Strategic advice

Competent, efficient tech use happens through ongoing training. Planning tools can help you build a phased training timeline.

This training timeline enables you to have phased implementation—to start using technology immediately, and measure results starting immediately, too.^{Disclosure 2} Phased training also empowers your staff to cope with changes in a system’s go-live date or with unexpected updates and patches.

Work with your teams to identify digital-first employees. Gather these tech-forward adopters and introduce them to your new tools early on. Empowering competent, engaged employees to explore and test new systems provides invaluable feedback that can identify roadblocks to success, help shape usage standards, and build training modules customized to your organization’s needs.^{Disclosure 3}

What might this look like practically? A healthcare company is moving to a new CRM system to support patient outreach and communication. The company identifies early adopters among its clinical operations leaders. It empowers this tech-savvy group with tools to test and use AI-generated patient communications. That group identifies the top skills every user needs to learn, and the training for the full rollout includes exactly those skills in its lessons.

For best results, start digital transformation at the top. Implement a communications plan for executive, middle-tier, and front-line managers that provides specific talking points about the potential impacts of your technology upgrades. A sample framework for those talking points could cover:

• The benefits for employees using the new technology
• Ways these tools enhance the client experience
• Expectation for automation to reduce operational risk and error rates
• How the technology supports—not replaces—human expertise

5. Incorporate feedback and support continuous improvement.

It’s a simple but often overlooked component: Build feedback into every phase.

Along with nurturing a positive company culture, asking employees for feedback is extremely valuable. Ongoing feedback helps fine-tune the technology and processes and enables you to reinforce change management training in ways that keep employees adaptive as systems evolve.^{Disclosure 4}

As users implement the new technology, they’ll often discover new ways to accomplish tasks and find areas to expand functionality. It’s a win-win for empowering employees, recognizing their ingenuity, and generating greater productivity.