Training and end user productivity

Training & end-user productivity as part of change management

Training & end-user productivity are essential parts of change management: by fostering acceptance and fostering employee proficiency in a new solution, organizations achieve their business goals more easily. 

The success of a newly implemented solution or service in any company is determined by two things: the quality of the solution, and the rate of acceptance by end users. The latter is realized through professional change management, in which training and end-user productivity play a key role. Through adequate training, end-users eventually become proficient in using the solution, thus boosting productivity and ROI.

From adoption to proficiency

Within organizations, the implementation of new systems or solutions is often met with different levels of resistance. Lack of adoption, however, can seriously impact your ROI – and, in the long run, even your business results. To maximize productivity and ROI, end users have to go through several stages:

1. Adoption: accepting the new solution as the new go-to tool for this particular aspect of their work
2. Utilization: effectively using the new solution and discarding pre-existing alternatives
3. Proficiency: optimally using the new solution to become more efficient and productive

4 building blocks of behavioral change

To initiate behavioral change in end users throughout the organization, four conditions have to be met:

• Company management and colleagues lead by example.
• The provided training makes end users feel competent and effective in this new way of working.
• Effective change communication helps end users understand why the change is happening and what’s expected of them.
• There are structures, processes and (reward) systems in place that stimulate the expected changes.

Research – by McKinsey and others – has shown that behavioral change is most likely to happen if you work simultaneously on these four ‘building blocks’.