Workers today have more communication tools to choose from than ever. That includes Unified Communications, which integrates voice, video, instant messaging, conferencing, faxing, and more – all on one platform. However, employees often receive little or no training to reap the benefits of using these innovative tools. Many organizations end up removing training from their budgets when making such large technology shifts – believing that people should inherently know how to use and why they should use these tools. But this decision to remove training and consulting can be a costly choice for enterprises, as the technology won’t be used to its fullest potential. This could increase the total implementation cost ten folds.

In fact, almost 80% of employees say they have not been consulted before the technology was implemented, according to the findings of a survey of 250 IT managers and 750 line-of-business employees. Meanwhile, more than half (58%) said they were not consulted on a Unified Communications tool or on its usefulness after it was implemented. The bottom line is that there is little awareness of UC’s availability. And that’s not it:

• One-third of employees said they don’t receive any training from IT leaders and, of those who do, half said they get trained for less than 30 minutes.
• Almost 40% said they have access to communications tools that they don’t know how to use and thus don’t feel comfortable using.

Photo by Daniel Chen on Unsplash

So, how will your company turn these numbers around? What should the plan of action be for involving and training your employees in the Unified Communications adoption process? Let’s explore further:

• Gather employee input – It should go without saying that when your workers are not involved in a major decision affecting their day-to-day operations, they will not be pleased. According to the survey above, employees who are not actively consulted on communications tool roll-outs are twice as likely to be dissatisfied at work – as well as three times as likely to see their companies as temporary places of work. When your employees are consulted about your UC rollout, they will most likely feel confident in the tools they have been given to do their best work. As a result, they will be satisfied in their current positions, thinking of the job as a permanent or long-term career opportunity.
• Invest in training programs that incorporate real-life, day-to-day applications – IT needs to extend its vision past the initial UC roll-out. Investing in programs that take training to new levels – that incorporate real-life, day-to-day scenarios for technology use – enable the solution to be more seamlessly integrated into an employee’s workflow, ensuring a greater level of overall usage and adoption. In addition, let your employees know about the opportunities UC will bring to their day-to-day lives such as time savings through increased productivity, more-timely interactions, and even BYOD if the company was able to save the security riddle.
• Continue to measure the adoption rate – If your company fails to measure the adoption rate, all effort will amount to naught. By measuring the rate periodically, you will be able to identify “pockets of resistance” and help employees directly overcome whatever obstacles they have in using the new technology.

Has your business determined which Unified Communications solution best suits its needs? With VoipNow, you can have all the tools needed to offer business PBX features, conferencing, instant messaging, mobility, and more.