Onboarding Staff - How to Make IT Implementation Easier

After working with your IT partners, you’ve developed a digital tech strategy for your business with solutions that support everything from everyday operational processes to hybrid teams and customer service. That’s a big milestone, but it’s not the end of the road! Now you have to implement it – and technology adoption isn’t always easy at an organisation where you have a mix of innovators, sceptics, and other elements that are resistant to change. Here’s some advice on supporting successful IT implementation and adoption.

Find your innovators

Innovators and early adopters are the people most excited and enthusiastic about new technology. They’re the ones who enjoy learning about new tech, bringing it into their home and work lives, and have a good understanding of what different solutions do.

Essentially, they are your champions!

Finding the people most comfortable with digital change and onboarding them first will create advocates that co-workers often find are easier to talk to and learn from. It helps sceptics and people hesitant about change better understand the technology, spreading understanding and enthusiasm organically while allaying fears.

Share your process

People will want to understand why the change is occurring and why these solutions were chosen over others. Of course, during the evaluation process, there should be input from teams and departments – and now you can bring your champions onto the same page.

Be transparent about why one software has been chosen over the other, the benefits, and answer questions your champions have. Again, this helps knowledge to filter through the teams, empowering your innovators and early adopters to answer the many questions your teams and departments will likely have.

Training and onboarding events?

Although you have been sharing knowledge and decisions throughout the tech selection process, training and onboarding are necessary to foster buy-in at all levels and make people feel secure in the new digital environment.

This shouldn’t be a one-way process – encourage questions, have team members with a solid understanding assist others one-on-one, and reinforce the benefits for your staff rather than just for the organisation.

If you have large departments, train each department head to onboard their teams separately, always providing more technical understanding by having your IT specialists and partners participate and support the sessions.

Incorporate the new tech in small, interesting ways

Training and onboarding should demonstrate how the technology works, but you can go a step further by using the tech in creative ways to give teams a taste of what it can do for them!?

Depending on the tools and tech, you can introduce it into meetings or start with small, social elements of the program. Your IT partner can deploy it on a tested operational process, so everyone can see it in action. Or you can roll it out to a limited number of customers so your customer service team can develop their familiarity and confidence with it.

Eliminating fear, building confidence, showcasing rewards

When getting buy-in from your employees, your tech strategy should focus on how it makes their workday easier and more rewarding – not just what it will do to help the company. From the moment you start consulting with your IT partner to develop a digitisation plan, you should be telling your employees how you aim to bring these benefits to them, getting more specific as you determine the right tech solutions for your organisation.

It's natural to fear change and feel unsettled, but the right implementation strategy shows your employees that their role is not in danger, that you will support their learning process (as everyone is learning together), and that ultimately, it’s a change worth being excited about.

At Otto, we don’t just evaluate your organisational tech and deliver a custom solution – we’re there to help your business and employees make a successful transition too!

By bringing expert IT consulting services with a proven record in developing, rolling out, and onboarding businesses in every sector with new technologies, we help make implementation easier and more engaging for everyone.

The team at Otto includes vCIOs, IT consultants, tech specialists, and more – all with great relationships with top vendors. We work to get to know your business and develop custom solutions – from strategy through to implementation and support – that make digitisation faster, more reliable, and optimised at every level. We’ve got a proven record for delivering solutions for faster workflows, automation, lowered overheads, reduced wastage, and robust cybersecurity.

If you’d like to talk about bringing digital into your business, book a time for a no-obligation chat with me to see what we can do to support your journey. You’re also more than welcome to learn more about IT strategy implementation through our blog.

Looking forward to hearing from you.