Why employee engagement is essential to digital transformation success

However, digital transformation is not reserved for large corporations with extensive resources, and companies of all shapes and sizes are starting their own transformation journeys, from trying out new digital workflows to investing in cloud-based solutions. IDC estimates that around $2.3 trillion will be spent on digital projects by 2023 – account for more than half of all IT spending.

Whatever the sector and focus of the business, digitalisation projects align with the objective of making the business more efficient and agile. A successful project can lower costs by reducing infrastructure overheads, improving flexibility and scalability, and even unlocking entirely new business models and markets.

In many cases achieving these results can mean implementing major changes across the business, often overturning decades of established working practices. This means proper planning and preparation is essential for any project to succeed. However, many organisations focus on the technical aspect of digital transformation and overlook one of the most important aspects of their business – their employees.

The risk of forgetting to put employees first

Getting the workforce onside can have a huge impact on a project’s chances of success. Research from McKinsey shows that a staggering 70 percent of digital transformations fail, with poor employee engagement being one of the most important factors.

Implementing new technologies and working practices without properly consulting with the workforce can cause a number of serious issues that prevent a project from reaching its full potential, or even derail it completely. 

If the decision to go ahead with new technology comes entirely from the top, it will be made without proper insight into the needs of the workers who will be dealing with it on a daily basis. This can easily result in the launch of new technology that lacks essential functionality or is a poor fit with established processes. On the other end of the scale, the organisation may invest in a top-of-the-line solution without preparing the workforce to use it effectively, resulting in poor ROI. It’s also common to find that digital projects include solutions that do no integrate well with existing systems used by the organisation, or those of third-parties, because the decision makers were not aware of these complexities.

Aside from specific technical issues, unilaterally forging ahead with digital transformation can also be bad for morale. As a rule, people do not like being surprised with major changes and are likely to resist change if they feel it is being forced upon them. Unless employee buy-in is established at the start of the project, employees will often go back to the tried and tested solutions they are familiar with, skirting around the new technologies and workflows wherever possible. Without full commitment and take-up from the workforce, the digital project will have little chance of achieving any objectives around improving efficiency and agility, potentially resulting in a damaging series of unintended consequences such as resentment, increased staff turnover, lack of continuity, higher recruitment and training costs and lower overall productivity.

In order to avoid issues such as these, it is crucial that employee engagement efforts begin at the very start of the project, long before implementation and ideally before the solutions have even been chosen.

Research from Gartner has found that managing employee commitment to any change in the workplace becomes more difficult the further along the process is. The research found that nearly three-quarters of employees subjected to major changes in the workplace experience moderate-to-high stress levels.

Focusing on communication

Rather than digital transformation being something dictated by the company’s senior leaders, it should be seen as a collaborative project that involves employees at all levels across the organisation. From day one, senior managers should have a clear strategy for communicating their plans for digital transformation with employees, long before they begin scouting for potential solutions.

Appointing someone to act as a digital transformation evangelist can be a useful approach, ensuring that there is a single figurehead who is able to coordinate and take responsibility. Depending on the size of the company, this could be the CIO, another senior IT decision maker or may even be an entirely new role. Digital transformation leaders should be in constant contact with representatives from different departments across the business to share information and gather feedback.

To establish a proper dialogue with the workforce, the organisation can also provide individual employees with a clear channel of communication to both receive information and provide their own ideas and feedback. A central focal point such as a workplace portal can be very effective at ensuring that staff have their say, particularly if it is integrated with an existing employee intranet or dashboard. This will make it easy for the decision makers tasked with overseeing the project to communicate with the workforce and allow employees to respond without disrupting their own workflows. 

Once a communication strategy and the right tools have been implemented, IT and business heads can start gathering valuable feedback and insight that will help to shape both individual projects and the company’s digital transformation journey at large.

Managing this through a central portal or dashboard will also make it easier for the decision makers to compare data from across different departments, such as HR, finance or production, and help them to choose solutions and strategies that will work across the board. As solutions are tested and implemented, project leads can incorporate feedback from department heads and the wider workforce to help shape and guide the implementation.

By including all employees in a digitalisation project from the very beginning and ensuring that they have a centralised resource for staying informed and providing their own feedback, organisations will be able to pave the way for a smoother digital transformation journey.