New technology will change your business, whether you invest or not.
From competition changes to clients who expect more, it’s smart to keep a pulse on a changing world even if your business benefits from the traditional charm. Here are a few ways that new tech can change businesses to help you align your priorities.
Efficiency, Labor, and Employee Replacement Fear
Technology is a steady march forward in doing less to produce more. It’s inevitable that certain jobs will be removed or at least changed, and that reality means different things depending on your local economy.
While business leaders need to do what’s right for the company, a fully business-oriented policy can lead to social problems that can backfire. As a more immediate threat, your business won’t suddenly become fully automated overnight.
As you find new technology that could replace your team, know that this comes with benefits for the business and fears for the workers. While new technology is a threat to their current job, you can align your business to help.
Do you have an employee modernization plan? It may be tempting to hire new talent that is familiar with new technology, but internal training plans that create new jobs and help employees stay employed can help your business and the economy.
The fix doesn’t need to be internal, and the answer rests within the same place you’ll look for new talent. Create a partnership with local schools to send your current employees for tech training to embrace new tech.
An investment in schools and your employees will give you a stronger set of current employees while keeping a pulse on new hires. Partnering with schools can grant access to changes in the tech world without fully-staffing research and development.
Education agreements can come with contracts to stay with the company or reimburse training costs.
Redefine Your Strategy Before Finding New Technology
It’s a good idea to take stock of what you have before looking for new ways to improve. Technology like eFax is the future, but with so many products with virtually infinite uses–and just as many ways to break things–figuring out exactly what you want can be key.
For most businesses, getting faster, better, or more efficient are the main goals. Pinpoint the specific areas of your business that you want to improve and figure out where your business is lacking.
For example, if you want to produce a product faster, look at every part of the production chain. If you’re using an assembly line, how fast can it safely produce products? Do you need to buy more production lines or invest in a single, faster line?
If quality assurance and machine operation are important, how much information are you giving to your team? When workers inspect items or check details about their workstation, do they have a mess of ugly, text-only data, or is the information easy to read?
In the age of big data, it’s not just leaders and developers who need better information. Feeding data to workstations is easier as mobile technology becomes embedded technology, and you could invest in new sensors, workstations, monitors, and mobile devices that can monitor or control workflow.
Workers who both operate new tech and handle things manually when tech inevitably breaks down or runs into a problem is the best combination of human talent and tech power. Knowing what your team is missing can help you embrace business tech changes.
As you modernize, tracking changes to your business, and the cost-efficiency of tech investments needs to be documented and compared. Contact a business tech consultant to discuss ways to invest and track your investments better.