How E-Learning Can Help Digital Transformation Initiatives in Your Business
Digital transformation is a crucial strategy for more and more businesses in the UAE and Saudi Arabia. It is essential if you want to remain competitive in increasingly challenging markets, and to meet the expectations of customers. How can e-learning help with the digital transformation process?
We know that e-learning is part of digital transformation in many businesses, where you substitute classroom-based learning with e-learning alternatives. However, you can also use e-learning (and training more generally) to make sure your digital transformation initiatives progress as smoothly as possible.
The above is an important point as digitally transforming your business is not without risks. Crucially, you need your team to be on board with the strategy, and you need skilled staff both in the transition phase and when operating digitally.
How E-Learning Can Positively Impact Digital Transformation in Your Business
Digital transformation is not just about digitising aspects of your business. Instead, it involves becoming a digital business, where you operate digitally across all business units. In other words, digital transformation is about much more than printing less and emailing more or conducting Zoom meetings rather than in-person meetings.
So, how can e-learning help?
Engage Your Fearful and Anxious Team
Many people fear change, so your employees are likely to be afraid of the changes that digital transformation will bring. They fear digital solutions like automation technologies will make them surplus to requirements, while some will feel anxious that they won’t be able to deliver on changing expectations because they lack digital capabilities or confidence.
This fear and anxiety can often lead to a lack of engagement and resistance to digital transformation. Both can hamper your efforts and make it more difficult to achieve your goals and stay ahead of your competition.
You can use e-learning to help address the fear and anxiety that employees might be feeling. For example, you can create an e-learning course that explains your digital transformation strategy, i.e., why the business is pursuing the strategy, what you hope to achieve, and how it will impact employees.
It is important when doing the above to acknowledge the concerns that employees have but also to emphasize that new technologies and solutions are not about replacing people but adding value and improving the service you offer to clients.
A good example is introducing a customer service bot to answer customer queries. In most situations, companies don’t implement this type of solution to reduce the headcount in their customer service team. Instead, they recognise that their customer service team is spending considerable amounts of time dealing with really simple queries. That time would be better used enhancing the complex customer service tasks the team also has to complete. The introduction of the bot is to give the customer team the time they need to raise overall standards.
Demystify Technology
For some people, technology is a mystery as they can struggle with the concepts, processes, systems, and workflows that new technologies bring.
You can use e-learning to demystify technology for your employees by making the training relatable to their day-to-day experience and relevant to their jobs.
An example is cloud technologies. Cloud technologies are a crucial part of digital transformation in many businesses. However, for a lot of people, the concept of cloud computing is difficult to grasp. You can create an e-learning course that explains cloud computing technologies in relation to the day-to-day needs and activities of your business.
Bridge Skills Gaps
As you digitally transform your business, you will need people with different skills – people with digital skills. The problem is that most sectors are experiencing a high demand for employees with the types of digital and technical skills you need.
Recruiting new people to your team will be required, but you are unlikely to bridge your entire skills gaps with new recruits. You will also have to develop from within. In other words, improve the digital skills of your existing employees.
E-learning is ideal for training staff in many digital skills topics. Also, by providing this training, you will enhance the confidence of your team while also continuing to break down resistance to digital transformation.
Improve Recruitment and Staff Retention
You will find it easier to recruit new staff and keep your current team if you are proactive about making sure employees have the skills they need today and in the future. E-learning can be a crucial part of this process.
Tips When Using E-Learning to Help with Digital Transformation
The following four tips will ensure e-learning delivers maximum support for your digital transformation strategy:
- Make e-learning courses engaging and interactive – digital transformation training that is boring or requires minimal interaction with learners will not get you very far. In fact, it might set you back as your team will become even more frustrated. It is possible to make e-learning courses highly engaging and interactive, so make sure you include those features.
- Customised – customising the e-learning training you produce will also make a significant contribution to the success of your digital transformation e-learning courses. For example, there might be some people who have good digital skills and are open to developing them further. You will only frustrate them if you insist that they complete training designed for those with minimal digital skills.
- Create a continuous learning culture – technologies are constantly changing and improving, so training will become a key component of the digitally transformed businesses of the future. Establishing a continuous learning culture will help ensure your business always has the skills it needs.
- Learning on demand – while it is important to help your team get the digital skills they need, too much training can be overwhelming. Adopting a learning-on-demand approach can be part of the solution.
The Training Demands of Digital Transformation
E-learning training should be a central consideration with any digital transformation initiative or solution you plan to implement. It will help keep your team enthusiastic and engaged, and it will ensure skills levels in your organisation constantly improve.
