Employee onboarding: Jump on-board and join the ride!

Whenever a technology, new way of working or a change program is introduced, there also needs to be a review of the processes that surround it and the potential impacts. What training is required to support new processes and onboard employees successfully?

Companies in all industries around the globe are investing significant amounts of money in CRM technologies like Salesforce to help them streamline internal processes, improve data quality and enhance customer experiences.  But what if your users are not using this technology to the fullest potential?  It results in lost productivity, negative ROI and employee discord.

One of the biggest barriers to adoption of new technology is users being unprepared to learn something new and reluctant to change.  Forward thinking and insightful organisations are overcoming these challenges by embedding onboarding and training as key elements of their digital transformation projects.  Some have described it as an insurance policy.  They have seen the benefit of seeking innovative ways to empower employees to embrace new technology, enabling them to use it the way it is intended, ensure process compliance, and leverage their investment potential to the maximum. 

In 2022, IT spending on enterprise software is expected to amount to around 672 billion U.S. dollars worldwide, a growth of 11 percent from the previous year (Statista). By enabling users to accept the change and commit to using the applications, companies can ensure positive returns from their investment and increase employee retention.

Understanding the importance of employee onboarding and digital adoption within Digital Transformation projects

The successful adoption of technologies through effective onboarding plays a critical role across all digital transformation projects… without it companies are heading for a wasteland of abandoned, obsolete and underutilised technology, lack of progress, high employee churn and poor customer experience…The land of laggards and digital disillusionment beckons…  But it’s not too late, Improved Apps onboarding and training tools alongside our unique expertise of Salesforce implementations, enables us to help organisations like yours by, understanding your business pain, focusing on best practice, and implementing solutions that we guarantee will encourage users to engage with Salesforce to drive digital transformation and steer the business towards its overall goals.  

This is exactly how we worked with a German Automotive Parts Manufacturer. After poor adoption of Salesforce across 3 lines of business and failed attempts to correct the installations to meet expectations, the manufacturer was close to assigning the whole experience to the scrap heap. 

Salesforce Engagement can boost Digital Transformation Projects

Digital Transformation is defined as the integration of digital technology into all areas of a business resulting in fundamental changes to how businesses operate and how they deliver value to customers. A common challenge is when conventional training methods (Powerpoint/classroom training) are falling short from an end user point of view.  They are resource hungry and costly to create and maintain due to constant changes within the business.  It is often this constant change and people’s inability to retain any information causes significant adoption issues for users.

Without a method of helping users become proficient within their environment or helping them locate and use data and knowledge effectively, in all areas of their job function, attempts at onboarding often fail.

Onboarding, communication and training are a fundamental to enabling transition and engagement in the long term. Organisations increasingly need digital adoption tools to successfully nurture their culture, reduce the time for employees to ramp up and continue to develop their workforce so they can remain productive and open to continuous change. The objective of Improved Apps is to empower Salesforce users with up to date, personalised, contextual information and critical alerts precisely when and where they need it, to realise your business goals.

Salesforce help and training 

Scale and speed are just two reasons why cloud technology like Salesforce is transforming industries. This is perhaps the most fascinating aspect of cloud technology and digital transformation – it fosters innovation, enables agility, and drives change at remarkably new speeds. It does however require the existing workforce to change, and at pace. Employee engagement, onboarding, adoption and addressing the skills gap are vital components of the project here.  When we approach employees to change, embrace new technology or work a different way, we’re challenging their innate desire for stability….and they need help, support and guidance along the way. 

Bite-size learning, in the ‘moments that matter’ is invaluable when seeking to address the skills gap created by new technology or process change.

Businesses who provide the tools that empower employees to embrace change and enable effective communication are much more likely to succeed.

Raising the profile of Change Management training

Business and IT functions are on the lookout for operational efficiencies and the opportunity to gain more value from existing technologies, like Salesforce. The key is to maximise employee adoption and the impact on the business of implementing a new technology whilst accelerating return on software investment.  Here’s how Improved Apps can help you do this.

• Reduce onboarding time, save money, and increase contribution rate for employees.
• Enforce process compliance
• Increase user satisfaction, leading to higher engagement and productivity.
• Use analytics to understand usage and provide reliable end-user experiences.
• Reduce the number of support tickets, increasing end-user satisfaction and higher engagement.
• Decrease training costs due to in-application learning.
• Reduce or eliminate change management training.
• Reduce data issues and increase data completeness.

Improved Apps work with organisations using Salesforce around the globe. Our solutions form a critical part of a customer’s implementations and business transformation projects to support remote workers and drive better employee, customer or partner experiences.

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SUPPORTING ONBOARDING STATS

Digital adoption refers to achieving a state within a company where digital tools and assets are fully leveraged. To do this, application leaders must provide guidance and deploy digital adoption solutions as part of their digital transformation strategy. (Gartner)

Almost 22% of sales respondents surveyed are dissatisfied with the applications they use and either underutilise or avoid the solutions, even if they can help them be more effective. (Tech Republic)

McKinsey reported “employees spend 1.8 hours every day—9.3 hours per week, on average—searching and gathering information. Put another way, businesses hire 5 employees but only 4 show up to work; the fifth is off searching for answers, but not contributing any value.”

Digital adoption, user productivity and digital engagement