Why Poor Digital Adoption Hurts the Employee Experience
Userlane is a Business Reporter client.
Successful digital transformation is more than just a tech issue—it’s a people issue, too.
Digital transformation was once a choice that companies took to gain a competitive advantage. However, the world of work has evolved rapidly in recent years and software adoption has become a non-negotiable necessity.
An increasing number of roles involve software use, and employees often work with many applications. As more traditional jobs are replaced by automation, new digital-focused roles will emerge—and businesses need to be ready to fill them.
Digital adoption underpins the process of digital transformation—and successful transformation is all about helping staff accept, use and maximize new tools and technologies. The success of digital adoption is measured by the efficiency and quality of the outcomes achieved thanks to better technology use. When technology is easy to use, employees can work smarter, not harder—and, crucially, this improves their overall work experience.
Thus, successful digital transformation is more than just a tech issue. Ultimately, it’s a people issue.
The digital adoption challenge
At Userlane, we know from conversations with our customers that poor digital adoption is a common business challenge, affecting productivity and employee experience as well as increasing IT costs and generally putting a strain on internal resources.
To understand the scale of this problem, we recently commissioned extensive surveys of both UK business leaders and their employees. We found that almost all (96%) businesses have faced challenges from poor digital adoption, and just one-third (37%) rate their employees’ adoption of software as “Excellent.”
Shockingly, nearly a quarter of business leaders (24%) said their new software implementations meet their desired objectives less than half the time due to poor digital adoption and related factors. These businesses are clearly not getting the best return on their investments and are, contrary to the purpose of digital transformation, losing both time and money.
Shaping the employee experience
The employee experience suffers massively when digital adoption goes wrong. We found that 81% of employees use software every day in their jobs, while all use software at least once a week. Almost nine in 10 (88%) staff agree that a frustration-free software process is key to their happiness and productivity at work.
Yet 40% feel frustration “often” or “all the time” when using software, and 44% regularly postpone tasks as a result (inevitably, many tasks won’t be completed properly, if at all). This is causing huge productivity problems.
With more than one in three UK employees (36%) admitting they lose at least an hour each week addressing software-related issues, millions of working hours are being lost weekly on a national scale. Meanwhile, the average worker only uses 40% of the features of the digital applications available to them, making for very poor delivery of possible software benefits.
Complaining to colleagues and bosses, waiting for IT support, delaying jobs and attempting to remedy problems themselves all erode productivity further and worsen the employee experience. The research even found that 8% of staff have considered leaving their job over software-related frustration.
While that might sound unreasonable, nearly one in 10 employees is thinking about quitting amid the Great Resignation, and spiraling staff shortages are a worry for any business. However, the number of employees leaving because of anxiety and burnout created by software—which is intended to speed tasks and eliminate difficult, onerous and repetitive work—should be zero.
Contrary to the popular idea of a digital divide, younger people are often more exasperated by difficult technology than older colleagues. Digital adoption is a challenge that spans the generations—and every employee deserves equal support.
Very few workers are equipped to learn new software and navigate issues on their own, and common problems can create time-consuming tasks, with a challenge for the employee quickly becoming a mountain of support tickets for the IT team and a headache for leadership.
Reducing app overload
In the new world of hybrid and remote work, staff are at greater risk than ever of app overload. IT departments tend to bear the brunt of employee and managerial frustration, but they often lack the capacity to provide in-house training and tech support, especially on a large scale. Ultimately, employers must recognize that the digital experiences they provide shape their company culture, and solutions should therefore be treated as a boardroom priority.
Here are some quick tips to improve digital adoption in your business today:
1. Offer a range of software training options.
A blended approach incorporating traditional and leading-edge techniques is best for staff. Everyone learns differently, and there’s no silver bullet for effective digital adoption.
2. Consider using a digital adoption platform (DAP) to help the process.
DAPs work with web-based applications to provide embedded, interactive training for employees. They reduce the cost and effort of traditional training by encouraging independent, continuous learning.
3. Don’t make digital adoption the sole responsibility of one team or department.
Adoption must be a company-wide strategy, not just the IT team’s domain. Forward-thinking businesses must allocate internal resources and create task forces to manage the impact of digital transformation on their staff.
4. Listen to and communicate with employees.
By communicating clearly with employees about their digital needs and choosing the right products to meet them, you can ensure stronger buy-in from the outset.
5. Measure digital adoption.
Put a reporting system in place to track the rate of digital adoption among employees. You can also harness product analytics within software applications to better understand user behavior and potential adoption obstacles.
With Userlane, anybody can instantly use any software without formal training and support. Our award-winning DAP delights employees and customers around the world by enabling seamless software experiences.
To find out more, book a meeting with us or read our State of Digital Adoption Report.
— Hartmut Hahn, Cofounder and CEO, Userlane
Image: Courtesy of Userlane
