We need to adapt our approach to engagement on Workday Projects to meet the challenges of our evolving digital world.

Since the late 1990's when organisations moved from measuring 'levels of staff satisfaction' to 'levels of staff engagement' as a more meaningful measure, there has been a general downward trend. In the last global count, only 32% of employees feel engaged in the workplace. It appears "the more we 'do' to address this trend, the less effect we seem to be having"! 

Is this trend occurring because we are overcomplicating things? We live in an age of instant access to information and are bombarded continuously both in and outside of working hours. Perhaps we need to take a step back and ask ourselves is the mantra espoused by many change theorists of the need "communicate, communicate and communicate" the right one? Leading Change & Engagement theorist, Kotter himself indicates there is a need to adjust how we engage in meeting “the rapid fire strategic challenges faced by Organisations today.”

I believe this issue is particularly relevant to the delivery of Workday and similar ERP solutions. How do you build the level of engagement within a disaffected user population, unable to absorb yet another initiative delivered from above? In an attempt to provide some potential solutions, I have noted some thoughts based on the 16 years I have supported organisations to cope and deal with this type of challenge:

1) A single integrated Change & Engagement Approach 

The time when communications and training were considered as separate, but linked elements within the Change Management work-stream disappeared with the arrival of the smartphone and 24-hour news. The appearance of the iPhone, YouTube, and Twitter created the mechanism for people to remain connected, and as a result, the lines between traditional forms of communication and training have blurred. 

The reality is, when supporting a significant change like an ERP implementation, communications, and training coexist on the same engagement pathway. They target the same people, implement the same system, and support the same timeline. Separate change, communication, training strategies, and plans do not make sense in the digital age. 

The answer is to multiply the strength of these specialisms and create a single Change & Engagement Approach & Plan that addresses the needs of a single set of impacted stakeholders and engages with them based on their needs. Anything else adds complexity and acts as a barrier to clear thinking.

2) Top-down 'l know best' strategies rarely work

A leader dominated engagement approach, where somebody communicates from the front of the room has been overused. It perpetuates a leader-follower model that re-enforces the 'I know best' approach, otherwise known as an engagement killer. This philosophy doesn't work in a Workday environment. There are too many moving parts, and too many stakeholders to force it through. You may get past day 1, but by day 1000 people will have reverted to old habits and familiar tasks. 

It is essential to have leadership support; however, it is also vital that you connect people to the technology they are adopting throughout the implementation process. Often, too much focus is on the former at the expense of the latter, with projects resorting to sending high-level updates to keep people informed but not involved. 

The key is to find the right people from across your organisation and actively involve them in the design, build, and test of a system like Workday. Engage these leaders early in the design process, develop their skills and knowledge of Workday, ensure their knowledge and expertise is harnessed and applied to improve Workday once it is live. The benefits gained from this approach culturally, as well as operationally, will out-way the often-cited response of 'what's the point of training our people, they'll only leave!'

3) Bite me - accessible, and bite-size information is the answer

The rise of social media has changed our behaviours and challenged engagement norms. We now expect our interactions across multiple media platforms in bite-size portions. We also expect that information will be available on demand, especially as the patterns of how we choose to work changes. 

A change team on any Workday project needs to mirror these behaviours. The world has moved on from PDF screen grabs and documents stored on SharePoint. We need to be much better at developing the infrastructure and tools that provide 24/7 access to the information people need in the way they choose to receive it. There are a variety of tools already available that provide this type of platform. Are your change teams aligned with this 'new normal' for engagement?

4) Focus on the message before you worry about the medium

Although the digitisation of information has changed many things, the fundamentals of staff engagement remain the same. Clarity with what the message is, who needs to hear it, when you need to say it, and then (very importantly) listen and respond. All of these elements remain unchanged. By definition, if you are not doing this, then you are not engaging.

This simple approach applies equally to both communications and training. The focus on the message you want to get across, and the impact it will have is the key. Once you understand this, you have the foundations for meaningful engagement, and you have a chance people will listen.

The use of innovative engagement tools should not be used as a smokescreen to the application of these basic principles. The driver on the selection of the right tool for your organisation should always be based on the value that they bring, not based on the premise that it will impress a few senior stakeholders.

A final thought

When done effectively, a Workday implementation can be used as a catalyst for real engagement. Linking end users, HR, Finance, and IT together to solve significant business challenges. Unfortunately, change and engagement approaches haven't adapted as fast as the technology they deploy, and there is a long way to go before we match the rhetoric talked around engagement and meet the needs of impacted people. 

My belief is; first, you need to fix the basic stuff and focus on reducing the barriers to effective engagement. Start with getting the message right, design simple approaches and plans, ensure you involve impacted people at all levels and (very importantly) listen and respond to what they are saying. Once these elements are addressed, you can then get the best out of the myriad of innovative engagement and adoption tools that are available on the market.

They say the first step is to accept there is a problem. Only then can you do something to improve things. Let's face it, with engagement levels declining we need to do something!