It’s been widely reported that the COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated digital transformation efforts across most industries.
Organizations have had to move fast. From the scramble to get work-from-home measures in place once the virus really started to spread back in March, to retailers quickly shifting everything from customer service to e-commerce to digital, the word agile has been top-of-mind. Adoption of technologies like AI, automation, and the cloud has flourished so that organizations could meet these demands.
We’ve covered pandemic-related/adjacent DX efforts in sales, cybersecurity, retail, manufacturing, digital communications, and those of Indigenous communities. One KPMG survey from August reported that “59% technology executives surveyed say that COVID-19 has created an impetus to accelerate digital transformation initiatives.”
A new IBM study of 3,800 global C-suite executives in 20 countries and 22 industries — titled COVID-19 and the Future of Business — found that nearly six in ten respondents have accelerated their digital transformations due to the pandemic. 66% reported completion of initiatives that previously faced resistance.
The study goes deeper, looking at what these leaders need to do to keep on track with these now-inevitable DX efforts.
Barriers to progress
With agility and speed being so important, it’s of little surprise that leaders reported “traditional and perceived barriers like technology immaturity and employee opposition to change” were no longer in play.
If there’s one thing that became painfully clear to many companies throughout the #pandemic, it’s that the old way of working is over.
Discover how your organization can envision the new #FutureOfWork with five key discoveries from leading executives: https://t.co/V3DnpvhUfA pic.twitter.com/w1osKNPoqE
— IBM Institute for Business Value (@IBMIBV) September 30, 2020
At issue? “This sense of urgency needs to carry over to any company’s most valuable assets—its people—as the users of that technology,” explains Mark Foster, Senior Vice President of IBM Services.
“We found that even as companies have rushed to adopt the technologies necessary not only to survive but thrive as business enterprises, too many of their employees feel stressed and even overwhelmed,” he elaborates.
Executives are well aware of this: “They reported that employee burnout, inadequate skills and organizational complexity are their biggest hurdles to progress today and in the next two years.”
The problem is that there is a disconnect between what leaders say they are doing and what employees report.
For example, the report found that:
- 74% of executives surveyed believe they have been helping their employees learn the skills needed to work in a new way, just 38% of employees surveyed agree.
- 80% of executives surveyed say that they are supporting the physical and emotional health of their workforce, while just 46% of employees surveyed feel that support.
“It’s one thing to nimbly retool and modernize the workplace,” wrote Foster. “It’s quite another proposition to expect workers to quickly adjust to the upheaval in their lives and livelihoods.”
Steps towards ‘surviving and thriving’
The study concluded that there are three steps leaders and organizations are taking:
- “Improving operational scalability and flexibility”
- 94% of executives are planning for platform-based business models by 2022, as well as “a 20 percentage point increase in prioritization of cloud technology in the next two years.”
- “Applying AI, automation and other exponential technologies to help make workflows more intelligent”
- AI will be a major priority
- 60% say they have accelerated process automation
- 76% plan to prioritize cybersecurity
- “Leading, engaging and enabling the workforce in new ways”
- Simply put, people should be first. The regular workday and office is gone, and stress and uncertainty are high. “Employees now expect that their employers will take an active role in supporting their physical and emotional health as well as the skills they need to work in new ways.”
- According to IBM’s recommendation, “empathetic leaders who encourage personal accountability and support employees to work in self-directed squads that apply design thinking, Agile principles and DevOps tools and techniques can be beneficial.”
