Driving employee engagement with new technologies can be a challenge when designing training programs. IT leaders must work with an increasingly mobile workforce whose members expect immediate solutions and are used to working on the devices they feel most comfortable with. But the NBA found a way to boost awareness with a series of employee-friendly initiatives focused on user experience and collaborative efforts.
According to InformationWeek, the NBA recently revamped its technology training strategy when it rolled out integration with Box as its new cloud service platform. A 15-prong activation plan was deployed, which focused on key initiatives that targeted an improvement in employee engagement.
Reorganize When Needed
One of the organization’s key moves was to reorganize and rebrand its IT Customer Service Group to become the IT User Experience Group. It wasn’t just a change in name; the idea was to deliver a more individualized learning experience by redirecting their focus onto what the end-user experience was like for NBA employees who worked with the organization’s services, particularly on mobile devices.
The IT team, as part of its strategy revamp, rolled out engagement opportunities like Tech Tables and Lunch and Learns. The former are monthly events that feature new technologies that play a key role for everyone in the organization. Lunch and Learns are interactive lunch sessions focused on a particular topic, which can then be followed up with office hours in order to ensure that the IT team is available for more detailed questions or demos. A monthly e-newsletter, Bits & Bytes, was also issued as an ongoing source of mobile and desktop tips.
Seek Employee Feedback
To gauge effectiveness, the IT team created a series of survey questions to determine how satisfied the users were with the new technology and in what areas they wanted additional training. This is a necessary step for IT leaders — a specific, multistep plan for soliciting feedback is an effective approach, as outlined in research from ICMI. The feedback must be ongoing and tied directly to what’s being measured, otherwise the data isn’t very useful. According to Information Week, the NBA’s new program has sparked greater employee awareness and understanding of technologies, as well as an increase in usage of the apps and tools that were showcased as part of the new initiative.
In today’s mobile-first business environment, such training efforts require a strong focus on mobile usage and increasing engagement with key applications that will play a large role in company operations. Whether rolling out a new enterprise application or focusing employees around a new digital business initiative, the lessons from the NBA around employee engagement have broad implications for IT and LOB leaders.
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