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A new key role in the organization: digital adoption manager

The digital revolution has majorly transformed the business world. While for the most part it has brought positive changes, it also came with its fair share of challenges. The main issue is that it moves at such a rapid pace that organizations struggle to keep up and not dive into complete anarchy.

The great majority of employees think that state of the art technology is most important in the workplace. Also, those who say that their companies are ahead of others when it comes to the newest technology also declare that they feel twice as creative, motivated and valued compared to those who state that their organizations lag behind.

Even though businesses are well aware of this, a staggering 84% are failing when it comes to digital transformation.

The rise of the digital adoption manager

It’s no surprise that under these conditions, the need for a new role has become rather ardent. One of the most important jobs one can have these days is digital adoption manager.

The main responsibility is to ensure that the process of bringing and employing new technologies is a smooth and successful one. Employees nowadays use more apps, platforms and digital systems than ever before and if somebody doesn’t oversee this and make it coherent and efficient, it can be a real hassle.


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The digital adoption manager has to find out where people are struggling with the new technologies and come up with solutions. They also have to listen to all the different stakeholders, learn where performance is suffering and help overcome those challenges.

Challenges of the job

Obviously, a digital adoption manager has to be very tech savvy. But they also need to have the ability to set smart objectives and see them through. And since those who actually need to adopt the new technologies and work with them are the people who make up the organization, their needs, preferences and fears need to be considered and addressed.

It’s true that most of the younger generations are digital natives but even so, they don’t make for all of the workforce. Furthermore, the gadgets they use and platforms they are active on may not have that much resemblance to what they are expected to work with in their positions.


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Then there is the ever present resistance to change. Once individuals get used to a certain way of doing things, it’s a real challenge for them to accept modifications.

Driving increased employee performance

When CEOs ask “why should we hire a digital adoption manager?” the right answer is not “because we live in a digital world and that’s the trend” but “because this will lead to better results”. The point is not to embrace technology for the sake of it but to find all points of inefficiency and target those by harnessing the technological potential to work in favor of the organization.

Digital adoption managers basically improve all operations by standardizing the work and implementing time-saving software across the business. They also reduce delays and ease the work of tech support teams by providing constant monitoring and improving adoption rates. Bringing in new tools and platforms is meant to boost employee performance by turning digital items into organizational assets.

Increasing employee engagement

As mentioned in the introduction, people who work in state of the art digital environments feel a lot more motivated and creative. It also makes employees more productive because they no longer have to waste time with tasks easily performed digitally.

I have recently talked to an HR specialist who had just changed jobs and the company she went to work for still did a lot of things by hand. She told me that if someone asked for a vacation day, they had to get a signed paper from that person and then type that information in three excel spreadsheets, one internal HR program and some national database. Her previous employer had one tool that did all that in a matter of seconds so she was rather baffled that it wasn’t common practice to automate this process.

Employees become frustrated if they feel like their time is being wasted because they don’t have the appropriate instruments to do their job.

Making digital investments profitable

Buying new technology can be costly. Not purchasing it can lead to losing money and, in the long term, the business so generally substantial funds go towards getting things digitized. Without proper adoption, however, a ROI can’t really be demonstrated. So apart from finding the best digital solutions and the ways in which these would be best fitted into the organization, the digital adoption manager will also help demonstrate that the digital budgetary allocation was indeed money well spent.


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With a lot of customer interaction happening online, positive incorporation of digital tools in the business will lead to increased customer loyalty and subsequently a rise in profit. It’s also important to note that general user experience is also easier to track and adjust by using the advantages of current online technologies.

All in all

Like all things new, going digital is not entirely easy. For some it may not even seem very natural but since that is the way the cookie crumbles in today’s business world, only those who get on the digital boat and learn how to sail it will succeed. And any boat needs a captain.

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