After having discussed the importance of having a digital transformation strategy and the first actions to take to implement it, the third part of the Digital Transformation Guide addresses internal communications. Digitalizing your company is a group effort! It is not enough simply to impose software or new processes on your team members; you need to integrate them into your company’s new project. As we have already seen, digital technology is not just about tools but is also about new ways of working: integrating more collaboration into your day-to-day work is also a form of digital transformation.
The importance of good communications
Change management is a real management problem that not even managers of small teams can avoid–on the contrary! You must be able to diffuse resistance early on; it only takes one person refusing to get involved to affect the momentum of the entire group! Communicating properly about the forthcoming changes and their importance for the training company is important in many respects. First, as we have already seen, it enables you to overcome resistance to change. Often, change generates fear, either because people cannot see the potential benefits or because people are afraid of being left behind due to their lack of skills. It is your job to anticipate the reservations of your employees and trainers: on the one hand by presenting the advantages and importance of the digital transformation and, on the other hand, by giving them the opportunity to receive training!
Apart from resistance to change, properly communicating about the various changes that are going to take place enables your colleagues to rapidly become autonomous. For your training company, this means fewer processes and swifter and more effective decision making!
Lastly, good communications encourage each team member to get involved in the process. Creating an atmosphere of collaboration is a way of better integrating the new digital tools and encouraging people to take initiatives.
Instilling a culture of collaboration
Apart from good communications, the Digital Transformation Guide suggests several ways of instilling a culture of collaboration in a company. I have identified three that can easily be applied to training companies.
First, involve your employees at the strategic level: not only make them understand the stakes involved in your digital transformation but also get them to contribute to the transformation! To do this, you can offer them training, involve them in the auditing work and listen to their needs and their vision of the industry: a trainer in contact with trainees will have a more precise view of their needs, while a training assistant will know what needs to be improved from an administrative point of view!
Next, this involvement must be reflected at the operational level. Rather than choosing the new processes alone, involve your employees in the decision making! List, for example, the criteria for selecting a software program, have several people test certain solutions or processes and take the time to listen to each person’s feedback at the end of each test. Embarking on your digital transformation does not only mean equipping yourself with software: give your team members the chance to test new things! They may discover new ways of training, managing client relations or developing sales, etc.
Finally, in order to maintain this involvement over time, it is very important to acknowledge each person’s effort and ensure that everyone is involved equally, including general management. Setting an example is the best way of convincing all your partners!
Drawing inspiration from startups to change how you work: the charter of work
Startups have a reputation of evolving quickly in order to constantly adapt to highly competitive sectors, engaging their employees by creating a charter of work to which everyone adheres. These charters of work can serve to formally lay down the culture of a company subject to hyper growth. For training companies, the idea is to encourage each person’s involvement and set up new and effective working habits.
I suggest applying to your training company the advice given to startups by the Digital Transformation Guide in the area of work and collaboration.
The well-trained trainer
Whether for trainers or members of the administrative team, the digital transition requires training on the company’s new processes, software and new ways of training and supporting trainees. Do you feel the need to improve yourself on a particular theme? Get some training and share what you have learned with your colleagues!
The customer knows best
Startups put customers at their centre of their strategy, as it is the customer who will determine the success of their product or service. For training companies, many aspects of client relations need to be taken into account: the content of the training, of course, as well as the infrastructure made available, post-training follow-up and additional services billed by the training company.
Defining and tracking success indicators
Startups have few resources and face high demands for results: in order to optimize each decision to the full, they set up Key Performance Indicators (KPI). You don’t need very many; just a few will suffice to track the changes within your training company: the number of clients, the number of trainees, revenue and the trainee satisfaction rate, for example.
Done is better than perfect
This means it is better to get something done, even if it is not perfect, than to hold off in order to achieve the perfect result, at the risk of doing nothing at all. Your ability to act is very important when it comes to the digital transition. It is better to start offering e-learning courses as soon as your clients request them, rather than waiting to have the right material, the right software and the right distribution platform. Sometimes accepting to act quickly, to the detriment of perfection, enables you to stay competitive: on the one hand because you respond immediately to the client’s need and, on the other hand, because you can gradually improve your offer based on your clients’ experience and feedback!
Curiosity above all!
In previous chapters, the guide insisted on the need to monitor the market in order to improve your digital culture. Don’t be afraid to pinch ideas and apply them to your training company. Staying curious is the best way of anticipating future changes in your sector.
Like any project, a successful digital transformation requires team work. You need to make your company understand the new digital transformation processes and their significance. These are the first things to put in place once you decide to move your training company into the digital era.
Although people are key to the success of your digital transformation, technological tools also have a role to play and that is what we will look at in an article coming soon!
👉 Find the other articles of the digital transformation guide for training organizations:
