Implementing a new compliance software tool into your organization isn’t easy. Between establishing new processes, evaluating impacts on your quality system, and determining short- and long-term timelines of adoption and use, there are a lot of considerations to be managed. On top of that, getting your teams to use the tool is an entirely different challenge; if there’s resistance, then things only get more complicated. So how do you promote user adoption for new compliance software?
Demonstrate the Tool’s Value
When you are incorporating new compliance tools into your organization, you eventually have to sell your teams on its value and efficacy. There are a number of ways to do this, but a highly effective method is to let users see for themselves how it can affect their work. The transition process between one tool to another can be clunky, but providing a before and after view can increase the likelihood of more seamless adoption.
Training
You can’t enforce adoption of a new compliance software tool if you don’t have robust training in place. This means establishing your training goals and timeframes, and selecting which teams need to be trained. Planning is key to this aspect of transitioning between tools, as a lack of structure or process might dissuade team members from learning to use the new software.
When conducting this training, keep your activities streamlined and your goals simple. Also, because using new tools is essentially a skills-based endeavor, learning should be cumulative and repetitive. The more exposure your teams have to the software and the more they repeat the skills necessary to function within the tool, the higher the likelihood of user retention.
Leverage Other Team Members
Even if you can demonstrate the value of the new software tool, there are still going to be holdouts on your teams. People tend to prefer the methods they already know, and often get stuck in the false mentality that their spreadsheets work faster than any tool can provide. To these team members, explaining and showing the effect compliance software can have on their work may need an extra push, and that’s where leveraging other team members comes in.
There’s this concept of the “technology evangelist”—someone who might serve as an ambassador or champion of a new technology. Within your organization, having these folks on hand is key to encouraging adoption. Getting these evangelists to show more hesitant users the benefits of the tool can be a constructive exercise since there is a greater chance that team members trust their peers rather than any higher-ups.
Clearly Communicate Your Goals
Your teams want clear directions and goals; otherwise, they cannot be as effective. This is true for your overall development activities, as well as the transition to new compliance software. When you can clearly identify what the purpose of adoption is, why it’s important for your teams and the larger organization, and the outcomes you anticipate, the more likely your personnel are to participate in the adoption process.
Listen to Your Teams
Ultimately, a tool only works as effectively as the crafter who wields it. While compliance software might be desired and championed by executive-level staff, it’s ultimately your development teams who use it day after day. Upper management’s needs are important to listen to when choosing a tool, but it’s critical you take the time to listen to your team members too. Setting up an open door policy and actively soliciting feedback can help you more easily classify adoption issues and address them in a timely manner. This, combined with other user adoption strategies, can readily increase your teams’ ability and willingness to use new compliance software tools.
