Recommendations
Identifying the Project Implementation champions
To effectively implement a new software for requesting and approving time off for all the employees to use to request day off from their managers, and also for paid time off from the payroll department, it is essential to identify project implementation champions who will leverage internal excitement among other workers to generate momentum around the use of the new software program.
It would be a good idea for the management team to consider a team of professionals with a deeper understanding of the benefits of using the new software program for employees in an organization to act a pilot team using the program frequently to remove a sense of skeptics among the employees (Brack & Kelly, 2012).
The pilot team should be able to show other employees within the organization the following;
- The number of hours they have requested for the time off
- The reason why they requested for the time off
- The time history
- How to edit, delete or cancel any requests for time off
- The time off bank they frequently use when placing requests for PTO
- Whether the requests have ever been approved or denied by their managers
- Information relating to shared private conversations or comments with their manager or seniors
Create a Shared Understudying
Since my co-workers are of different ages, and that the system will be new to everyone, the software implementation team needs to create a sense of shared understanding especially if some of the workers cannot find a compelling reason to use the new software program (Brack & Kelly, 2012).All the employees should be educated on how to use the program and given opportunities to gain knowledge and skills the value of the tool to the organization’s goals, objectives, mission, and vision.
Employees should also be advised that their managers will use the information provided in the new system to process their payments and if they do not embrace the new technology, they might not get paid, or fired or not showing up on the day they do report to work without requesting for days of (Rizzuto, 2011). A good approach in this scenario is;
- Encourage the employees to share their ideas, thoughts, experiences, and ask a question while ensuring that you remain transparent with the answers.
- The implementation team should better understand the software and give convincing reasons for choosing it.
- Holding training programs sessions during the implementation phase is another effective way of increasing the adoption rates because they encourage the sharing of knowledge and skills on how to optimally use some of the available features that come with the program (Rizzuto, 2011).
- Training events for employees encourage them to ask questions, dialogue with each other, and the pilot team and reinforce the benefits and tools that come with the new program.
- Transferring all the employee data to the new software platform to enable them to access information quickly.
References
Brack, J., & Kelly, K. (2012). Maximizing Millennials in the workplace. UNC Executive Development, 22(1), 2-14.
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/02/19/magazine/millennials-gen-z-consulting.html
Rizzuto, T. E. (2011). Age and technology innovation in the workplace: Does work context matter? Computers in Human Behavior, 27(5), 1612-1620.