Nederlands
Today, good digital skills are essential in any business. With more than half of the world’s population using the internet, it is no surprise that so many jobs now require people to work online.
There are many benefits of digital working of course. Operating costs are lower and communication is made easier by a centralised channel. With all the benefits of technology in business, the only setback would be staff with low digital knowledge.
The importance of digital skills for employees
As mentioned before, more and more of the world’s population uses the internet every year. Alongside this, we are seeing many more businesses moving into the digital space. Ecommerce has grown exponentially during the last decade. Even without the threat of the COVID-19 pandemic, businesses have been opting to move to a more digital work environment.
Despite countless people shopping online and using social media, there are still those who have poor digital literacy skills. So, they may struggle when it comes to working in the digital world.
There is still a digital skills gap so to speak. To be fair, some digital systems are complicated and this can discourage people from even attempting to learn how to use them. So, it’s not that far-fetched that many struggle to adapt to digital work.
Digital skills protect your company
In much the same way that you may feel frustrated at a relative for asking hundreds of questions about their Facebook, it can be frustrating having to hold an employee’s hand through digital training.
Though employees with a digital skills gap in online safety might fall prey to things like phishing scams, which can put your company at risk. So, making sure your employees are well-equipped with digital skills and knowledge is crucial to protect your business.
Digital work enhances efficiency
A digital skills gap results in time wasted on work being completed slower than necessary. This can be a danger if safe online practices are not taught as well. In-person training takes up time and can be costly so online technology training is an alternative option. There are many tutorials available online and companies can create their own resources if necessary.
Technology is progressing far too quickly for businesses not to adopt newer digital systems and so it’s only to be expected that employees, old and new, would need to learn relevant digital skills. It is simply unimaginable for many companies to rely on multiple legacy systems to manage the amount of data that they need to process now and to do so efficiently.
Digital skills empower employees
Learning new systems may be disheartening for those people whose digital skills could be described as average at best. However, there are platforms and systems that are easy-to-use but that can still pack a massive digital punch.
It’s important that companies let their employees know this and empower them to keep improving their digital literacy skills.
How to empower employees with low digital knowledge
Keep things simple
A simple workspace is one that won’t intimidate employees. If the user interface is one that appears simple with tools clearly labelled, users are less likely to become confused. They will also be more open to engaging with the platform.
A workspace that can adapt to each employee’s role and tasks means that their workspace won’t be cluttered with tools they will never use. This can help reduce the stress of learning a new system as they won’t feel so overwhelmed.
Provide comprehensive tutorials
Providing a digital onboarding tool for employees can be of great benefit in teaching digital literacy skills. Basic digital training will give employees confidence and motivate them to close their digital skills gap.
Video tutorials are also immensely valuable for online technology training. Many people use YouTube for tutorials on anything from baking to building and there’s a good reason why. This format just works.
Keeping the content tailored to employee functions and preferences can prevent them from being overwhelmed so do bear this in mind.
Make sure employees feel heard
Employees who feel that their questions and concerns are heard with empathy will feel encouraged to ask more questions. More questions answered means more knowledge gained! It is also very important to find out exactly what they struggle with, so that you can provide the right technology training to help them.
Let employees decide
Employees often know where their own digital skills gaps lie. It is important to listen to them and to let them inform you about what they need to learn next. If they are aware of the gap, it is likely one they wish to fill. A passionate learner is a motivated learner and this will allow those teaching digital literacy skills to really focus their content – saving time and resources.
Collaboration is key
Collaboration from various departments is key to ensuring employees feel empowered to learn. It is important that everyone works together to make sure that employees feel confident in what they are being taught.
Online technology training may be daunting to individuals with low digital knowledge. But, knowing that there are teams of people supporting them can make a big difference.
Simplify digital work with an adaptive workspace
One might think that placing numerous functions or tools on one platform could quickly become confusing. This may be true sometimes, however, Workspace 365 has developed a simple-to-use interface that even includes a tutorials section on how to use it.
The platform allows each employee to have their own personalised workspace. Each employee will have the permissions for the tools relevant to their job. This eliminates the need for extensive in-person training for everyone on all functions or for multiple sessions for each of the different functions. Overall, this is a big time-saver, which means that employees can focus on their duties quicker.
The tutorials on the workspace include comprehensive videos, making it easy for anyone to follow along and learn. Workspace 365 takes this a step further and uses AI (artificial intelligence) technology to ensure that employees are recommended tutorial content relevant to their role only.
Having an adaptive workspace also simplifies things by uniting everything in one place. This ensures easy accessibility and usability to help employees with low digital knowledge adapt to the system quicker.
Conclusion
Training employees in overly-complicated systems can be cumbersome – for everyone involved. This is often the reason there is resistance from employees to adopt new systems. It just seems like too much to handle.
But, it’s important that employees feel empowered to continue learning and improving their digital skills. It directly helps operations run smoothly and also ensures employees are happier.
