A new study has revealed how employee engagement campaigns can ramp up the odds of successful digital transformation by more than two and a half times.
Putting humans at the centre can increase the odds of success from 28 per cent to 73 per cent, according to Oxford University and Saïd Business School.
Their figures also show that around 70 per cent of digital transformations fail to reach their objectives, costing trillions of global dollars in wasted investment.
Brand communications company 438 Marketing in Knutsford, looked at how its work for a number of large global organisations is bucking this trend and shares tips with those businesses hoping for a successful digital transformation.
What is digital transformation?
Andy Whitmore of 438 said: “While most organisations focus on the customer experience, our study shows the value of giving the same level of attention to the employee experience in digital transformation.
“Digital transformation – the process by which organisations embed new technologies with the goal of increasing efficiency, improving agility and unlocking new value for employees, customers and shareholders – isn’t really about technology at all. It’s about people.
“And from our experience, all too often organisations focus on the digital part of digital transformation at the expense of the transformation part.
“Many companies we speak to also, not only fail to budget for business-critical employee engagement campaigns, but simply don’t know where to start. A lack of central ownership for implementing the new technology frequently doesn’t exist, but falls into silos and departments to navigate through.”
In the agency’s whitepaper, ‘Uncovering the human-shaped hole in digital transformation success’, it outlines its top tips – critical areas that must align to successfully achieve a balance between technology and an organisation’s talent to reach a DX programme’s objectives.
The power of three
Andy added: “Just as a stool needs three solid legs to be sturdy enough to withstand pressure, in our opinion, there are three key areas that must be aligned to successfully steer your organisation towards digital transformation success; community, emotion and consensus.”
The power of community
Too often, user groups are engaged to create a business case, then pushed to one side to pick up with again once the project is ready to go.
Not only does this provide inefficient feedback for the development process, but failing to build a strong community who are consistently activating and rousing involvement within the organisation shuts down communication with those who have the most influence to drive advocacy.
Conversely, projects that prioritise frequent and open communication from day one often garner followers stepping forward voluntarily to support the project – building advocacy from the very beginning. Building a community first is a powerful strategy for building long term resilience.
For digital transformation to become easier, we must introduce it gradually, creating space for different groups of people within the organisation to not only process new ways of doing things, but to feel competent and confident in employing them.
Emotion – the key to meaningful engagement
While businesses overwhelmingly express digital transformation in ways that seek to influence the conscious part of our brain rather than the subconscious which drives 95 percent of decisions, this is a fundamental error. Because when there’s a lot of detail to be considered often over a long period of time, emotional communication becomes MORE important not less.
Winning consensus through the art of storytelling
Aligning your organisation around digital transformation takes more than data. To truly achieve digital transformation, you need your employees to believe in your company’s goals and commit to achieving them.
You need to tell a story that they can relate to, which explains how your new strategy will improve business, what’s at stake if it fails, how the change is within their reach, and crucially, what’s in it for them.
The reason that stories are so powerful is because they generate emotion, and most people make decisions emotionally.
