Make Innovations Play in Your Favor - Begin With the Staff
Updated: Mar 14, 2023
This article will help you understand the role of employees in the proper implementation of innovations. During the next few minutes, you’ll discover more about changing staff’s attitude to transformation and making them ready for it.
“Employees are not ready.” This conclusion usually comes to mind of CEOs or CTOs when innovation is implemented, but performance isn’t changed. Often this obstacle is the main reason for zero ROI.
In pursuit of a broader audience, better productivity, and higher revenue, management often misses the main thing: software is powerless without relevant employee attitude.
Scroll down to discover how to prepare your staff for innovation step-by-step and make them ready for any change in the software ecosystem your business needs.
Why Employees Don’t Like Changes and What to Do With It
All people are conservatives. It is inherent in our nature. We avoid situations making us get out of our comfort zone. We try to postpone something innovative or refuse to throw away old jeans and replace them with new ones. Why? Because "old" means "reliable and proven." Living in this crazy, dynamic world, we want a little stability.
When you bring your co-worker Jeffrey a lightning-speed laptop instead of a "dinosaur" PC and say he'll be using it for work, Jeffrey may be unhappy. In case he has never worked with such a device, of course. Let's imagine that he hasn't. So, what would be the next? - He will pretend to work on a new device, but on the sly, he will work overtime performing his duties using the old PC.
Yes, we are not enthusiastic about changes for which we are not ready. This rule would be applied to any innovation that you implement. Unfortunately, despite its convenience and usefulness, it will not be able to cope with human nature. But you can.
You may also like: Why Software Became a Central Point Ensuring Employee Well-Being in Retail
Top 3 Ways How to Change Employee Attitude to Innovation
#1 Dive into their needs
As practice shows, not only your business needs matter. For example, it’s arduous to promote smart carts in a convenience store when buyers don’t need them there. Maybe managers need such innovation to satisfy business ambitions and go beyond the competition. But it doesn’t work this way because clients won’t use it and understand its purpose.
Before implementing changes, upgrade your software or replace it - discover whether your employees need it.
Often, staff doesn’t understand that it requires something new to simplify daily work. So, you should dive deeper into your business processes and workers’ routine to predict what solutions will make employee life easier, boosting your business simultaneously.
#2 Organize training before going live
If you’re convinced that innovation will bring value to everybody, but your employees don’t understand it - no worries. You can always prepare them for changes by explaining the pros of new work conditions.
You should show them the demo version of a solution and tell them more about its pros and meaning for further business development.
Follow the simple steps below to organize the training process in the right way:
collect the relevant information about the future innovation
discover the core principles of its operation
create fascinating training materials that can engage your employees
try to explain complex things with plain language
invest your time and money in training
pay attention to the core benefits of the innovation
let each involved employee try a demo-version of the new product
check the staff readiness by conducting a small exam or poll
When you take care of employee experience as well as you care of the customer's one, staff’s negative attitude to innovation will never be an obstacle for you. Some time spent on attentive training can totally change the opinion of your people.
You may also like: Retail Employee Engagement Solutions: Overview
#3 Create a knowledge base
Did you know that you can prepare employees for any innovations from the very beginning of your cooperation? It’s possible owing to the end-to-end knowledge base. The best way to grow innovators inside the company is to educate them from day one. This approach will save your efforts and investment in the future.
Use the following tips to create a favorable educational ground for your employees:
collect and consolidate information about all your business and operational processes
divide it into sections to make the learning easier
include there all valuable data that might be useful for workers
give people some time for self-education during the business day
brainstorm with your team to see its involvement and readiness
encourage employee ideas and desire to implement innovations
The knowledge base is a powerful tool that can prepare your staff for dynamic business and innovations, cut time for onboarding, and educate employees without frequent management involvement.
Afterwords
It’s not easy for people to adapt to a new reality. Before implementing innovations, you should remember that and do your best to make this transition smoother for employees.
To sum up the above, you have at least 3 ways to prepare your staff for changes, saving their excellent employee experience and even engaging them to work.
You should:
understand their needs
organize training before going live
create a robust knowledge base
This approach will help you stay on the same page with your people, investing in their education without extra effort. Meanwhile, the range of professionals and enthusiasts you grew won’t tailor to innovation any more. They will run it.
If you’re looking for support in this area - drop us a line. Our experts will provide you with valuable insights on preparing employees for new work conditions.
Subscribe to our newsletter to discover JEVERA news, achievements, and offers that can bring more benefits to your business.