Digital transformation and the evolving role of people management

With organizations pursuing bigger and faster digital transformations, accelerated by pandemic times and the rise of the hybrid workplace, managers must also support the human side of the equation — ensuring employees feel supported to leverage new technology, and that new technology works for them.

Digital transformation has made organizations more competitive: improving customer service and productivity while facilitating hybrid work models and allowing for greater agility and adaptability. But the technologies that enable hybrid or remote work have developed so rapidly over the past two years, many people and organizations have not been as quick to adapt.

Such a rapid transformation can impose challenges on its members and require managers to do more — to embrace their humanity, become more empathetic, and even expose their vulnerability to ensure digital transformation works for everyone.

Digital transformation is introducing any number of organizational changes, most of which can broadly fit into three baskets:

• The changing nature of work itself
• The changing nature of demands on managers
• Changing management systems and structures

Let’s review each category in detail, and especially the role managers play in helping their teams skillfully embrace change, navigate the challenges, and reap the benefits of digital transformation.

How is digital transformation changing work?

Digital transformation is not so much about replacing people with digital technologies as leveraging machines and software to do more. It should inspire leaders to take a fresh look at work, skills, and new and different ways of working.

It may be necessary for team members to think and act differently or evolve their behaviours in response to the changes and opportunities that digital transformations create. Some workers will find themselves producing greater value through machine-augmented work. But as machines do more, so will people who are reassigned to the more complex tasks at which humans excel — such as teaching, interpreting, designing, creating, problem-solving, and influencing others.

Even within digital meeting platforms, users are beginning to discover entirely new ways of working together. They’re discovering breakout rooms, privacy features, display features, and collaborative tools that can help make working remotely as effective as getting everyone inside a meeting room to develop an idea on a whiteboard.

Organizations are also taking advantage of the trend toward more human-centric technology: for example, leveraging natural language processing, artificial intelligence, and machine learning to provide human-scale insights into the efficiency of the organization and the technology that drives it.

At the same time, managers will need to identify skills gaps and fill new roles to meet the demands of new ways of working. They will also need to provide appropriate training and skills development for existing workers — especially in the domains of independence, creative thinking, and adaptability.

How is digital transformation changing demands on management?

As organizations embrace digital technology, managers must strive to be more human and work harder to convey their humanity as they manage both in person and through digital channels.

Managers need to consider how employees are coping with new technology: Are they experiencing the same closeness, camaraderie, collaboration, and meaningful contact? Or do virtual meetings end abruptly when the last order of the agenda has concluded?

Even organizations that have successfully honed a culture of inclusiveness may have to consider new ways of preserving those hard-won elements. Are people who contribute more during an online meeting also those who have the best Internet connections? Do members who physically attend meetings find it easier to be heard than those who access remotely? Are remote systems designed to allow everyone to participate to the extent they did in person? These are all new situations that managers need to negotiate with fairness.

And while IT departments continue to provide passive security and strengthen cyber security defences, managers must continue to focus on the so-called last mile — strengthening the human side of security where data breaches often occur and helping people learn what is a real or a potential cyber threat.

Managers must also recognize the importance of digital privacy as an issue distinct from security. This includes understanding what digital privacy means for employees, clients, and customers, and ensuring the needs and actions of their teams mesh with organizational policies and best practice.