Lack of Understanding Slows UC Adoption

Employees are still failing to understand how Unified Communications can benefit their productivity.

UC adoption rates are currently at 10% due to employee reticence to give up their current working patterns and tools. While companies are spending thousands implementing new technologies, employees are still failing to understand how UC can benefit their productivity and efficiency levels on a daily basis.

Jabra is asking the industry to take greater responsibility to better help businesses educate and incentivise their employees to help redefine the global success of UC deployments.

Education and incentives are important, but having a company-wide adoption plan, with considered input and expertise from key functions of the business, can help ensure return on investment.

Adoption rates can also be driven up by creating a planning and implementation team that involves company experts from multiple areas of the business, including IT, marketing and corporate communications, human resources and training.

By bringing representatives of these functional areas into the project from the beginning, soliciting their input and expertise throughout roll-out and ensuring their support, businesses are more likely to see successful adoption, company-wide.

In the present-day world of technology, UC deployment plans and associated tactics are starting to focus on changing end-user behaviours by incorporating new theories and methods from the world of behavioural economics to similarly overcome employee resistance to change. This usually involves using indirect suggestions and positive reinforcement to influence choices, instead of the traditional model of mandating behaviour.

“UC is a key enabler in connecting today’s modern knowledge economies. At the same time, these new tools require entirely new behaviours. And, as has always been the case when introducing new technologies, we need to find ways to ensure that end-users adopt these new tools on their own terms,” said Holger Reisinger, Senior Vice President Marketing, PMM, Alliances, CC&O at Jabra. “No matter how beneficial your new technology may be, not everyone will share your passion for it. To generate acceptance you need demonstrate how it benefits people personally and gently steer them toward embracing it.”

For more information about Jabra, visit their website.