Five experts provide advice on how to keep employees engaged with digital developments in the workplace. They stress the importance of clearly communicating the purpose and benefits of new technologies, creating champions to promote changes, embracing the messy process of learning new skills, providing leadership on digital initiatives, simplifying technical language to encourage participation, and guiding employees through changes to overcome resistance.

1. HOW DO YOU KEEP A WORKFORCE
UP TO DATE?
digital.advisian.com

2. Five experts share how to keep
employees engaged in the digital
developments of the workplace

3. DEMONSTRATE THE CLEAR

4. “If you want to encourage engagement and productivity in new
digital technology, you’ve got to demonstrate the benefits to people.
It’s important to articulate clearly the purpose of each one and how it
differentiates from the others to avoid any confusion. I find pilot groups
are useful because they allow the company to trial a tool and see how
people respond to it, and at the same time, you’re also creating case
studies to show other employees the benefits.
“I also think you’ve got to create ‘Champions of Change’ at every level.
While leaders set the direction and inspire people to get behind it,
they can’t change company culture alone. Companies need to involve
employees from the very beginning so they can feel ownership of the
change rather than it being something that’s done to them.”
HELEN DEVERELL, INTERNAL COMMUNICATIONS EXPERT
AND FOUNDER OF HELENDEVERELLCOMMUNICATIONS.COM

5. ““IT’S IMPORTANT TO ARTICULATE CLEARLY THE PURPOSE
OF EACH TECHNOLOGY AND HOW IT DIFFERENTIATES
FROM THE OTHERS TO AVOID ANY CONFUSION.

6. STAY TECHNOLOGY

7. “I began working in e-learning in 2002 when it was literally just a PDF
online. I’ve seen the likes of YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn go
from being unknown entities to an integral part of how people do
business. Back when YouTube first arrived on the scene, people didn’t see
a need for it and many of the executives I worked with thought it would
never take off. But this was partly because their devices weren’t set up for
it – you had to download a piece of software over dial-up internet, which
often took three hours and would crash their computer.
“These days, we take for granted that YouTube just works – it’s embedded
into our lives. And sure, the middle bit of any digital learning process is
messy, but it’s also where the magic happens* as people start to realize
the potential of that technology.”
MEREDITH COLLINS, LEARNING & DEVELOPMENT MANAGER FOR ADVISIAN
*ORIGINALQUOTEBRENÉBROWN

8. ““SURE, THE MIDDLE BIT OF ANY DIGITAL LEARNING
PROCESS IS MESSY, BUT IT’S ALSO WHERE THE MAGIC
HAPPENS AS PEOPLE START TO REALIZE THE POTENTIAL
OF THAT TECHNOLOGY

9. PROVIDE DIGITAL LEADERSHIP

10. “The Worley Academy provides global learning and development
resources to our people and one of our most successful programs is
the 20-week Leadership Engagement and Performance (LEaP) program
for front line and mid-level leaders. This leadership development program
also gives us the opportunity to introduce topics that are of interest
to our clients.
“We are also looking forward to the next generation of Worley people.
As part of a new initiative to refresh our graduate program, we will be
exploring approaches to graduate resourcing and development both
internally and externally and how to be successful with these efforts
in an ever increasing digital world.”
RICK HANSEN, DIRECTOR WORLEY ACADEMY, HOUSTON

11. ““WE WILL BE EXPLORING APPROACHES TO GRADUATE
RESOURCING AND DEVELOPMENT BOTH INTERNALLY AND
EXTERNALLY AND HOW TO BE SUCCESSFUL WITH THESE
EFFORTS IN AN EVER INCREASING DIGITAL WORLD.

12. IS KEY

13. “Building a digital culture is all about trying to increase people’s
interest levels around digital and boost their confidence in talking
about, describing and participating in conversations about emerging
technology, and how we might solve problems in different ways.
“However, one of the problems is that the digital world has created this
grandiose language around what digital is and this can be a big barrier
for people actually wanting to get involved or feeling that they’ve got
a role in it. Our aim is to break down those barriers around language
and simplify it, so that everyone feels able to get involved. Digital has
to be a participation sport.”
JOHN PILLAY, DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION DIRECTOR, WORLEY

14. ““THE DIGITAL WORLD HAS CREATED
THIS GRANDIOSE LANGUAGE AROUND
WHAT DIGITAL IS AND THIS CAN BE
A BIG BARRIER FOR PEOPLE.

15. OVERCOME CHANGE

16. “It’s not uncommon to see change resistance when it comes to
introducing new technologies into companies. While none of these
new technologies is particularly difficult to use, without any guidance,
encouragement or benefit-led training, there is very little motivation
for anyone to make the leap from doing things the same way they’ve
always done it.
“What’s more, while we might see a technology as useful, not
everyone will have that same positive experience so if you’re going
to make a move to something such as cloud storage, you have to make
that change systematic and exhaustive and set up an environment where
we have a mechanism to understand what people’s concerns or fears are
about the technology and develop ways to overcome those.”
LAITH AMIN, SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT, ADVISIAN DIGITAL

17. ““WITHOUT ANY GUIDANCE, ENCOURAGEMENT OR BENEFIT-
LED TRAINING, THERE IS VERY LITTLE MOTIVATION FOR
ANYONE TO MAKE THE LEAP FROM DOING THINGS THE
SAME WAY THEY’VE ALWAYS DONE IT

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