How to Improve Digital Dexterity in the Workplace

José Sanz · October 05, 2023

What is digital dexterity and why is it important?

Embracing digital transformation is a must for companies that want to remain competitive in today’s landscape. Replacing legacy systems with new technologies enables businesses to gain multiple benefits including increased efficiency and productivity, greater business agility and process automation, and enhanced customer experience.

Before considering implementing new technologies, companies must define their digital transformation strategy and put technology at the core of their business.

Successfully adopting new practices and ways of working depends on digital dexterity: the willingness and capacity of employees to adopt new and existing technology. Without this solid foundation, no amount of money spent or software adopted will get the desired results.

Why do organizations lack digital dexterity?

Companies that fail at their digital transformation efforts almost always do so due to poor digital dexterity. This can be due to:

• Inadequate company technological culture and environment. Without the right environment to support employee understanding that digital transformation is a business priority, they won’t put it at the core of their day-to-day operations. Moving from out of date systems and legacy solutions needs to be a smooth transition. For example, a product marketing manager may have been working with excel spreadsheets and dispersed product information for several years. Changing from this to a PIM system, regardless of the multiple benefits that it may offer, is not a one-day transition, and requires setting up your employees for success with appropriate support.

• Lack of preparation of the workforce. Digital friction increases when employees don’t understand the impact of the solution and don’t have proper training, as poor understanding can lead to unnecessary time and effort input.

• Lack of involvement of employees in the process. Involving your team in the process will increase the likelihood that employees will use technological solutions. Employees want to feel that their concerns and desires are considered during the decision making process.

Strategies for embracing digital dexterity

To solve the lack of digital dexterity, there are several initiatives that companies can engage in:

• Encouraging training and continuous improvement. Provide employees with the time and tools they need to undergo training, such as digital coaches, learning opportunities, and ongoing training programs and courses.

• Involving employees from beginning to end. For example, organize brainstorming workshop sessions where you can understand the team's mindset and how they feel about technology, identify areas where they are lacking productivity, etc. so you can find the right tools to cover this and implement process automation within their company. You can also make anonymous surveys to get direct feedback from employees during the implementation to improve the process.

• Putting technology into the core of the business. Changing the way people work is a difficult task, but an achievable one by putting in place appropriate initiatives. Management teams should set an example of “technology-first” for the rest of the company and encourage communication and collaboration. For example, automating repetitive tasks like data entry and report generation can significantly reduce the burden on employees, allowing them to focus on more impactful work. Also, for remote or field teams, automating check-ins and check-outs is crucial to both reduce time waste and improve accuracy. A reliable employee time clock app ensures seamless tracking of work hours, no matter where employees are located, making management more efficient and reducing human error. Building a digitally dexterous workforce sometimes also means looking beyond your local talent pool. When the right skills aren't available internally or locally, companies can hire employees with global EOR solutions and international payroll tools to quickly bring in digitally fluent talent from anywhere in the world without the legal and administrative burden of setting up foreign entities. This makes it far easier to staff digital transformation initiatives with people who already have the expertise you need.

It is important to choose an appropriate solution that helps to improve digital skills through asupport center and a short learning curve. Sales Layer’s PIM solution is committed to delivering exceptional service to customers, evidenced by ourmultiple recognitions in the G2 Summer 2023 awards and our track record of successfully helping customersboost their ROI.