In the world of HR Tech, you’ll often hear the words ‘adoption’ and ‘adaptation’ flying around. But what exactly do they mean, what’s their relationship to each other, and can you kill two proverbial birds with one stone? LACE investigates.
Right now, we’re experiencing the early stages of a work revolution. New technologies are emerging faster than we can absorb them. Serious change is taking place.
We’re witnessing fresh approaches to talent attraction, continuous performance management, happiness and wellness, people analytics, mobile tech and more.
The cloud is changing everything
One of the biggest catalysts behind this brave new world? The shift of HR tech to the cloud. It removes the barrier to new implementations, and its impact is huge. Now, new functions and capabilities can be downloaded in moments, with no need for expensive consulting.
The adoption question
Adoption will always be a challenge. You can buy in new tech, but will your people use it? The answer is yes, as long as there’s accessibility, ease of use, and relevance. The adoption question gets plenty of attention, but it’s by no means the only issue to contend with. Nor is it the trickiest…
The adaptation question
Adaptation is a more significant challenge. How can organisations and individuals successfully incorporate new ways of working and learn new behaviours? And how can they, as a natural consequence of this evolution, continue to use a new technology over time? The dictionary definition of ‘to adapt’ is handy here too: ‘To make suitable to requirements or conditions; adjust or modify fittingly’. As you can see, the adoption conundrum is far more complex, and it’s far more personal to the business at hand.
Driving adaptation and adoption – together
It’s vital to ensure people adapt and adopt. So what drives these processes? All sorts of factors contribute to resistance or acceptance of change. Past experience, organisational norms, leadership style and peer support all play their part. With so much in the mix, how do you hit on success?
A new breed of products and services are stepping in to help businesses fuse adaptation and adoption. Innovations such as AppLearn are assisting companies in determining the optimum cultural and organisational design to enable the adoption of new tech, all while helping then adapt their ways of working to unlock new business opportunities and transform performance.
These hybrids are smart, future-focused and growing. Keep an eye out for them, because they might just be the much-needed answer to the adoption question and the adaptation question. Two birds, one stone.
Aaron Alburey and Cathy Acratopulo, Co-Founders of LACE Partners
Further reading
Managing change vs managing adoption – hot tip: they aren’t mutually exclusive
Digital Adoption Solutions – what you need to know ahead of time…
