A Fool-Proof Strategy for Integrating and Streamlining Digital Workflows

In digital workplaces driven by change, fragmented workflows are all too common.

Employees must use a variety of digital tools during their daily workflows.

Unfortunately, however, varying levels of proficiency are compounded by continual change in the workplace.

In the modern business, new tools, workflows, and business processes are adopted frequently.

These new tools and processes can deliver significant productivity gains for the organization – if employees can adapt successfully.

Without the right approach to employee learning, businesses risk fragmenting their employees’ workflows, decreasing productivity, and increasing frustration.

How to Integrate Digital Workflows with an Employee Learning Strategy

Today’s digital workplace is built around change, which propels the need for continual learning.

Continual learning, in turn, drives the need for ongoing training.

Today, effective training measures assist businesses with some of their top strategic agendas, such as:

• Digital transformation. Digital transformation is the process of leveraging digital technology to transform the way a business does business, delivers value, and operates in the digital age.
• Digital adoption programs that get results. The digital adoption of new software is essential to successful digital change … which also requires employees to become proficient and productive.
• Organizational changes that achieve their aims. Organizational change does not always succeed – and one common hindrance is employee resistance, which can stem from fear, poor training, or poor software experiences, as discussed below.

The right approach to employee learning, in other words, underpins any successful digital workplace.

Businesses without the right approach to employee training will frequently see their organizational aims hindered by poor performance, fragmented workflows, and employee frustration.

Digital Adoption vs. Digital Frustration

The underlying causes of employee frustration and resistance can stem from factors such as:

• Fear of incompetence
• Fear of change
• Ineffective training
• Steep learning curves, slow progress, and lack of productivity.
• The work environment

All of which can be avoided, mitigated, and diffused with the proper digital adoption plan.

That is, an approacch to product adoption that focuses on:

• The deployment of new digital technologies. The deployment of new software in a work environment is the first step to any digital adoption plan, but only the first step. If that software is not utilized fully, it will not generate returns.
• Integrating that technology seamlessly into the digital workplace. To integrate digital workflows and maximize productivity, organizations need to take deliberate action. Streamlining the digital workplace can be accomplished by making improvements to onboarding, training, and the user experience.
• Using that technology to its fullest extent and for its intended purpose. Software that is underutilized will underperform, and only generate a portion of its potential returns.

To effectively fuel transformation, adoption efforts should be built upon a solid foundation of employee onboarding and training, which help to prevent employee frustration and resistance.

However, traditional training approaches often fail to keep up with the demands of the digital workplace.

For that reason, businesses need to focus on digital training methods that:

• Integrate and streamline digital workflows
• Are optimized for the modern digital workplace
• Maximize employee learning 
• Are agile, adaptable, and results-oriented

Though traditional approaches to training have their place, the modern worker needs an approach that delivers immediate, practical value…

How Digital Adoption Platforms Streamline and Improve Employee Training

Digital Adoption Platforms (DAPs) are tools specifically designed to integrate digital workflows and fuel digital adoption efforts.

These modern training tools offer a number of benefits over more traditional teaching methods, such as classroom training and one-on-one teaching.

These platforms help to streamline critical stages of the digital adoption process, including:

• User onboarding, the stage when users first begin using a new platform or tool.
• Training, a necessary step that provides employees with the skills needed to become productive and successful.
• The user experience, which affects users’ perception of a product, their proficiency, their productivity, and other key user metrics.

DAPs have several features that help businesses improve these areas, such as:

• In-app guidance and assistance. In-app assistance is contextualized, which keeps employees focused on the task at hand. And because employees can immediately apply what they have learned, they will become productive more quickly, improving knowledge retention and their contributions to the workplace.
• Tutorials and step-by-step walkthroughs. Tutorials give users the ability to walk through even the most complex tasks. Regardless of the user’s skill level, DAPs can automate the training process and help users become proficient, with zero human intervention.
• Software analytics and insights. Analytics help trainers and managers understand how users interact with a platform or tool. Those insights, in turn, can be used to identify and prevent errors, improve training programs, optimize onboarding efforts, and more.

In the right hands, these platforms can help businesses streamline, integrate, and improve their digital workflows.

Organizations that don’t implement a modern digital adoption strategy – or modern tools, such as DAPs – risk losing out.

After all, lower employee proficiency translates into poor productivity, fragmented workflows, and poor software ROI.