• Keith Tilley, EVP & Vice-Chair at Sungard Availability Services


• 28.04.2017 06:00 am
undisclosed , Keith Tilley is Executive Vice President and Vice-Chair of Sungard Availability Services (Sungard AS). He currently holds global responsibility for market strategy, marketing, channels and consulting. Keith provides executive sponsorship for major customers and prospects, focusing on creating opportunities to drive the growth and success of the company, while ensuring the company delivers to meet its customers’ business objectives.

The “head down generation” – so named for the way they are permanently glued to smartphones and tablets – are the latest influx of employees to enter the workforce. They are digitally savvy and hugely demanding when it comes to technology.

Faced with new opportunities daily, they are not afraid to explore their career options. Seven in ten young people plan to leave their job in the next five years, leaving organisations under huge pressure to deliver the best possible working environments in a bid to retain talent – from great benefits to cutting edge tech.

Get the tech or lose the talent

Our recent research^[1] found that over a fifth of employees admitted to leaving a job because they didn’t feel they had access to the latest digital technology. With many roles increasingly relying on tech, businesses who fail to listen to employee demands and invest in the tools they need could soon find themselves rapidly losing headcount. 

In the pressing war for talent, the simple answer lies in the need to invest in digital tools. However, in established enterprise organisations, existing legacy IT can cause problems when integrating new technology.  New applications may not be compatible with current systems, meaning a full IT overhaul would be needed. For most organisations, they simply do not have the resources or time to do so, meaning the long-term gains of nurturing a digital business are often put on the back-burner.

Mixed Employee Messages

A common mistake would be for businesses to simply throw money at the problem. Our study found a growing “digital disconnect” among employees. While most of the workforce recognises the importance of digital technologies, nearly a third claim it actually makes their job more stressful.

These findings highlight the importance of creating the right environment and culture, as well as providing education for employees to help them use these tools. 34 per cent of workers found there wasn’t enough training, whilst a further 23 per cent said the training they had received was inadequate.

Organisations must consider a continuous investment in training to make sure employees are competent and happy with the tech they must work with day in, day out. With the IT skills gap getting bigger by the day, securing the future of your employees and business by investing in their skills has never been more integral.

Beyond this, assessing and developing an agile company culture is also a good way of ensuring a good return on the investment of digital tools. Early adopters of technology can help to increase a wider uptake if these people are harnessed to influence employees towards the cause. Once you begin to encourage employees to embrace changes to technology, future tech should be easier to incorporate; increasing adoption rates and impacting the business sooner rather than later.

Digital transformation isn’t a straight path to success. It requires various stages of investment, and can feel too time and capital consuming for the effort, especially when processes are ticking over well in a business. But to remain competitive, things can’t just tick over. They need to exceed and be innovative. If you don’t do it, your competitors will; and they’ll likely poach your employees in the process.