Digitalization of businesses
We live in a time of digitalization of businesses: mobile, cloud, social tools and technologies are radically transforming working methods.
Opinion piece by Toan Nguyen, CEO of Shortways
These days, no job in the company can escape it:
– Financier, corporate controllers and accountants are glued to their Excel sheets, ERP or favourite reporting system.
– Salesmen have no choice but to “be tracked” in the CRM to get their bonuses. They do, however, appreciate having their sales visits and the customer catalogue on tablet devices.
– Marketers discover the pleasures of retargeting and emailing aplenty on marketing automation platforms,
– Logisticians have ensured reliable monitoring of their merchandise thanks to traceability systems,
– Likewise for quality control personnel, customer service, IT developers, etc.
As for executive management, how could they do without their dashboards on tablet devices, replacing the good old notebook reminder?
IT: an integral part of business professions
IT is thus an integral part of an employee’s profession or job.
Human resources – also increasingly computerised in order to manage the talents in the company – need to integrate this component as an essential skill, just like a professional skill.
IT skills for a people working in finance (handling figures and tables on computer) have become just as crucial as knowing his chart of accounts or his indicators. The salesman can be trained in sales techniques, but must also be effective with a CRM to address the whole of his large customer portfolio and thus increase his sales revenue.
In any case it’s about being more effective and optimising its use by integrating it into one’s daily procedures and tasks.
Today, IT skills are still seen too much as a matter for specialists or experts when in fact they ought to be made commonplace throughout the company.
IT is no longer a separate profession; it is part of any job in the company.
A new strategy for training in IT tools
Several changes should therefore be implemented alongside the strategy for training in IT tools.
– On the one hand, training managers must become “IT friendly”. IT training is not yet considered “grand” enough (don’t we often, for that matter, hear talk of IT tools rather than IT skills), perhaps through ignorance or lack of IT/digital knowledge on the part of training managers.
– Training should not be limited to the tools. IT software such as ERP, CRM, etc. is now based on the company’s business procedure. To be trained in IT tools is to be trained in professional procedure, and vice versa!
So it’s really about integrating the training in IT tools into the wider professional development, rather than having “special training in IT tools”.
– Moving from a method of training only when a new IT tool comes out to a method where training is ongoing. This is because processes, procedures and tools are now evolving constantly and because it meets the needs of newcomers for whom specific sessions have not necessarily been organised.
– For this reason it is also necessary to be able to deliver this training content at the request of the employee, wherever he may be, whenever he wishes and on any type of terminal (computer, tablet, phone) to which he has access.
This means being able to maintain and develop this content in a very flexible manner. This content must be very functional and adapted to the employee’s job.
IT corporate training thus fits perfectly with the company’s HR objectives: to make employees more efficient and skilful in their jobs.
In the context of digital transformation of businesses, training managers need to take up this challenge by providing modern learners with IT training that is integrated into professional development courses. This training must be upgradeable, flexible and provided at the time the employee of the company needs it.
That will require that training managers will have to equip themselves with IT tools and … be trained.
Opinion piece by Toan Nguyen, CEO of Shortways