BUS603: Managing People

One of the first steps in the digital transformation is a cultural change in organizations. Culture is an incentive for behavior; organizations and managers should assure overcoming a culture of learned helplessness and spoon-fed training to encourage ongoing personal learning so that staff behavior suits technological solutions, supports its adoption, and uses it for work, communication, and cooperation. One important issue of the digital workplace strategy is a clear understanding between organizational culture and technology, and this can be achieved within an adequate learning strategy. It ensures that tools, processes, and systems realize their full potential and will not be a failed initiative.

Organization's culture influences the way employees behave and work within digital transformation and so organizational performance, success, and failure. This means employee's culture ultimately determines how and to what extent employees connect, communicate, and collaborate within digital workplaces.

It is important to develop a change management plan and that the digital workplace strategy aligns to organization working culture. This cultural change and suitable technological components can contribute to improve:

• Collaboration by integrating intuitive, easy-to-use collaboration tools that enhance employees' ability to work together and support their own working style and wishes
• Communication by using digital tools to create their own content, rather than simply consuming existing content, to support that right information reaches the right audience, bilateral communication, and personalization of content
• Connections across the organization and outside

The free flow of information at the digital workplace has a positive impact on the agility and innovation of organizations, and it promotes employee engagement and satisfaction by delivering the right information to the right people at the right time. One challenge is how managers/leaders in an organization can influence employee's behaviors and practice changes, leading to innovative products and services that will enable the transition from old business models to ones successful in a digital world.

Isaac Sacolick presents three ways to enable employees to participate more in digital programs.

Encourage people to ask questions

Determining possible employees to ask questions enables them to move away from "the way we always do" to discussions of what is better to do in digital working places.

That is, the operations team wants to explore using automation to eliminate repetitive discussions. Someone asks, "How can we learn to be product owners in its agile development process?"

Sure, there are some people in the organization wishing to do things in the old way. Asking questions is an approach, which can open a dialog about new solutions.

Get out of the office and meet customers and prospects

Customers expect to select products and services that are intelligent and valuable. Start-ups and market leaders in other categories can steal market share from slow competitors not being in contact with customers but have also opportunities to develop new services into new areas by identifying optimal customer segments to deliver services digitally.

Leaders/representatives from an organization should go out of the office, learn from customers, take into consideration their needs, and develop a perspective on how to deliver new experiences. Marketing specialists should learn how to best message and target prospects. Sales should be learning who their new competitors are and how to defend against sales objections. Technologists should learn about the underlying technical capabilities required to fulfill value propositions.

Ask for data, then insights, then opinions

A data-driven organization offers practices and tools for people to present a thesis - first presenting data that backs it, then insights they have inferred, and lastly their opinions and conclusions. Behaviors drive organizational change.

Employees' roles in the organization, their jobs, and how they deliver business value are all subject to be changed in digital transformation, in order to convince more employees to support the digital strategy by challenging the status quo, to learn what customers need today, and to use data efficiently to drive bottom-up and top-down decisions.

Adaptation of employees to digital transformation and digital workplaces

When an organization suffers changes in everyday functioning like digital transformation, both employers and employees must face challenges;  if employees do not keep up, the chances of that transformation being successful are very low.

In the following experts, make some proposals to help employees to adapt to digital transformation.

Open dialogue

It is known that employees are sometimes resistant to change when the transformation comes only from up, so it is important to create a dialog with employees to discuss which and how they see improvements in digital transformation. If it is possible, the open dialog should start from the top and involve all employee's transformation. One leader in organizing digital transformation should bridge the gap between the actual implementation of technology and the workplace culture and demands.

Invest in training

"Let people understand the reasons for the change, and make sure they have a clear picture of what will improve when they get there," says Dr. Daniel Cable, professor, and chair of organizational behavior, at London Business School. It is important to foster a culture of change and make sure employees develop the skills to keep up with a fast paced and dynamic environment. All employees should be encouraged to go through the company-training program to drive adoption.

Foster a culture where experimentation is allowed and encouraged

First employees can freely experiment without fearing the consequences of mistakes. Often, they discover new and faster ways of doing everyday tasks, increasing efficiency and productivity.

Support collaboration

Online and offline communication can easily be unified keeping employees connected through their own devices. Digital connections often reach down generational gaps and bring employees of different ages together. New digital communication fosters collaboration in departments and across the organization. The digital transformation should not be felt only as technology changes but more like intuitive ways to complete tasks.

Involve employees

Embracing digital transformation is more easily achieved through increased employee engagement. Using digital technologies employees can reach consumers easily and directly.

Often, older employees are not enthusiastic about digital transformations, but their insight, wisdom, and experience are invaluable. By improving internal employee engagement, employees can feel more valued and are more open to change. Engagement drives adoption, but digital transformation too can drive engagement. Flexible work has positive effects on employee engagement. In the digital age, flexibility is easier than ever to implement. Employees can work remotely, use their own devices, and utilize digital tools to interact impactful with consumers and each other. Tangible benefits of digital transformations are easier to be evaluated.