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A Microsoft survey finds employees looking for a greater say when it comes to new technology investments and initiatives driving digital transformation efforts.
The survey of 2,700 employees and 1,800 business decision makers (BDMs) in the U.S., UK and Japan found that while 84 percent of BDMs say digital transformation projects remain a top priority, 61 percent of employees say they are not an integral part of that process and 70 percent said organizational policies limit their ability to explore or implement digital solutions on their own.
The majority of employees agreed collaboration tools are insufficient because the data and information they need to do their jobs isn’t integrated. Many are seeking greater access to low-code/no-code tools as well as AI-powered tools to automate busywork.
Senior management appears to agree on the value of securing employee input as 84 percent of BDMs think it's important to receive employee buy-in to guide digital transformation success.
In the study, Nicole Forsgren, a partner at Microsoft Research, advised having a process in place through which teams can push for new tools. Of one company that does this, Ms. Forsgren said, “They have an internal support structure with separate tiers — gold, silver, and so on — where workers can advocate for an expansion of tools, and also retirement of tools.”
In a column for Inc., Sarvarth Misra, CEO of contract management software firm ContractPodAi, recommends exposing every department to tech solutions and ideas, even if they’re not relevant to their day-to-day responsibilities, to accelerate digital transformation. He said, “Such exposure helps create consistent top-down messaging and branding while fostering a positive, corporate-wide, team-building environment.”
Kamales Lardi, author of “The Human Side Of Digital Business Transformation,” urges encouraging tech literacy throughout the organization. She told CIO, “A lot of times organizations like to leave tech to the CIO, but that creates multiple challenges. That means the CIO is the only one who has tech literacy, so there’s no one else in the room who can help answer questions like, ‘Are we aggressive enough? Are we right with resource allocation? Is this the best solution for what we want to achieve?’”