‘Digital Readiness Lead’ Supports Agents Through Intense Change

At a time when the working world feels very much in flux, it’s all too easy to get caught up in the excitement of rolling out a new AI solution and leave your people behind.

However, at Simplyhealth, the leadership team took the initiative to change this narrative with the creation of a brand-new role – the ‘Digital Readiness Lead’.

Designed to consistently support agents through intense periods of transformation, we spoke to Dan Eddie – Director of Customer Service – to find out more about how this role has driven engagement and confidence since its inception.

“The Need for the Role Emerged From the Scale and Pace of Transformation”

Quite simply, the need for a Digital Readiness Lead emerged from the scale and pace of transformation taking place across the organization.

While long-term roadmaps were already in place, leaders recognized that execution was only part of the challenge. The bigger risk lay in how change landed with frontline teams.

So, rather than treat change management as an afterthought, the organization took the decision to embed it into daily operations. And the role of Digital Readiness Lead was born!

First and foremost, the focus was on ensuring people understood what was coming, how it would affect them, and how their feedback could shape the experience.

Importantly, this was not positioned as a communications function alone. The person appointed to the role became responsible for the entire journey: preparation, feedback, learning, and continuous improvement!

Dan Eddie, Director Of Customer Service, Simplyhealth — Dan Eddie

“The role is all about making the experience of change an enjoyable one – including measuring ‘speed to happiness’ from the people on the frontline and using that feedback to improve how change is delivered.

Our Digital Readiness Leads now own that end-to-end process – from how change is introduced, through to the scoring, and the learning that comes alongside it. All helping to make change management part of everyday working life.” – Dan Eddie

“One Person Trying to Do This Job Wasn’t Enough!”

As with the creation of any new role, the first few months were a learning curve. The initial Digital Readiness Lead was appointed just as a major omnichannel project was underway, but the scale of that programme quickly exposed a key weakness: one person simply wasn’t enough!

It just wasn’t realistic for one person to give agents the full level of time and support they deserved – such as hands-on learning opportunities, particularly for those who needed time to explore new systems before go-live.

“The role turned out to be far bigger than we originally thought! Unfortunately, in the moment, this led to some people going live with new systems without really having had a chance to play with them beforehand.

If we’d had more Readiness Leads in place from Day 1, we could have created more hands-on learning experiences before go-live.

But we adapted our approach, and now, when we’re scoping out new transformation projects, we make sure to have two or three people working together on one programme, so we manage each phase of change properly from an agent perspective.” – Dan Eddie

“Change Is Now Managed as a Continuous Process”

This expansion of the role helped to ensure that change programmes could support experiential learning and give employees time and space to adapt.

In time, what began as a single position gradually became a dedicated business readiness function, and this team now takes ownership of transformation roadmaps across the contact centre.

Their responsibilities include:

Mapping what change is happening and when
Coordinating learning and preparation activity
Identifying which teams are affected and how
Creating feedback loops
Measuring engagement and readiness

Crucially, this has allowed change to be managed as a continuous process rather than a series of disconnected projects.

This has also led to a mindset shift, so instead of asking “Is this system live yet?”, leaders now ask “Are our people ready for this change?”.

If you want to improve communication in your contact centre, read our article: What Does Great Internal Communication Really Look Like?

“Transformation Has Become Something People Feel a Part Of”

And the results from the frontline are positive too!

For Simplyhealth, one of the clearest indicators of success so far has been employee engagement. Using a regular engagement survey, the organization recorded its highest-ever scores as a service operation – despite delivering high volumes of change over several years.

Leaders strongly believe that the Digital Readiness Lead function played a key role in this result.

As, rather than overwhelming people, they focused on pacing change and supporting learning at the speed individuals required. With additional opportunities given to feedback, raise concerns, and influence how roll-outs were handled.

Ultimately, this created a sense of psychological safety around change. Instead of being something that happened to people, transformation became something people felt part of!

“Our people have never been more engaged than they are right now. At the end of the year, we recorded the highest engagement score we’ve ever had as a service organization.

When you think about the volume of change we’ve delivered over the last few years, that’s incredible! Without the readiness leads in place, I genuinely think those scores would be lower.

They’ve helped us handhold people through the change that’s happening around them and give them the time and space to learn at their own speed.” – Dan Eddie

“Introducing This Role Has Also Created New Career Paths”

Another (and more unexpected) benefit of introducing Digital Readiness Leads has been the creation of new career paths in the contact centre – as Simplyhealth have been able to identify people from frontline with strengths in engagement, planning, and influence and give them the opportunity to grow into an emerging role.

For many, this has become a bridge between operational leadership and project management – combining structure with people skills to map roll-outs, coordinate learning plans, and act as a conduit between transformation teams and agents.

All in all, this gives ambitious frontline agents another avenue to develop – without leaving the organization.

And it doesn’t stop there! Looking ahead, the role of the Digital Readiness function is expected to become even more important at Simplyhealth as AI and automation programmes accelerate.

Ultimately, they are helping to ensure that frontline teams are not only trained on tools, but supported emotionally and psychologically through the shift in how work is done!

To find out what it takes to set out truly transparent and engaging career pathways, read our article: How to Define Career Paths in Your Contact Centre

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