As a senior living operator, you need to ensure your employees use, understand, and benefit from new technologies implemented onsite – especially given the amount of time your management team spends researching and testing different options. The secret to maximizing ROI of the new tech is to choose the right techniques to increase adoption from the outset. New technology has the greatest impact when the employees within your organization know how to and want to use it.

Successful Technology Adoption Tips

Getting employees to buy-in to new technologies is no small feat, but it can be done. Here are five tips to help you get started:

  1. Involve Key Stakeholders Early – Before diving too deep into the research process, ask your employees about their needs and what challenges they are facing with today’s current technology. Some companies offer free trials before purchase. This allows you to test with a small pilot group before making a decision – and the involvement makes employees feel respected by giving them a hand in the process. Enlist early adopters to identify strengths and weaknesses to new solutions.
  2. Build a Roll-Out Plan – Develop a roll-out plan to navigate pain points before introducing new technology to your teams. This allows you to identify key dates such as when the technology will be ready, when users are required to switch over, and when the current tool will be sunsetted. Decide whether you want to roll out the new technology all at once or in tiers to specific groups. Develop a training plan and identify how you will handle different learning styles. Not everyone will adopt at the same rate, which means it’s important to have realistic expectations for your staff. 
  3. Get Ahead of Naysayers – While you may see the benefits of a technology change, others may not be a fan right away. You can get ahead of this by teaching supervisors and higher-level management how to instruct their staff on how to use the new technology and to identify those who are struggling or have expressed a negative attitude regarding the change. Do not minimize their concerns. 
  4. Gamification – Make the process of learning and adopting new technology fun by adding a gamification element. Gamification involves adding aspects of gaming to your training programs in order to make it more engaging for end-users. Learn what motivates your team and use it to create incentives. Create a rewards program with points and team competitions to encourage participation in new technology training. 
  5. Use Design Thinking – Design thinking studies how employees perform their daily tasks and then uses these observations, along with their feedback, to discover solutions that fit best into their daily workflow. Rather than investing in new technology and pushing it out to your employees, design thinking takes into account how people work most efficiently. Putting your trust in the people who will be using the technology will help them be more productive at work. 

Speed Up Technology Adoption

Get the best return on your technology investment by effectively planning and communicating the roll-out to your employees. In order to be successful, you must identify possible challenges early and gain buy-in and commitment from your team. Make your technology adoption process people-focused and encourage a culture of employees who celebrate the changes your company is making to move forward. 

Keep the momentum going by downloading G5’s latest Senior Living State of Digital Marketing report.