Technology

PERSPECTIVE

The past ten years have seen a dramatic rise in new technologies that allow us to work in more efficient and powerful ways. But any technology becomes less effective when it exists on its own—independent, disconnected, or haphazardly implemented. Such conditions compromise both business performance and day-to-day employee experiences, often sabotaging the best efforts of the organization and its people. So now, and for the foreseeable future, organizations must focus on the critical task of integrating technology, achieving an ecosystem of sorts, where different tools interact seamlessly to support a thriving culture full of excellent peak and micro employee experiences.

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INTRODUCTION

The pace of technological innovation shows no signs of slowing down, and it’s rapidly shifting how, where, and when we work.

New technology not only enables employees to work more flexibly, it also makes the work smarter, faster, and more efficient. For example, real-time data is more accessible and accurate than ever, which helps people make better decisions at every level.

Some may question whether technology is living up to the promise of connecting us in a world that at times feels increasingly disconnected, especially during a global pandemic accompanied
by social and political turmoil.

But we should also ask whether organizations are fully leveraging technology to improve the thousands of micro-experiences employees have at work. Because there’s one thing we know for certain: bad experiences with technology can create or exacerbate disconnection, isolation, and burnout in the workplace—especially when the workplace is remote.

So how does an organization effectively integrate technology everywhere it can make a difference without negatively impacting the employee experience? Ideally, different technologies would seamlessly connect and complement one another, creating a cohesive network of tools and interactions. Futurists and researchers¹ often portray a fully integrated workplace with dystopian images of artificial intelligence and robots replacing humans. But it’s just as easy to imagine advanced technology implemented in ways that improve culture.

“Technology is often looked at as a silver-bullet solution to problems and challenges, so implementation becomes the primary focus. As such, organizations find they have not made work easier or people more productive, they just added more work, steps, or complexities–and increased dissatisfaction and frustration.”
—CHRIS HAVRILLA, VICE PRESIDENT, HR TECHNOLOGY AND SOLUTION PROVIDER RESEARCH, BERSIN BY DELOITTE

EMPLOYEES ARE EXCITED ABOUT NEW TECHNOLOGIES

Contrary to dystopian predictions, most employees feel good about the future of technology in the workplace. A full 77% believe advanced technology will improve their work experience, even in organizations where jobs have been eliminated by it. What’s more, 65% of employees are “hopeful,” and 62% are “excited” about the potential of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning.

This means less than one-third of employees are afraid of how technology could impact them in the future, which is very different from the popular narrative that workers think AI will steal their jobs. Interestingly, of the third who were fearful, individual contributors were about twice as worried or skeptical of AI and machine learning as leaders. That difference is even more pronounced in industries most likely to be changed by these types of technologies: banking/finance, communications, energy, construction, manufacturing, oil and gas, IT, and transportation. Millennials are the least worried about new technology. Baby Boomers are the most fearful.

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Furthermore, 26% of organizations are planning to introduce this technology soon. And 82% of those who have already implemented report that it has impacted their employee experience positively.

Our research also indicates employees are optimistic about their organization’s ability to implement future technologies well. About two-thirds of employees feel their organization will keep up with the latest technology and achieve seamless integration of new tools.

Organizations are in the early stages of adopting advanced technologies, and the good news is that employees don’t view them with a critical or fearful eye. Most are excited because they’ve already seen a positive impact, and they’re hopeful their organizations will implement them successfully. Employees are ready, but are their organizations?

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ORGANIZATIONS ARE NOT READY FOR NEW TECHNOLOGIES

While employees anticipate new technologies will change work for the better, their employers may not be ready to deliver. We found technological readiness is strongly tied to an organization’s culture, and the culture largely determines how successful new technology will be. In addition, employees who are more positive about their culture are more open to changes in their employee experience, including technological changes. Our research identifies four critical factors that we call the Cultural Technology Innovation Readiness (CTIR) Index:

Figure 4. CULTURAL TECHNOLOGY INNOVATION READINESS (CTIR) INDEX
Four factors connected to culture and success.

Unfortunately, we found only 32% of organizations scored well. Similarly, Deloitte found that only 26% of employees said their organizations were “ready or very ready” to address the impact of new technologies.⁶

Leaders and employees have differing opinions on whether their organizations consider the employee experience when making decisions about technology. A study by PWC shows 90% of C-suite executives believe their company assesses employee needs when implementing new technology, but only 53% of employees agree. And while 92% of senior leaders are satisfied with the technology experience their organization provides for making progress on their most important work, only 68% of staff agree.⁷

Organizations may think new technology serves the needs of employees, yet they may overlook some crucial steps in the process. Asking for employee input when considering technology, involving employees when vetting providers, and soliciting feedback after technology is implemented can help employees feel they have a voice. Including them in technology decisions also demonstrates leaders care about how the new tools affect them. All of this is important to remember because the experience employees have with technology will ultimately determine its success or failure.

TECHNOLOGY READINESS AND COMPANY CULTURE ARE INTRINSICALLY LINKED

As previously stated, the strength of an organization’s culture determines its technology readiness. Some cultures are more agile and open to changes like new technology. Others are more fearful or slow to change and less willing to accept risk for innovation. Those with high trust in leaders or a strong belief that the organization cares about employee wellbeing will be more likely to accept the uncertainty that comes with new technologies.

Cultures that excel in the six Talent Magnets (purpose, opportunity, success, recognition, wellbeing, and leadership) invariably have higher CTIR scores. When you have a strong culture that enables employees to thrive, they will be more likely to trust you have their best interests at heart and more open to your efforts to help them work better.

Notably, the inverse is also true: Technology can help you build your culture. According to Jordan Birnbaum, VP and Chief Behavioral Economist at ADP, “To the extent that you want certain principles to
be a bedrock of your organizational culture, that means you have to make them available to people every time. Technology offers an opportunity to make sure that the organization’s intentions for the kind of culture it wants are communicated with regularity. If a company establishes that collaboration is important, how do you support it? What tools facilitate it?”⁸

Effective technology is technology that delivers great employee experiences.

TECHNOLOGY AS AN ECOSYSTEM

Technology has traditionally functioned to keep organizations running. It has evolved with the workforce to help employees stay connected to their work and each other. Advances in technology over the past decade allow organizations to better interact, share information, and learn from one another. And they’ve helped build communities within work where employees can collaborate and thrive.

Think of existing and future technology as an ecosystem within an organization, one where tools and programs benefit from interaction. Data, input, and feedback flow back and forth in a network that is continually transforming. In the best ecosystems, the elements work together to improve the interactions employees have with each other and with the organization. This includes their HR needs, the tools and resources they use to do their work, communication to and from leaders, social experiences with peers, and connections with customers.

While a technology ecosystem is made up of hardware and software, even more important is the data that passes through it. This data allows the ecosystem to learn and provide insights to users, becoming almost a living, breathing part of the organization. With these insights, leaders can understand and improve the experiences their employees have at work and build better cultures in very specific ways.

As in other ecosystems, old technologies become obsolete, requiring organizations to regularly re-evaluate and adjust tools to optimize the employee and customer experience.

If organizations implement technology into their ecosystem well, they will succeed in both the adoption of the technology and the overall employee experience. Our research found that, on average, 69% of employees are satisfied with the technology at their organization. Every one-point increase in satisfaction yields an 11% increase in the odds of having an excellent employee experience.

RECOMMENDATIONS & IMPACT

Organizations must think about technology as a living part of their culture and intentionally use it to empower employees and improve their overall experience. There are three things to keep in mind:

1. When considering new technology, its impact on the employee experience and culture must be the top priority

During times of uncertainty, companies must assess their leadership practices and how they engage their people. Leaders who communicate decisions honestly, completely, and proactively build trust and reassure their employees.

“Solving culture at scale is the future of HR tech.”
—LASZLO BOCK, CEO, HUMU

Before purchasing or implementing any new technology, here are a few important questions to ask:

• Why are we implementing this new technology?
• How will it impact our people?
• How does it improve their everyday experience?
• How might it be a burden or negatively impact their experience?
• How does it integrate with existing tools employees already use?
• How does it affect employees’ work output?
• Does it make things easier for them or help them be more productive?
• How does it help people connect to our organization’s purpose?
• Does it enable employees to better interact and collaborate?
• How does it reflect or strengthen our culture?

Seek employee input and take their feedback. Have them sit in during vendor demos and beta test new tools. Include them in the rollout and change management plans. Recruit them to be champions of new technology to help engage others.

Don’t forget to include all segments of your employee population, including remote workers, global locations, and contractors. A cross-functional look at employees of various levels, functions, and ages is important. If you treat employee experience and culture as the North Star, your choices will be clearer and your technology initiatives will be more successful.

The aspirational score is an empirically based target that best-practice companies strive for. When reached, organizations maximize benefits from a particular cultural element.

“Delivering a winning employee experience means leveraging technology to provide employees an experience at work that is comparable to their experience as consumers. Providing a consumerized platform to employees is no longer a “nice to have”—it is considered table stakes, and this trend is expected to accelerate in the future.”
—LISA STERLING, CHIEF PEOPLE AND CULTURE OFFICER, CERIDIAN

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2. Integration, not just implementation, is crucial

Focusing on the employee experience, it becomes clear that integration is as important as implementation. Why? Today’s work tools and the amount of associated information are overwhelming, the pace of work itself is accelerating, and employees are burning out. Every day, the average worker uses 11 different technological systems to do their job, and 27% of employees say they lose almost an entire day each week to irrelevant emails and messages.¹⁰

Employees need technology to improve how they work. They need tools that help them perform their jobs without adding complexity or requiring additional effort. So before providing additional tools, consider integrating new technology into existing workflows. Doing so creates a true technology ecosystem that brings efficiency and simplicity to the employee experience, as well as data and insights to improve it.

The best integrated experiences are intelligent, knowing the optimal timing, frequency, and method of a key activity to be performed. An integrated solution provides an encouraging nudge or a just-in-time moment of coaching within the flow of the processes employees already use to help them succeed in performing those key activities.

If employees perceive new technologies as useful and easy, those technologies can smoothly enter the flow of work within an organization.

Every individual has a different personal level of technology acceptance in the workplace. Even those who trend towards very open acceptance may resist if it disrupts their flow of work. As we enter that flow of work, simplicity and familiarity are key to the acceptance and use of any given tool.

The goal is to become part of the ecosystem and enter the flow of work with minimal disruption to both the employee’s experience and their actual job. When this happens, organizations enable employees to seamlessly engage in the provided tools.

It’s equally important to remember that “in the flow of work” isn’t limited to just integrating with other types of technology. To be truly integrated, technology must be part of employees’ familiar use of tools, as well as their processes, environment, and interactions with coworkers.

3. Develop and follow a change management plan for any new technology

Don’t assume employees will easily adopt new technology. Change management plans ensure employees have an optimal experience with new systems. Without such plans in place, adoption of the latest technology drops 51%, and the overall employee experience decreases by 32%.

The most common missing elements of new technology change management plans are communication and training. Without adequate communication and training, new technology increases stress, and employees feel a lower sense of success. This decreases readiness by 79% and confidence in the organization by 29%.

But communication and training are just the beginning. Real change management isn’t simply disseminating information about a change. Like integration, it’s more than implementing new technology tools; it’s building technology into your organization’s current ecosystem and actively addressing how it will complement employee experiences.

A crucial part of an effective change management plan is changing behaviors. This includes helping people understand and practice behavior change, developing the case for change through inclusion of key audiences, adjusting strategies to employees’ unique needs and perceptions, and creating nudges and behavioral cues to support the change.

In addition to communicating and educating why the change is needed and valuable, organizations should engage employees in the change itself and build advocate networks with people who employees trust and value. Furthermore, while organizations do a lot of work and communication before and during a technology rollout, they often cut back immediately after. The best change management plans include robust post-rollout activities as well.

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CONCLUSION

Technology enables organizations to help their employees work smarter, make their processes easier, and move forward together. It can give companies a competitive advantage, as well as the potential to make the world better. But it only works if it meets employees’ needs by truly integrating with the organization’s ecosystem.

Employers must introduce new technology thoughtfully and intentionally. Without considering how new tools will affect employees and implementing a comprehensive change management plan, advanced technology may fail. And while the employee experience and culture are often forgotten when organizations implement new technology, they are the first things we should think about. When employees have a positive experience with technology, it changes their entire perception of their organization.

TECHNOLOGY—4 KEY TAKEAWAYS

Technology has the potential to strengthen work cultures, but most organizations fail to leverage it.

Employees are excited—not fearful—of new technologies at work.

When considering new technology, its impact on the employee experience and work culture must be the top priority.

The goal of new technology should be complete integration, not simply implementation.

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