A Classic Guide to Driving Digital Transformation at Your Workplace

Not all human beings are rational. Even if we are, we are not rational all the time. Most of us are driven by emotions. At the same time, we also have a natural instinct to protect ourselves against potential threats and dangers coming from our natural surroundings. But unfortunately, this skill of being constantly "aware" of the threats and malfunctioning does go kaput when it comes to making business decisions in the modern world. The long term results, of course, are unpleasant.

Adopting digital transformation at your organization can come with a lot of challenges. Perhaps, a company offering digital transformation consulting can help you resolve them. But before you do that, go through these points on how to smoothly go about it.

Unravel the Employee Psyche

Although change is the only constant, it is resisted by humans. A research by McKinsey proved that 84% of CEOs are committed and involved in driving transformational change, whereas 45% of frontline employees that are involved with larger companies find it challenging. When it comes to the employees who have been used to working with a particular system for ages, it can get difficult to drive digital transformation. As a business owner, you might have to understand the human element of digital transformation. Strike a rapport with your employees and try to understand things from their perspective.

The two best ways to help employees overcome resistance are communication and empowerment. Here’s what you need to do:

Communicate your transformation objectives clearly with your employees

If you’re a CEO, make your involvement in the digital transformation process visible and deliberate

Empower your front-line employees with daily access to information and the ability to know about day to day changes

Make the most out of change management apps, social media channels as well as live feedback tools to encourage employee engagement.

Once you’ve understood their issues and how adaptive they are to change, you would be able to imbibe digital transformation in a better way. Also, try to know how you can cope with the digital transformation failure [PS1] so that you can keep certain issues at bay.

Be Open to Suggestions

If you’re driving digital transformation, you must also be knowing that innovation and new learnings are its pillars. It is also important to understand that technology doesn’t transform itself. It is a medium that facilitates the change that happens during transformation. So, consider the suggestions given by your employees with an open mind and select the right technology. Get support from your C-suite and cross-functional teams as most of the departments interact with customers in some way or another. When you drive digital transformation as a team, you would be effectively able to communicate its effect on customer experience. Taking this step will help you to keep track of your ROI and make your stakeholders happy.

Live the Shared Vision

Digital transformation is not just about working on new tools and technologies. When you implement it, you create an open communication channel between you and your employees, render the freedom to innovate and choose and live the shared vision. Last but not least, I would like to end with a quote by L’Oreal’s HR director Isabelle Minneci which says, "Upskilling the staff you have makes the most sense. The key to digital transformation is agility and the ability to constantly renew yourself."

Do you wish to drive digital business transformation for your organization? Why not write to us on hello@gatewaydigital.eu about it? As an experienced digital transformation services providing company, we would love to help you resolve the challenges you face.

Gateway Digital is a digital suite offering business transformation through pure play tech services and digital solutions.