How to Build Digital Dexterity Into Your Workforce

Article originally appeared on the Harvard Business Review, October 4, 2021

By Brian Kropp, Alison Smith, and Matt Cain 

What/focus

Written in 2021, this article discusses how Covid and the resulting move to working from home and then hybrid ways of working have accelerated the need for digital dexterity in the workforce. There has been a profound change in how work gets done, enabled by the rapidly developing technological change as we have moved from the PC era, through the internet era, smartphone era, cloud-based SaaS era, and now into the age of AI and IoT. However at the time of writing, Gartner surveying revealed low employee and leader digital dexterity.

How (details/methods)

The authors discuss a framework for digital dexterity that encompasses ambition and ability around working digitally and building digital businesses, pointing to the need for hard skills, an open mindset and agile ways of working. Technology users can be organised into types in terms of ambition and ability, with tailored development strategies needed to target each type, and for specific roles and responsibilities. It is vital that organisations build digital capabilities within their workforce so that everyone has basic competencies in collaboration, data literacy, workflows, and information creation and retrieval. The starting point for any digital dexterity programme is to break down digital dexterity into competencies that matter and build widespread understanding about what application to use when and the digital skills required.

Digital transformation requires a sustained and successful focus on improving employees and leaders’ digital dexterity. Given that surveying shows relatively few have high digital dexterity, the authors identify the key steps organizations can take to begin shaping digital ambitions and abilities.

First, it is important to show employees the value to be gained from upskilling for digital transformation in terms of personal growth and career goals, in other words that digital dexterity matters to them. Inevitably, this benefits the productivity of the company as well, including through employee retention.

Second, digital dexterity can be fostered by providing development experiences. If employees’ jobs don’t provide sufficient on-the-job learning, they can be connected to the right people and projects to help them build new skills. One approach is a marketplace for swapping skills and development opportunities across functions within an organisation.

A third strategy is identifying “translators” with digital expertise to support leaders. For example employees with expertise in data science or blockchain can advise leaders on digital business opportunities and connect them with relevant stakeholders.

In a similar vein, there is a role for “skill disseminators”, employees who are willing and able to coach others in key digital skills on the job. Further training can be provided to prepare these employees for a coaching role. Since skill disseminators are at the frontlines, they are best placed to identify when skills are needed in the business and can provide timely, personalised coaching to colleagues.

So What

Digital dexterity is important to allowing businesses to thrive in a time of rapid technological change. Focusing on digital dexterity not only provides employees with wanted (and needed) development, it also provides the necessary basis for accelerating digital transformation.