Change in Technology & Change in Process Go Hand-in-Hand

“Build it and they will come”, right!!?? We’ve all watched the movie “Field of Dreams” starring Kevin Costner — well, those that are at least 30 years old have seen the movie. Whatever the case may be, the point here is that I have observed during my career that an unusual perception of a brand-new piece of workplace technology will solve all of your problems. All you have to do is flip the go-live switch, step back and watch the magic unfold. If it were that easy I wouldn’t be writing this post, and I wouldn’t have spent that past 5 years trying to help my peers in the HR Community narrow the gaping technology adoption gap that exists.

Here’s the Thing

Sharing Image on Facebook MobileThink of technology as a tool that needs to be operated. Operation of a tool is done by a person. To be successful in operating a tool you need to follow a process. Simple case in point — when you go to share a photo using your smartphone with your network you need to follow a process in order to achieve your goal. This process may change over time as more functions become available, such as access to cloud storage where images can be stored. Instead of taking new images, editing them and then posting, you may already have pre-edited images that you have stored in the cloud so you simply pull the image down into your mobile Facebook solution and post. This example may seem rather simplistic but the point is that in order to successfully use cloud storage for posting an image to Facebook, “how” you do this is different. The “how” is the process.

Same Thing Goes for Workplace Technology

In the work that I currently do I help HR leaders increase the value they derive from their existing technology while helping them to implement new ones. One of the biggest drivers of effective technology adoption among users (a.k.a. HR and Recruitment practitioners) is process change. How you used to use technology, and the process behind it will likely change if your goal is to extract more value from it.

An excellent example is digital interviewing software. Yes I am biased when I say that hands down, HireVue is the leader in this space and is embarking on ground-breaking innovative solutions. Many major brands such as Texas Instruments, Hilton, Boston Red Sox, Chipotle Mexican Grill, Aon and many more using digital interviewing solutions from HireVue. These companies have had to undergo some relatively significant process transformation and change in order to reap the full value and benefits of HireVue’s offering.

HireVue

At the end of the day implementing new technology WILL require you to tweaking your processes. If you ignore the process you will never realize the full value the new technology can offer, and you may actually experience complete failure. In my books, this is something that is easily avoidable and absolutely mandatory to protect your investments in money and time. Besides, just think how bad you would look to the rest of your Senior Executive peers if you fail. Not great so think about the process.