-This article was last updated on 31 October 2022-
Rolling out a new technology within an organisation is rarely a walk in the park. However, as technology is progressing faster than ever before, it is essential that businesses embrace digital transformation. Often, retaining laborious processes that slow down your business can be the difference between you and your competitors!
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Changing your digital processes can consume a lot of your businesses’ time. In order to mitigate the hurdles coming your way, it is important to remember that rolling out a new technology successfully is centred on user-adoption. To achieve this, you must put your employees first. Creating a user-centric approach is not difficult, but there are some very important stages to keep in mind for the implementation process.
What are the Most Common Challenges of Implementing New Technology?
If you’re planning on rolling out a new technology in your workplace, there are some challenges you and your workers may find yourself up against. We’ve outlined the most common obstacles below.
Not Enough Information About the Technology
One of the biggest challenges is ensuring that employees have enough information about the new system so that they can use it effectively and efficiently.
If you don't have enough information about your new technology, it will be difficult for your employees to fully understand how it works and why they need to use it. In this case, they might not know what steps they need to take in order for their workflows or processes to run smoothly with the new software or hardware.
You can avoid these problems by providing your employees with adequate information about the new technology. While this may seem like an obvious step, many people overlook it as part of their implementation plan.
The most effective way to do this is through providing your employees with a brief, but useful, summary of the new software or equipment. In as little as a single page document, explain how the system works, what its benefits are, and how it will affect their day-to-day tasks.
Employees Haven't Received Enough Training to Use the New Technology Correctly
Training is a crucial component of rolling out new technology in your office. If you’re not providing training, it will be difficult to ensure that staff are using the new system correctly. In order to see results with the new technology, everyone needs to know how it works and how they can leverage it for themselves in their day-to-day work.
The type of training you provide will depend on the kind of software or hardware you are implementing, but there are some basic guidelines for what should be included:
How each department in particular can use this system for their specific tasks or responsibilities
A look at all of the features and how they work
Step-by-step instructions for using the system in different scenarios
An overview of any new policies or procedures that have been implemented
Information about what employees need to do if they encounter any problems with this technology
Leadership is Not Fully on Board
If the company's leaders do not wholeheartedly support the new technology and its implementation, then it will be nearly impossible to bring about widespread change.
If your leadership team is hesitant at all about introducing a new technology into your workflow or business practices, it's important that you address their concerns openly and honestly. If possible, provide concrete data that shows how the new technology will help improve productivity or profitability in some way. Explain how adopting this technology would fit into your company’s long-term goals and objectives and show everyone why they should get on board with supporting it financially, as well as logistically (for example, with training time).
If this doesn’t work, then it may be time to bring in outside help. You might want to consider hiring a consultant or other expert who can provide unbiased insight into the technology and its potential benefits. If you do this, make sure that all parties involved are on board with this before proceeding so as not to waste anyone's time or money.
How to Roll Out New Technology in Your Company: 4 Tips to Make it a Success
Now that you’re familiar with the challenges of implementing new technology within your business, you may be wondering how these can be mitigated. We’ve included our top tips below.
1. Communicate the New Technology Rollout with Key Stakeholders
One of the first challenges that businesses face when implementing a new technology is that their employees do not always understand the need for change. According to the ADKAR model of change, awareness is essential. That is why clear communication is a key part of the implementation process. In particular, it is important to highlight the benefits of rolling out a new technology and how the current system might be hindering the business’ development.
As an employer, you should articulate how the new technology will influence different workflows and how roles and responsibilities may change as a result. At this stage, it is important that the communication is a two-way process between all stakeholders in the decision-making process. You should listen to your employees and reassure any concerns they may have over the new changes.
2. Let Influencers Drive Up Enthusiasm
The model also states that there should be a desire to engage and participate in the new technology. What is very important with this stage of the implementation plan is getting your employees to understand how the change influences them personally. When employees can really understand the worth of the new technology, their enthusiasm will grow towards it. Building this acceptance early on is essential; it is much harder to build it later on in the process.
To increase acceptance and desire to implement the change smoothly, you should get influencers on board. Having certain members of the team that can drive up enthusiasm is key. They will be instrumental in evangelising the technology and creating a vision for other members of the team.
3. Invest in Training and Support
If your employees have both the awareness and the desire to implement a new technology, then the next challenge is always how do they adapt to these new methods? This can often be a matter of giving your employees the appropriate training sessions. Regardless of how intuitive you may think the piece of technology is, different employees will require different levels of support.
Understanding the most appropriate methods of training for your employees will ensure that a level of high user-adoption is possible.
4. Measure Progress of Rolling Out a New Technology
Another obstacle that can often arise at this stage is adopting the new technology consistently and not going back to the original way of working. To mitigate this, you should consistently measure progress, making sure you document the business productivity between the old and the new system.
Don’t let communication stop at this stage; instead, make employees aware of the considerable benefits the business is experiencing from the new technology implementation. Having this reinforced message will help to strengthen the acceptance and drive even more enthusiasm for the new technology. You should therefore highlight the small wins and reward employees who are instrumental in creating a smooth deployment.
In order for your business to grow and progress, it is important to always review the technology you are using. Continuing to introduce smarter technology that will help to further enhance your business processes will be the key to success.
