What’s Keeping You From Achieving Your Digital Transformation Goals?

WalkMe Team
By WalkMe Team
Updated May 2, 2023

A mere 14.5% of employees say they are “very satisfied” with the usability of their workplace software.

In the age of digital transformation, this figure is pretty dismal.

Lack of usability is a major burden for employees. With the increasing prevalence of advanced technology in the modern workplace, employees are expected to produce more, increase innovation, and work fast.

But in reality, poor usability means employees need to struggle just to fulfill basic responsibilities. They’re on the frontlines of driving your business forward, but they’re getting stuck in the trenches. When this is the case, it’s impossible to achieve your digital transformation goals.

The consequences of poor usability extend far and wide

Frustration and stress are just the tip of the iceberg. The consequences of poor usability on workplace software can severely limit productivity, increase reliance on support tickets, employee frustrationand compromise data integrity, each of which can impose a major drain on your bottom line.

Without a solution to simplify tech, these ramifications will continue to build — and they aren’t cheap.

Interestingly, business leaders tend to have a rosier view of their digital investments.

According to our recent survey, “Bridging the Digital Gap: What Leaders are Missing in Employees’ Digital Experience,” nearly half of business leaders (42.6%) believe the digital tools that employees use enable them to improve their productivity and fulfill their responsibilities.

Only 28% of employees feel the same.

Download the full survey report for free! 

The gap widens — and your digital transformation goals are slipping out of reach

The results of our survey make one thing clear. Employees and leaders don’t see eye-to-eye when it comes to the usability of workplace software.

While employees lament software frustration and diminished productivity, leaders tend to exhibit overconfidence in technology’s ability to help employees achieve goals.

According to the survey:

  • 75.3% of leaders believe workplace software boosts employees’ well-being by enhancing their capabilities, but just 54.2% of employees say the same.
  • 88.6% of leaders believe new digital tools should facilitate greater employee engagement in their roles, but fewer (69.2%) employees say full usability on workplace software makes them more engaged.

Leaders’ optimism for enterprise software to improve employee well-being and engagement might be a bit inflated considering the current state of usability, but it isn’t misdirected. With a high level of digital adoption and a smooth user journey, sophisticated software and apps can, in fact, raise these important metrics.

3 primary barriers to software usability stand in your way

According to the survey, employees identify the three biggest barriers to software usability as:employee training

  • Inadequate training (indicated by 74.1% of employees)
  • Complex and confusing user interface (43.6%)
  • Lack of guided learning tools (34.2%)

Most leaders understand the need to address these challenges — they just pursue the wrong strategy.

Unfortunately, many leaders continue to cling to outdated training methods. Live classroom/instructor-led training, webinars, or one-time demonstrations might have been adequate in the past, but in the fast-evolving digital workplace, they are ill-equipped.

Simply put, there is too much to learn. The wide breadth of features and capabilities on contemporary software demand an active approach to training. “Learning in the flow of work” and training methods that introduce employees to new processes and workflows while they actually complete tasks support better knowledge retention, shorten time-to-competency, and importantly, make using new software easy.

Dig your employees out of the trenches

You don’t want your employees to struggle. The only thing keeping employees from fulfilling leaders’ optimistic vision and achieving digital transformation goals is a solution to improve usability.

With a Digital Adoption Platform (DAP), you can overcome each of the main barriers to optimal usability and unlock the full potential of your software investments.

Here’s how.

Contextual learning The DAP enables contextual learning, which means providing the right educational content at the right time, based on a user’s current context.

After analyzing a broad range of contextual factors, the DAP provides relevant content to help employees learn and actually complete processes in the time of need.

On-screen navigation Imagine logging on to a new platform for the first time. Most likely, you’ll initially be overwhelmed by all of the features, menus, and buttons. The DAP remedies this by deploying on-screen navigational prompts that literally walk you through any process step-by-step.

With on-screen guidance, even first-time users with zero familiarity with the platform can complete any process efficiently.software usability

Proactive support The key to ensuring maximum knowledge retention is only providing employees with the content they actually need.

Attempting to learn the ins and outs of any platform is a daunting task. Instead, focusing on the processes employees need to know now helps employees complete the task at hand. The DAP achieves this by proactively sending support prompts when it understands a user needs assistance completing a process.

Bring your digital vision to life with a DAP. Discover why transformational CIOs turn to WalkMe.

Unlock the door to optimal usability with a digital adoption solution

As the momentum driving digital transformation forward continues to increase, it’s leaders’ responsibility to ensure users achieve digital adoption and are not bogged down by usability issues.

By bridging the gap and understanding which barriers are keeping employees from realizing the benefits of your software investment, you can deploy the right solution with confidence. A digital adoption solution like the DAP addresses all of the main barriers and more.

WalkMe’s Digital Adoption Platform (DAP) transforms the user experience in today’s overwhelming digital world. Using artificial intelligence, engagement, guidance, and automation, WalkMe’s transparent overlay assists users to complete tasks easily within any enterprise software, mobile application or website. Discover how a DAP can revolutionize your business.

WalkMe Team
By WalkMe Team
WalkMe pioneered the Digital Adoption Platform (DAP) for organizations to utilize the full potential of their digital assets. Using artificial intelligence, machine learning and contextual guidance, WalkMe adds a dynamic user interface layer to raise the digital literacy of all users.