects your entire organizational culture. Making employees put up with a poor digital experience demonstrates a general lack of concern for providing them with a suitable, effective, and enjoyable working environment. Keep in mind that your competitors will not give up. If you do not improve your software implementation procedure, your employees will eventually defect to competitors with superior products.
You must also consider how a lack of digital adoption affects employee productivity as well as employee satisfaction. With millions of work hours potentially lost around the world, one in every three employees (36%) admits to losing at least an hour per week troubleshooting software-related issues. Given the growing labor shortages and potential recruitment challenges, employers must make every employee as productive as possible.
Challenges of Digital Adoption
Successful digital implementation is more of an exception than the norm. Many businesses continue to use an antiquated, “one size fits all” method of learning and development that fails to meet the diverse needs of today’s workers. Scaled assistance and training are also more difficult with hybrid and remote work. Each training technique has advantages and disadvantages. Face-to-face instructor-led lessons, for example, can be quickly created, easily revised, and delivered. Setting up such meetings, on the other hand, necessitates coordination, incurs travel costs, and has an impact on the quality of the presentation and reception.
Despite the absence of travel expenses, online group training does not have the same impact as in-person training. Teleconferencing, on the other hand, can be used for large groups in a variety of locations but is costly in terms of equipment.
On-the-job training, which is done face-to-face again, can effectively transfer knowledge relevant to the learner’s job. However, the low trainee-to-trainer ratio and varying teacher abilities can.
The most difficult problem for businesses is developing a software training strategy that is the ideal blend of several options while remaining affordable and scalable.
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The Difficulty of Adoption of Digital Technology
As the workplace evolves and “conventional” jobs are replaced by automation, the emergence of new, entirely digital roles accelerates. You must be prepared to fulfill these roles and maintain your competitive edge. Begin by providing your employees with the knowledge and assurance they require to use digital tools. Many businesses are fighting this uphill battle.
Userlane’s State of Digital Adoption research highlights the prevalence of poor digital adoption and employee experience. Two surveys were ordered in early 2022. The first polled 250 senior decision-makers from various industries working for companies with 250 to 5,000 employees. The second polled 1,000 employees from similar-sized businesses.
Both studies found that, while managers and employees agree that strong digital adoption is critical to success, employees struggle to learn new applications. Only one-third of the companies (37%) rated their digital adoption as “good,” and nearly all (96%) struggled. This demonstrates that businesses are wasting time and money by not getting the best returns on their
Digital transformation is hampered by a lack of digital adoption.
An overarching issue is tech turnover, which occurs when businesses replace software with an alternative product because the original does not provide the expected value. Many businesses inadvertently associate poor adoption with product flaws, when in many cases, the problem is simply a lack of proper digital adoption.
You can’t afford to replace your software every time it stops working. This results in a costly, time-consuming, and disruptive vicious cycle that can have a negative impact on your day-to-day business operations as well as long-term goals.
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Who is responsible for the digital employee experience?
There is no consensus within the company about who should be in charge of ensuring a smooth and effective software adoption process and digital employee experience.
More than half (53%) of business leaders believe the IT team should be at the forefront of digital adoption, compared to a third (37%) who say employees and a quarter (26%) who say HR teams. This ambiguous viewpoint frequently stymies change efforts. There is a good chance that no one will accept or complete the assignment successfully.
Furthermore, unclear duties place an undue burden on already overburdened IT workers. The availability and proper operation of the applications are guaranteed by the IT division or an outsourced supplier. They should not be required to supply the appropriate products or explain how to use them. Departmental team leaders, HR leaders, IT leaders, and staff members should all work together to make the procedure a success.
Conclusion
Employee adoption of office software is closely related to their digital employee experience. This is critical for businesses to maximize their investment returns as well as for employee engagement and retention in a candidate-driven labor market with a critical shortage of qualified candidates.
When it comes to improving the digital employee experience and lowering employee turnover, everyone is a stakeholder.
[To share your insights, please write to us at sghosh@martechseries.com]