As various companies look to build upon their productivity and efficiency gains, their attention can understandably turn to whether new technology could help them to meet those ends.
You might not be surprised to learn that, yes, refreshing your workplace technology can help prevent your company falling behind in the corporate race. Still, you need to be careful how you implement new technological solutions; otherwise, they could falter in their effectiveness.
Build up your infrastructure slowly.
Though you probably already have a range of technological infrastructure in place, it doesn’t necessarily follow that the more, the better. Instead, it’s a matter of quality, not quantity.
For this reason, you ought to heed Inc.‘s advice to evaluate new technology before enacting it – starting at the most rudimentary level. Naturally, you should assess functionality and cost, but also consider how an accessible system could accelerate its uptake among employees.
Don’t rush your efforts to find the right solution.
With so many technological features at close hand for trying in your corporate network, it’s tempting to switch through them quickly by means of pilot programs.
However, going down this route can prevent your company committing sufficiently strongly to a particular solution to judge whether it really is the right one for the long term. Implement a complete program to ease your employees’ commitment to it.
Take account of employees’ feedback.
It’s overly common for businesses to pour money into new technology without first seeking opinions from the people set to most work with it.
Bring individual contributors into the feedback fold. Business 2 Community points out that these people “know the daily pain points involved in their jobs better than anyone else and are well-positioned to advise on how technology could help them work faster and more accurately.”
Show transparency.
It seems that distrust can too easily fester in many workplaces. One survey by the American Psychological Association has revealed only half of employees to reckon that their employer is upfront and open to them. The trick here is to keep employees in the loop.
Through doing that, you can also ensure that they comprehend their own influence on the transitional process and, thus, how they can help make it progress more easily, too.
Openly justify the change.
Not all of your workers might immediately see how the new technology you are proposing to implement will actually practically benefit their day-to-day routines in the office.
Hence, the onus is on you to explain why you have decided on the change and how these employees can directly benefit from it. A VoIP phone system from Planet Numbers, for instance, can save costs.
Don’t let the momentum falter.
By tasking an individual or team with both overseeing the implementation and monitoring the new system’s ongoing usage, you can help prevent it falling apart and leaving you with the status quo again. Introducing new technology is about progressing, but your workplace must be a well-oiled machine to ensure that everything goes as close to plan as possible.
