Build a company which is in sync with the way the world operates today
Instant information
We are a culture that is addicted to staying in the know and receiving information in real-time. Gone are the days where we have to trawl through books or masses of information to find the answer, we can find the resolve to the most complex questions within seconds with the help of search engines on the web. App technology allows us to visually and verbally connect in real-time whether that be through notifications, news, updates, videos, or reminders. We are a culture who want to be in the moment not watching from the sidelines, and this should transcend into the workplace as well.
Outside of work we use self-service for pretty much everything from banking, shopping, and online doctors. So why inside of work are staff required to look through old folders, or continually ask managers to find the answer. To keep up with this trend, companies should introduce a tool which allows for learning right on the shop floor and provides answers to any company related queries straight away, exactly like employees are used to when they are at home. You’ll soon find that they start learning new information of their own accord in order to benefit themselves and their selling techniques. By empowering staff to find information and giving them an instant learning device, you make it easy for them to find what they want and ultimately improve their company knowledge. No more nagging them to read through the back office folders, which let’s face it, rarely happens.
Shifted power
We now have a generation who have more choice and information at their fingertips than ever before and this cultural shift has affected the balance of power for employers. Employees now know their worth and the internet makes it easy to research salary and company information. This means that in order to retain the top talent it is now the employers who are striving for a better employee experience to give their business a competitive advantage. Staff are now looking for companies where as mentioned above, they are part of the bigger picture and are given power and autonomy in their role. They want to be more than just a ‘worker’ and to contribute to the overall success of the business. This can be achieved by making your business transparent and sharing company goals frequently with every staff member so they know what they are working towards. Giving them the power to teach themselves, and keeping them as close to the heart of the business as you can, when you know new company information they should too. Because ultimately it is your employees who are driving the success of the business.
Agile and fast-reacting
Today most services for consumers are instant, everything from food, transport and accommodation with the likes of Deliveroo, Uber and Air BnB. These services are digitally marked and tracked to ensure that they run smoothly and if there is a problem it can be resolved straight away. In fact, consumers expect a web page to be loaded in two seconds or less according to the Akamai study. So why is this experience not the same within businesses where they face long processes for simple daily tasks and training? The answer is usually because they do not have sufficient technology in order to provide instant results and delivery. With the correct mobile technology, you can ensure that all operations are supervised and digitally recorded. For example you have daily store operations which need to be carried out, if you have digital checklists, it means you can timestamp when each task has been carried out, how long it has taken and anything that hasn’t been done can immediately be flagged to head office to ensure a resolution can be worked out straight away.
This sense of urgency is the same for knowledge, there is now a shelf life for education, whether this is in-house retail training, university degrees, or college courses. This is because people are now having to continually learn, you cannot afford to stand still in today’s world or you will fall behind. It is outdated to fill in paper forms and read through folders and documents. Companies must keep this in mind to stay ahead of the competition. They need to make it easy for employees to regularly learn and quickly get information whenever they need it.
