PART 3: How to motivate your employees to use your digital project management tool

This is one of four parts of the article series ”Why you should digitize your business and how to do it” which will be published during July. The articles contain inspiration and concrete advice for those who think about digitizing their business. Enjoyed just as well on your lunch break, as at your summer resort.

 

Have you decided that it’s time to streamline your working days using today’s modern technology? Your new way of working is expected to contribute to reduced extra work, better communication and the right information in the right place. But it is not enough for the management team to be convinced – most importantly, your employees have to be involved and actually using the digital tools. But how do you motivate everyone to use them?

 

Give project managers responsibility

People with senior positions who are in contact with other employees in the field play an important role in the implementation of a digital tool. If the project manager has loads of paper patches on his desk and prefer to receive the daily reports on notepads, the employees will probably not see any reason to start using digital methods. Good communication, clear guidelines and a positive attitude towards the change are important pieces to consider for a project manager during the implementation.

 

”What is in it for me?”

To motivate employees to change their everyday work methods, they need to see the benefits for themselves. When every single individual realizes that the digital way of working makes their work day more structured- that’s when a changed attitude starts to shows itself. When you understand why we do something, that’s when we fully start to actually do what we are expect to do.

 

Reward the good examples

There is always one person who are more liable and positively committed to innovation. Quickly identifies this or these people and encourages them to influence their coworkers. Make them ambassadors with the mission of helping other employees get started and answer questions along the journey.

 

Evaluate and educate – often

It’s an easy thing to think that it’s enough to give your co-workers a manual in the use of a tool and then believe the implementation will take care of itself. Sometimes it works, but education, workshops and follow-up are in most cases necessary. Make the education a compulsory part of the working day and make sure the location of the education is project based. Collect thoughts and ideas about the new digital way of working from the users and make the changes suggested. By doing so, the employees are motivated by being involved and an important part of the implementation.