How to Introduce New Technology to an Organization Successfully

Author: Lorena Mosquera Category: B2B, Technology & SAAS, Workflow Date: February 17, 2022

Advancements in technology aim to make your life easier. They also help you do your work and run your business better and more efficiently – managing your data, improving your workflow, and engaging your customers. While many of your employees and colleagues fundamentally understand the value of incorporating new technology into their work processes, they may still hesitate or resist the transition. It’s hard to blame them – even if the switch will make their jobs easier in the long run, it can be difficult to devote the time to it when their daily task list is long and looming. Introducing new technology into the workplace means change, and change can be difficult for everyone at times. We’ve compiled some tips for how to introduce new technology to an organization.

• Sell it. When you start thinking through how to introduce new technology to your organization, your success depends on perception. You must get your employees’ buy-in and help them be excited about implementing new technology systems. Before you can do that, you must fully understand and be able to articulate why you are making the change and what benefits you and your company will get from it.
• Make a plan. If you fail to plan, you may plan to fail. It is essential to have a strategy for how to introduce the new system to employees. What is your end goal and how will you get there? You are more likely to succeed when you have thought through and outlined your path before you start traveling it. Be sure to incorporate employee engagement throughout the process.
• Communicate and incentivize. Be open and upfront about introducing new technology to employees. Communicate early and often. Consider hosting lunch-and-learns to introduce the updates and answer questions. Also look for opportunities to motivate your team to adopt the changes, including extra paid time off, promotions, pay increases, bonuses, or other perks.
• Personalize it. When navigating how to introduce new technology to your organization, look for ways to make it personal for your team. Break down the benefits for their specific roles, not just the overall company.
• Enlist employee ambassadors. Cultivating and involving champions from your team can make a difference in how you introduce new technology to your organization. Engaging team members at various levels to spread positive information about the effort and lead by example can help prevent negativity from festering.
• Design engaging training. No one likes sitting through long and boring trainings. A good trainer can help employees learn without even realizing it. Look for opportunities for interaction and for employees to try the technology themselves. Break everything into small, digestible steps.
• Recognize individual learning needs. The existing skills and learning styles of your employees are important factors to consider when implementing new technology. Not everyone comes to the table with the same experience in utilizing technology, just as not everyone learns the same way. Be aware of that when creating your training and understand there will be a learning curve. Give your team room to fail and be patient with them.
• Provide ongoing support. Implementing new technology in an organization is a process. You will likely face hiccups, and employees will have questions outside of the initial launch. Incorporate continued technical support into your plan for how to introduce new technology to your organization.
• Solicit feedback. Keep in constant contact with your team so you can know how it’s going and what challenges they are facing. It will not only help you mitigate challenges, but also help foster the feeling that your employees are a valued part of the progress.

Change, even when it is for the better, can cause growing pains. But growing pains signal growth, and hopefully the result is worth it. At Paradigm, we offer business process automation services and solutions that streamline manual processes and bring structure to otherwise disorganized, time-consuming activities – across departments. As you are figuring out how you introduce new technology to your organization, let us help. Learn more about our business process automation services today.