Insurance companies have slower to embrace digital transformation than other industries, even within the greater financial services space. This is due to a reliance on legacy systems, the complexity of transitioning from these older systems to cloud-based solutions, and the upfront costs. Perhaps the hurdle, however, is fostering employee digital adoption with a workforce that can sometimes be resistant to change.
That said, the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and resulting transition to a remote workforce has shown insurers the price of being behind the curve on technology. Organizations that were further along in their transformation journey were able to pivot to the new reality sooner and with less business disruption than organizations that are still in the early phases of modernization. Insurers are now looking to migrate their legacy systems to the cloud in response to the need for reduced IT expenditures, improved remote work capabilities, and better analytics. To though successful, insurers are going to need to ensure strong employee digital adoption of their new cloud ERP system.
The Importance of Digital Adoption
According to AppLearn’s 2020 Digital Adoption Pulse Report, “changing employee processes/habits” was named the biggest barrier to digital transformation success by a large margin. The second highest barrier was the cost of training and supporting staff. That said, 83% of the survey’s respondents agreed when asked if successful adoption should be a priority.
Veteran employees may very well be hesitant to switch to a new system, and with more employees working remotely, traditional training becomes more challenging. Adding to the issue is the matter of scale: there are roughly 2.8 million individuals working in the insurance industry in the U.S. According to the U.S. Department of Labor and over 900,000 in Europe as of 2018, according to Statista.
Despite the challenges, it is essential for insurance companies, especially older, more established organizations, to embrace digital transformation. The reasons are numerous and only growing in number:
- An increased need for business agility in a rapidly changing world
- The need to reduce operational costs while improving outcomes
- Increasing governance and compliance requirements
- The risk of cyber attack
- A growing number of disruptors in the space
In order to embrace digital transformation while ensuring strong user adoption, it’s critical that insurance companies have a solid plan for getting employee buy-in and training users properly.
Driving Employee Digital Adoption
Lean Heavily into Self-Service Solutions – As of the time of writing, the COVID-19 pandemic is still an on-going global crisis, one that has forced many in the insurance space to work from home. Even when the pandemic subsides, however, some insurers may prefer to stick with a hybrid workforce, with a number of employees working from home in-part or in-full. To properly transition this dispersed workforce onto a new Software as a Service (SaaS) solution, insurers should invest in self-service training solutions like AppLearn, which provides in-app training and a depository for training materials. This type of solution allows at-home employees to train in a new system on their own schedule.
Track Employee Training – Like Peter Drucker, the management thinker, once said, “If you can’t measure it, you can’t improve it.” Without clear data on how employees are progressing through training or how well they are utilizing the new SaaS system, it becomes difficult to determine just how well users are adopting the new system or what challenges they are facing on an enterprise level. This can be remedied by combining data from your cloud ERP and digital adoption platform.
Have a Post-Deployment Strategy – One of the greatest dangers to adopting a new cloud-based ERP or other SaaS solution is the mentality that your works ends at go-live. Insurance companies should have a plan in place to address questions such as:
- How will you hold employees accountable for using the new SaaS solution properly?
- How will you educate them on new product updates?
- How will you ensure they are having a positive experience with the new cloud ERP system and quickly address complaints?
Adopt a Culture of Continuous Improvement – While utilizing certain technologies and following best practices can go a long to improving employee digital adoption, creating a culture of change is ultimately what will allow insurance companies to get employee buy-in for their cloud ERP and deliver the return on investment (ROI) of the technology purchase. In addition, having a culture that embraces change will facilitate the adoption of future technologies that can then be integrated with the cloud ERP system, such as machine learning or analytics solutions.
Having flexible support, such as with Collaborative’s Continuous Value Services, helps Insurance companies to improve employee engagement and deliver a better employee experience while acting as a natural extension of their organization. Contact us to learn how we can help your organization.
This post was written Collaborative Solution on their website here. They are an exhibitor on the HRTech247 Workday Partners floor in the Partners Hall here.
