A quick guide to overcoming people management challenges

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Rachel Sweeney, Marketing Executive

Managing people is critical to the operations and development of an organization.  Digital technology can help you overcome key challenges.

Looking after your people

The fundamental challenges faced by leaders and HR in managing people are not new.  But recent developments have added to the complexity of the task.  New clouds are on the horizon whether it’s disruptive technology, the expansion of remote and hybrid working, a volatile jobs market, or an uncertain business climate.

Building adaptability and resilience in your people are vital in successfully confronting those elements.  But with resources stretched, you will need to re-configure your people management strategy and resources.  Here technology can be your friend by supporting learning and development and providing the connectivity that keeps people together even when they are physically dispersed.

Harnessing the power of digital technology saves time and budget.  It frees up leaders and managers to add real value by driving OD strategy and identifying and developing talent.  Technology also assists you in taking care of people’s well-being and making the organization a place where people can realize their potential and perform.

8 areas where digital technology makes a difference

• Improving communication: Communicating effectively means establishing a dialogue between employees and managers.  Technology opens up more channels keeping everyone in touch through alerts, notifications, online meetings, and one-to-one calls no matter whether they’re in the office, traveling, or working remotely.  Issues can be quickly raised and addressed.  Digital learning assignments can be introduced to follow up on behavior and performance.  

• Driving personal development: Technology helps incentivize and motivate people to take charge of their personal development.  Digital learning delivered through an LMS can create personalized learning paths to improve the relevance and make the learner the focus.  Encouraging and enabling people to take responsibility for their own personal development makes them more motivated and engaged.  Learning strategies like gamification and a system of recognition and awards like CPD points or digital pages make personal development a more rewarding experience.

• Getting people off to the right start: Onboarding is a critical stage where first impressions count.  To ensure you give your new hires the best start add digital onboarding to the induction process.  Making onboarding digital ensures that you give remote employees the same onboarding experience.  It also fast-tracks all new hires into work by enabling them to access the onboarding process at their own pace, in their own time, and according to their level of experience.

• Acting compliantly: With a digital learning program, you can check whether your people are staying compliant.  This can mean regular checks on understanding and providing new content to take account of changes in procedures or regulations.  Digital learning platforms record progress, access, and completion data so you can more accurately assess compliance and be alerted when lapses or gaps arise and intervene in time to keep performing compliantly.

• Delivering on performance: Digitizing your training assets supports better performance.  Digital learning can be placed directly in the workflow.  Digital resources are always available on a range of devices.  Content can be updated easily to overcome any skills gaps.  Enabling support that employees can access as and when they need it helps sustain high levels of performance.  

• Enabling teamworking: People work better as part of a team, but the relationships within teams are harder to manage when the group is diverse and dispersed.  Digital technology helps bridge the gap by ensuring everyone in the team is connected.  Shared online spaces and project management apps provide space for collaboration where all ideas can be captured and accessed and knowledge easily shared.

• Promoting inclusivity: The corollary to teamworking is a sense of belonging.  Digital connectivity ensures no one is excluded because of a lack of access to information through geographical separation.  Enhancing the means of communication technology allows everyone a voice.  Regular interaction with colleagues whether in person or online, both formal and informal, fosters a sense of belonging and promotes inclusivity.

• Boosting morale and well-being: Technology doesn’t just enable us to perform our jobs better, it can be used to create a more attractive working environment.  Digital learning helps build a sustainable culture of learning and development.  By giving everyone a voice and the ability to share knowledge and experience you offer greater opportunity for personal development.  This improves people’s morale which makes them easier to manage and less likely to engage in conflict.  An organization that prioritizes mental health and well-being will be rewarded with high levels of performance.  

Digital technology is a new tool in the box when it comes to the age-old challenge of managing and developing people.  Used intelligently it can augment people management and leadership skills and create a virtuous circle that makes a real difference to your organization’s development.  

To find out how we can help with your organization’s ability to overcome certain people management challenges get in touch now.