WORKFORCE MINDSETS IN THE DIGITAL AGE

Companies, employees and change practitioners alike need to adapt to a digitised environment, considering that it has revolutionised the workplace.

Managing the transition into the digital age

Tlale Mosimane, Change Agility Managing Director

Amid the digital age, many companies are finding that they are grappling with implementing various aspects of the customer-centric experience, driven by digitization strategies. However, employee centricity is becoming increasing important, especially during a company's transition into a digital workplace, making clear communication and engagement crucial.

Embracing change in the digital age

As a company embarks on the journey to shift perceptions and embrace the digital era, it is important for its leadership to answer the following questions:

• What does this change mean for employees?
• What does it mean for change management practitioners and will the principles of change management applied in the past be valid in this new era?
• Should the company be driving the generally accepted principle of allocating consultants to manage the change at project level, when the digital age is proving to be a way of ‘being’ rather than a change?
• What type of culture, mindset and behaviour does the company need to adopt to boldly welcome this new way of being?
•  What will the workforce look like in a fully functional digital environment?

Company leadership, as in all aspects of transformation, is central to developing this picture, and preparing the workforce for the road ahead. The areas that the leaders themselves grapple with are equally important, from assessing the technological landscape, unpacking what the vision looks like, aligning the workforce to the journey ahead and to preparing all aspects of the organisations for full digitisation.

What about the employee experience of this change?

During this time, it is critical to remember that the employee is at the centre of digitising the environment; they are the user and driver of all aspects within this environment. The ability of the workforce to buy-in quickly and be engaged consistently as the company takes various forms is critical. This underpins the importance of clearly defining the employee experience of this change and effectively communicating the “new and digitized” organisational culture. This then propels a majority, if not all, of a company’s strategy-driven initiatives going forward because the mindset required to implement strategy is embedded in your culture.

Bring the change: Become a disrupter in your industry

Companies cannot afford to wait for their industry’s version of Uber or Airbnb to come along – it is time to act and become the next industry disrupter, creating customer-centric solutions driven by employee-centric principles.

Business leaders should aggressively develop employee-centric companies that can stand the test of time.

What does this mean for Change Management as we know it today

Project driven change management is slowly becoming extinct and has limited use in a digital environment. Instead, a new age of managing change is necessary, requiring solutions that are information driven, particularly provide critical information about the workforce.

Change management should be influencing the strategic phase of defining a digital workplace. It must provide valuable input about what workforce behaviours will look like, and what mindsets needs to be developed for successful change. The overall company culture, therefore, becomes the driver of successful digitisation. 

Ultimately it is not important how many projects a company implements during the move to digitisation or how the change management practitioner will deliver in these silos. Of far more importance is how prepared for a digital environment the company is at a strategic level, how that is translated to organisational culture and the role of leadership as drivers of the new era organisations find themselves in.

Does your company need assistance in adapting to a digitized working environment? Change Agility will make the transition seamless. Contact us today!