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Published on September 21, 2016

Top 7 Tips to Help Staff Adopt New Technology

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Your staff is your greatest asset and they can also be your biggest weakness. We know that staff mistakes account for a high percentage of data breaches. It's imperative that training is in place to prevent the simple mistakes when you adopt new technology or even in using standard programs. New software, programs, databases, and platforms quickly fill up our daily routines. With all of the coming technological advances, it's important that your staff is well trained to handle any new systems to help mitigate error. But training itself becomes an issue that many companies don't want to contend with because it promises a drop in productivity.

Your company is going to adopt new technology if you want to stay competitive. Optimally, you need to prepare staff and develop training methods to better integrate new technologies with the current protocol.

 

7 Tips to Help Staff Adopt New Technology

There are a number of ways that your company can tackle new innovations on a wide scale. These tips can help make these changes less stressful for employees, ensuring better success and a lower drop in productivity.

 

1. Consult the Vendor for Training

Whenever you've decided on a new system or software, make certain to discuss specifics of employee training with the vendor. They should be able to offer training sessions, in person or online. They can consult with you on the amount of time it will take staff to acclimate and show an increase in productivity (which is usually one of the goals in implementation). Depending on the technology, you may pick a key team to take training and then pass on that training to your staff. Or your entire staff may at some point take the training offered by the vendor.

 

2. Identify a Point Person or Team on Staff

Whether the vendor is hands on in training and customer service or not, you should choose a specific person or team on your staff to take point with this initiative. This would be the resident expert on the software to better streamline the process in-house.

 

3. Research Staff Responsibilities With Regard to New Technology

Not every employee will need training. Your receptionist or front desk people may never need to access new database changes. Their need for training will depend on their own responsibilities. There's no sense in making employees sit through training that won't impact their work-day. Before organizing training, it's a good practice to reflect on which staff will need to use the programs.

 

4. Offer Training With Rewards

Training sessions are not generally things that inspire great excitement among staff, but they are necessary. It can help to set incentives to completing the training and further incentives for good performance with the new technology. These initiatives make the staff feel appreciated for the effort and can boost morale.

 

5. Create Internal Documentation

Most new systems come with extensive manuals and instructions, which should be read thoroughly and made available to staff. But those documents are often cumbersome. It helps to create internal documentation with easily digestible tips. This might be as simple as bullet points on different activities or an internal manual with screenshots and instructions.

 

6. Test Run the System

A great way to go about a major change is by doing a test-run first. This won't impact the entire company and in this way you can work out the kinks and document any obstacles before launching company wide.

 

7. Set Goals for Implementation

Successful implementation will take more than a day. Research the benefits of the new technology for companies comparable to your own and set an internal schedule to guide you in meeting goals. This might include staff meetings to discuss issues with the system and how to best help staff adapt and progress.

The reality is that your company will continue to add new technology to the daily protocol of business. Most employees today are technology savvy and able to learn new systems with relative ease, but you'll need to monitor new changes to make certain that these additions are best for your productivity and corporate morale.

 

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