There is no doubt regarding the tremendous impact technology has on companies around the world. The use of technology have opened up a whole new world of insight and possibilities for these companies helping them gain deeper insight into their customers, improve their products and services, optimize their operations and more. However, the introduction of new technology isn’t easy, and usually is met with a lot of resistance from employees who are used to and comfortable doing their work in a specific way that they don’t fancy changing.
As per Wikipedia Technology Adoption is defined as a sociological model that describes the adoption or acceptance of a new product or innovation, according to the demographic and psychological characteristics of defined adopter groups.
What that means in english is that whenever a company introduces a new technology into the work culture it should take into account that not all of its employees are the same. And in order to gain the maximum benefit of this technology it should customize its launch approach to suit the different types of employees in the company.
Most often these companies implement new technologies and build a standard one size fits all launch program that treats all employees alike resulting in resistance, low usage and very low return on investment.
To build a proper technology adoption program that minimizes resistance, promotes change and increases the return on investment from technology the first thing companies need to do is understand the different adopter groups that their employees fall under which are:
With the above being said, it should be clear that one size doesn’t fit everyone, and for a company to successfully launch new technologies it must personalize and customize it’s approach of introducing technology and innovation in the workplace. Below is a list of some (but not all) options that companies can adopt per user group to successfully launch new technology and innovations:
For companies to get the most value of the technology they invest in, they need to make sure they launch it in the best way possible that entices employees to adopt it as fast as possible. In subsequent articles we will be going over building and launching technology adoption plans, moreover we will cover some scenarios, examples and best practices based on our experience.
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