Digital transformation is seen as an imperative for many businesses, crossing the divide between the small start-up to the major enterprise. This is a message reinforced at every keynote discussion, panel, article, or study related to how businesses can remain competitive and relevant in a digital society. While business leaders consider which aspects of strategy need to change, the reception of the change by employees varies considerably and it’s likely there’s a demographic issue at play.
Employees are affected by digital transformation in different ways; even the most junior office workers has, or will shortly, need to grapple with things like cloud computing or even philosophies like ‘bring your own device‘ (the policy of permitting employees to bring personally owned devices to work).
For younger employees this may seem like second nature, having grown up with the digital trajectory. However, for older workers, like Baby Boomers and some GenXers, the prospect of interacting with new technology can seem daunting. These issues have been explored by writer Nick Candito.
Candito offers five strategies that businesses can adopt to help bring the older worker up to speed with the digital project:
Create easy but impactful training programs: software needs to be easy to use and intuitive in order to get older employees on-board.
Link digital transformation to career growth: if employees can see learning linked to carer progression, this may help to incentivize them.
Encourage company engagement through collaboration: With this this Candito means: “Unify offline and online communications by keeping employees connected through their mobile devices, to provide “anywhere, anytime” access to tools and corporate information.”
Support virtual work environments: If older workers realize they can work from home or even around the workplace and access information, the freedoms and flexibilities of going digital will become clearer.
Empower your employees with the right tools: The tools and software used need to be appropriate and easy to use. With this employees will react to the digital process more easily.
These steps will help all employees and their companies to fully fully realize their digital IQ.
