Talent Management - October 2008 - (Page 33)

Effective Technology Adoption Answers ‘What’s in It for Me?’ Ian Alexander Today’s talent management solutions are pushing HR processes to frontline employees. But no matter how slick the solution, effective organizations understand implementing new technology is only half the battle. The war is won when talent managers can drive adoption and maintain usage. One of the best ways to prepare an organization for the inevitable changes new technology brings is to involve users in the technology choice. This may sound obvious, but surprisingly few selection processes include line employees. Including users can be as easy as having frontline employees attend demos and then soliciting their feedback. Better yet, ask potential vendors to set up a demo site, and let employees use the system. By involving users early on, talent managers can avoid adoption problems associated with difﬁculty of use. National real estate development and property management company The Shelter Group set up a group of managers as an advisory team. They helped select the software and ultimately acted as a pilot group. Once the pilot phase was over, the group was so conﬁdent in the system, it inspired its peers’ conﬁdence. This was key as the system rolled out to hundreds of line managers throughout the organization. Successful companies view new technology tools as products that need to be internally marketed. When rolling out new technology, branding can be an important factor. Rather than roll out SonicRecruit to line users, Coca-Cola Bottling Co. Consolidated (CCBC) rebranded the applicant tracking system as its own. CCBC branded its system CAPS, thereby relating it to the company’s external brand identity and internal goals. CAPS created a logo and system collateral and used its branding to encourage participation throughout the user community. Successfully selecting and implementing new technology is only the ﬁrst step. Managers and employees likely will resist spending time on activities they perceive as low value. To combat this perception, organizations that have been successful in encouraging employees to use new technology often: •Sell the beneﬁts of using the system in terms of “what’s in it for us.” Let employees know how the new technology will drive the organization to deliver better products, improve customer service or outmaneuver the competition. •Distribute internal success stories. Hearing tales of success from peers will allow others to see the value of using the system and can dramatically improve user adoption. •Reward employees who make the most use of the system with prizes. Make the rewards visible and use these events to promote the value of the system. •Develop a boot camp to quickly get new users up to speed on the system. Hold at least one every quarter. • Provide regular, feature-focused training to allow employees in need to dive into areas of interest and get the most out of their experience. Monthly lunch-and-learn sessions or roundtable discussions often are effective. •Create a real or virtual forum to elicit user feedback. Monitor it carefully and respond religiously to every piece of feedback. Understand that if a manager or employee takes the time to offer feedback, even if it is negative, it shows he or she is engaged in owning the process and making it work. •Communicate feature changes, upgrades and system maintenance times well in advance, and provide speciﬁcs related to new feature training or down time. •Be willing to adjust the process. Don’t lose site of the ultimate goal: getting the intended business value from the system. If the system or process is getting in the way, be willing to make changes. Too many HR practitioners view technology implementations as a one-time, analytical exercise. However, as talent management technologies continue to move to frontline employees, organizations that view selection, implementation and adoption as a continuous process will achieve signiﬁcantly higher return on their investment. Ian Alexander is vice president for Cytiva Software, a talent management software provider. He can be reached at editor@talentmgt.com. talent management magazine www.talentmgt.com 33 http://www.talentmgt.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Talent Management - October 2008

Talent Management - October 2008 Editor’s Letter Contents Human Performance Leading Edge Foundations The Three Pillars of Executive On-Boarding Role-Based Assessment: Thinking Inside the Box Who's Going to Speak Up for Health Care? Obey the Push to Automate Managing the Star Performer No One Wants to Work With Adopting a Mutual-Funds Model for Talent Management Hewlett-Packard: Simple Talent Management in a Technical World Team Effort Pays in Talent at London Business School The Employee Survey: What’s in It for Me? Why Most Managers Are Stuck Advertisers’ Index Editorial Resources Full Potential

Talent Management - October 2008

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