The Role of Digital Enablement in Employee Engagement
Today's employee prefers a more collaborative, inclusive, flexible, and high-energy workplace, driven by digitalization. A recent study by Tech Pro Research reveals 70% of organizations have a digital transformation strategy or are working on one. Organizations that implement well-thought-out digital strategies have a happier and more engaged team of employees and increased productivity.
A digital workplace in the oil and gas industry enables easier access to virtual meetings while eliminating the typical barriers of time, devices, locations, and network connections. It also provides employees with a significant work-life balance while enhancing efficiency, safety, and productivity at the workplace. To be successful in your digitalization journey, you need the full participation and engagement of all your employees, from the C-suite to the frontline workers. This blog focuses on ways to engage your employees through digital enablement.
What Is Digital Enablement in the Oil and Gas Industry?
Digital enablement in the oil and gas industry integrates technology to transform how oil and gas companies operate their assets. Digital transformation leverages a digitally enabled and data-centric approach that helps boost productivity, improve safety, enhance efficiency, and cut costs. Some of the primary drivers of digital transformation in the oil and gas industry include technologies of cloud computing, social media, mobile computing, the Internet of Things (IoT), artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, and more.
How to Communicate and Educate Employees About Digital Enablement
Employees are crucial stakeholders in your digital transformation journey. A recent study estimates that 71% of employers say their staff is critical in supporting their digital transformation strategy. If you're undergoing a digital transformation process, it's only best that you communicate and educate your employees about the impending changes and the roles they play to ensure you achieve your desired outcomes. Some tips to help you prepare your employees for digital transformation include:
- Closing the skill gap by reskilling and upskilling
- Revisiting your company culture to align it with digitalization goals
- Communicating the benefits of digital transformation to eliminate fear
- Appointing relevant digital transformation champions and leaders within the organization, such as a chief innovation officer
Upskilling Your Workers for Digital Enablement
One of the significant concerns organizations face when implementing digital transformation is a lack of digital skills within their workforce. With revelations that nearly 1 in 3 American workers lack foundational digital skills, there is an urgent need to close the IT skill gap in your workplace. Consider upskilling your workers by equipping them with crucial skills, from the basic digital abilities to the most advanced AI and machine learning skills. Some ways to upskill your employees and ensure a higher engagement include:
- Customize learning: Create a customized learning strategy that considers each employee's learning needs.
- Make it accessible: Make learning truly everywhere, anytime, and on any device. For example, you can leverage a mobile learning management system (LMS) app that empowers learners to access content on the go.
- Motivate employees: You can motivate and engage learners through gamification. Gamification can motivate and engage learners competitively while encouraging them to put their newly learned skills sets into practice.
- Encourage continuous learning: Organizations should also encourage a culture of continuous learning within the workplace. This helps employees refine their skills and remain competitive with emerging technological trends.
Keep Engagement an Ongoing Process
Building a truly digital workplace necessitates more than retrofitting systems, networks, devices, and equipment into a workplace. A crucial part of digital transformation is employee engagement. Unfortunately, not everyone in your organization is ready to embrace change. You can improve employee engagement by making it an ongoing process to cultivate a pro-digital mindset.
Ensure that employees see digital enablement as a greater chance for their good rather than just another routine workplace process. The following are some ways to keep employee engagement high:
- Instill a mindset that digitalization facilitates greater fulfillment, productivity, and more collaboration.
- Communicate early and more often to gain the goodwill of your staff. Don't stop communicating after the initial launch of your transformation program.
- Keep educating your employees. Ideally, change is something that people don't enjoy, and it's crucial to ensure your employees genuinely understand what's happening on an ongoing basis.
- Identify, share, and improve on the best practices to motivate employees and increase the likelihood of success.
- Empower each member of your staff to contribute to or participate in the digital age.
Digital Tools From Aegex for the Oil and Gas Industry
Aegex provides certified intrinsic and safe digital tools for the oil and gas industry designed to connect people, assets, and data in hazardous environments. You can leverage the devices to gain real-time collaboration and data insights about your operations, so you make informed and data-driven decisions that improve overall efficiency, accuracy, productivity, and safety and streamline your processes. Some of the specific tools and solutions from Aegex that can help streamline your digitalization journey include:
Aegex Can Help With Your Digital Transformation Journey
Today, more and more companies in the gas and oil industry are integrating cutting-edge technologies into their processes to help reshape their operating landscape, enhance communication and collaboration, improve efficiency, optimize safety, and increase cost savings. To be successful in your digital transformation program, you need to invest in modern technological assets that empower your employees while enabling higher digitalization engagements. Aegex provides certified and intrinsically safe tablets and IoT sensors that significantly improve the outcomes of your operations.
