“Will the new technology solution help achieve organizational business goals?”

This is the top question on the minds of CXOs and Project Sponsors of ERP implementation and technology change programs. Business benefits from ERP implementations and change programs accrue only when people – workforce, partners, vendors, contractors, and customers accept and adopt the change.

A strong change management solution is the obvious answer to address people related matters. Most change management approaches have a strong focus on stakeholder engagement, user communications, and people readiness which are essential to drive change acceptance across the organization. For change to be truly sustainable mere change acceptance is not sufficient. It must  extend to user adoption driven by a robust user enablement (training) strategy that provides people the knowledge, skills and tools to embark on new ways of working.

Why has user enablement assumed such significance today?

Often we get asked why user enablement is such a big deal whereas in the past enablement for technology programs would happen with some basic training material the developers on the program would create.

Let’s start by looking at what has changed over the years –

1. ERP implementations/ Technology programs  are much larger in size today, often integrating a multitude of technologies and tools.
2. Program rollouts span multiple years and continents with users from different job profiles, cultures, and age groups.
3. Cloud solutions advocate minimal customizations resulting in redesign of business processes. Hence user enablement is no longer synonymous with How to tool training, there are bigger changes happening.
4. Learning today is all about the eXperience. With Gen Z joining the workforce, learners (end users) demand a consumer-like experience, expect training to be a pull rather than push, bite sized, personalized, just the right amount, and be virtual and asynchronous – and accessible from anywhere, anytime, on my device.
5. Finally, in a post COVID-19 scenario the workplace looks quite different from a few months ago, and clearly traditional modes of user enablement alone cannot guarantee successful adoption.

The above factors have accelerated the need for specialist user enablement teams that will blend the experience in executing similar programs with strong domain expertise in Learning and training  to design and build learning interventions 

When the technical/ functional implementation team is burdened with the additional task of user enablement, they tend to document what they know about the system and processes from a technical perspective as opposed to focussing on what is right for the business users. Clearly this is a very tactical approach. What is needed is a comprehensive strategy for user enablement.

What does a good user enablement strategy look like ?

A user enablement strategy is synthesized from multidimensional analyses and mainly aims to address the following:

• How rich and engaging is the user’s learning experience?
• What types of learning interventions are mapped to user roles?
• What is the perfect blend of online, virtual and traditional learning methods and in  what quantity?
• What is the localization and translation strategy?
• How does it harmonize with the organization’s overall learning strategy?
• How does it dovetail into the client’s its digital transformation journey?
• How can social learning be used for sustenance in the long run?

The strategy drives the creation of a detailed curriculum, the different types of training content, training delivery plan and sustenance. Experts start with the TNA ( training needs assessment) focusing on the audience – demography, spread, their number, nature of the roles etc using principles of Design Thinking. Along with these, lessons learned from the organization’s past transformation rollouts, the organization’s culture, the future state – all serve as valuable inputs.

For system training requirements current digital adoption platforms (which are a huge advancement over their predecessors) help address the How to of enablement. Can DAPs Supplant or Supplement Training Programs? published in the Training Journal is an interesting perspective on DAPs.

The right user enablement strategy builds resilience into the solution. A detailed and well articulated strategy will enable an organization to swiftly respond to any unexpected challenges, for example, forced remote working due to COVID-19. In this case, guided by the strategy the expert user enablement team will transform the classroom content and any other synchronous training modes into virtual and online content and interventions. This will ensure engagement of the user and effectiveness of training are not compromised.

When thinking user enablement, business sponsors must think total cost of ownership (TCO), not just COST. With over 60% of large programs failing to achieve business results due to user adoption issues, a robust user enablement strategy is imperative and no longer an option.