New technology can be intimidating – and those of us who use it every day seem to lose sight of this fact. When you’re comfortable using various kinds of technology, exploring new technology is exhilarating and something you probably look forward to.
But when you aren’t comfortable with technology, particularly when you’re new to it and you find out you’ll HAVE to use it for some part of your job, the learning curve can be steep and fraught with anxiety.
It may surprise you, but even in this “selfie” and social media obsessed age, there are folks out there who aren’t comfortable with anything online – or anything tech-based. And they aren’t all over 80 either.
Let’s explore some reasons why this is and what we can do about it.
Some folks are actually technophobic – fearing not only the perceived difficulty of mastering the technology, but that the technology might potentially replace them one day! This is a certainly a possibility for some manual tasks that are easily automated, but for most work requiring hands-on expertise, critical thinking skills are also essential – and those aren’t easily replicated by a machine.
And then there are the one in five American adults who do not use the Internet, according to Pew Research. Why? They don’t think it’s relevant to them, so they don’t bother with it – and are reluctant to do so in the workplace. Again – why? Well, when it comes time to train these folks, making any reference to online or attempting to simplify training using common online vernacular could be equivalent to speaking to them in a foreign language.
How can you help technology-adverse technicians get over this hump and adapt?
Use hardware they’ve already accepted and feel comfortable using in their day-to-day lives, like smartphones and tablets. Pew also shares that a high percentage of adults have cell phones, and many are bound to be smartphones. And if they aren’t used to using these smartphones or tablets, view this preparation as an incremental step ahead of training. You have to start somewhere and this makes the most sense for the largest segment of your workforce.
Same goes for software – implementing gaming technologies in a Training environment is a MUCH easier sell than jumping straight to Augmented Reality, which you shouldn’t be considering yet anyway (read more about THAT here.) And if your technicians aren’t into interactivity at all, it’s time they learnt the fun way. Again – most (if not all) will already have at least basic familiarity with this kind of software, even if only through watching their children play.
Create a User Interface (UI) that is intuitive – one that helps technicians experience success by closely replicating the intended environment and makes sense for the task at hand. This is why the planning process – and working with a design team that has extensive experience with creating interactive training – is so important.
And finally – don’t push. Once you have them comfortable with using one piece of technology, help them master it before moving on the next (software OR hardware).
Help technicians understand that the technology they’re using today will prepare them for the technology that’s sure to come tomorrow – and to not fear working alongside robots (if that’s what they’re fearing), but to embrace it and prepare for the inevitable change.
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