Most employees think their management doesn’t have the right digital tools to grow the company in the right way. This is what a new study from Cisco says.
The Digital Culture Clash report by Cisco and the Institute of Cultural Capital in UK highlights several key factors. While most people in senior management may think employees rarely care about the direction the company is heading, it seems that in most cases they actually have a better grasp on what should be done.
The survey claims that a total of 29% of employees say they don’t have the digital tools at work. Only 25% of respondents say they are confident in the digital vision of their senior management. Another 29% say their company is not culturally ready to embrace digital solutions. Cisco says creating a positive culture and making sure employees are confident in the tools they use are key to the successful digital rollouts.
Other interesting tidbits from the survey show that 52% of workers say they either don’t have access to digital technologies at work or have negative views towards them. Also 64% say they were not consulted at all prior to the deployment of new digital technologies.
While the survey covers 3000 UK workers, anyone in the sector can attest that the status quo is similar in other markets as well. In a lot of companies the senior management simply tells the employees they will be having new tech and that’s that. Even worse, then employees complain they don’t get proper training. A total of 40% of respondents say the new digital tools weren’t explained effectively to them. Even so, 57% say they would like to have even more information on how to use the new tech.
It’s obvious that most companies still lack the open mindset needed for the digital transformation. They still cling to the “old ways” which arguably don’t really work in the digital era where employees and being open come first. Consulting the workers about such big changes in the company is a must since they are the people who actually do the heavy lifting and make the products and services, support them and talk to the clients. Also setting up proper trainings for employees and investing in their skillset is vital to keep them motivated and help the company stay on top of the trends.
Image credit: Flickr (CC) / Isaiah van Hunen