Digital transformation

Researchers in the digital field have defined digital transformation as the process of using technological advancements to re-engineer how one engages with his/her corporate environment. The re-engineering of processes allows business entities to create efficiencies and operational optimization to remain relevant and sustainable as a business. Inevitably, this results in technological novelties becoming rapidly obsolete.

Our Call to Action

Though digital transformation is primarily driven by business continuity, it is the employees within those businesses that get affected by the unintended consequences of digitization. Digital transformation has already demonstrated that some employee roles are redundant while other employee roles need to be re-purposed. Therefore, both leaders and employees have a role to play in addressing the human impact of digital transformation. It is important that corporate leaders are attuned to employee anxieties about the changes and put systems in place to ease the burden of change on employees. It is equally important that employees take responsibility for how their career paths are unfolding. To that end, employees need to pause and reflect on how digital transformation impacts them at a personal level. It is this reflection process that must challenge employees of all sectors and all organisational occupational levels to explore growth opportunities and for remaining relevant to the strategic direction of the organisation.

Some of the questions to consider for reflection are the following:

1. How routine and repetitive is my role?
Can your role be replaced by technology? If the role requires human discretion, value judgement and considering the context in decision-making, then, for now, that role might be relatively safe. However, this is not permission for resting on one’s laurels and not engage in making themselves relevant. Needless to say, if the role is fairly routine and repetitive, technological advances can automate it. Therefore, employees in such roles might be vulnerable to being made redundant fairly soon.

2. What is the strategic direction of the organisation?
Not many employees invest time in understanding this point. Many employees tend to see it as a burden only for leaders and senior staff. However, every strategic direction impacts every role in the organisation. Employees need to take responsibility to find out how their unique role is impacted by the strategic direction of the organisation. The question of strategic direction might be more pivotal now than the pre-Covid era. When you know the strategic direction, you are in a better position to evaluate how critical your role is in the future of the organisation. Employees must also know that they have the right to ask leadership direct questions about what is envisaged about various roles, including their own. Leadership might not always have clear-cut answers to those questions, especially if the strategic direction has just freshly been finalised. But engagement between leadership and employees is critical. This helps employees to actively plan for their future.

3. It is also important that employees ask themselves what they enjoy doing. Do you have activities that energize you instead of taking away your energy?
When you know this, you are in a better position to direct your new career path should you need to.

4. What skills and qualifications do you have?
Which of your skills and qualifications are transferable to different environments? When your skills are not transferrable to different environments, then you might be at risk of being rendered irrelevant to be considered as part of a future fit employee. But know that the skills in your possession are not transferrable helps you to investigate what will you study? Why do you want to study in that field? Can coaching be a form of your upskilling? Coaching will go a long way in helping employees to think constructively and make sound decisions.

The above four questions are key but are not the only ones there are. The point is about taking personal responsibility and ownership to do a stock-take of one’s career, and start re-purposing oneself for a digital world of work that is already here.

While employees need to be more purposeful about their careers, corporate leaders have a different challenge. Leaders strive to ensure that clients are serviced while those leaders disrupt their own workflow processes to introduce new digital transformation innovations. This tension between client stability and digital innovation is meant to ensure long-term relevance for the business. It has been mentioned in this blog that balancing this leadership paradox requires corporate leaders to have adequately healthy emotional intelligence, specifically in interpersonal relations, decision-making and stress management. Given that employees need to deal with the paradox of adding value to their present work today, while preparing for a digital future, the same set of soft skills will be required in order for them to stand head and shoulder above the rest of their counterparts.

Are you ready to take ownership of your career in the digital age? Kisima can assist you in your transformation journey. Contact us today to learn more about our services and how we can help you succeed in this new era in the workplace.

Written by Our Founding Director Phyllis Ndlovu