Didn’t Get the Memo: When Onboarding Goes Awry (Part 2)
This article is part of a multi-part series. Check out “Didn’t Get the Memo- Part 1”
The need to manage multiple platforms at once, quickly learn how to use a new software at a moments notice or switch between various apps often results in frustration and a decrease in productivity among companies.
Technological struggles linked to the inability to properly navigate enterprise software are all too common in the workplace today. From miscommunication to a lack of proper onboarding — professionals of all levels experience frustrating setbacks when they are unable to gain efficient use out of their platforms.
While platforms such as email, Slack, G-chat and Zoom are meant to enhance productivity and increase ease of access for company-wide communication, often the malfunctions due to lack of training cause significant harm. Especially when companies expect digital platforms to be onboarded without a digital adoption plan put in place.
I recently shared one of my personal experiences about completely missing the memo at work and being horribly late to an important meeting. I asked readers to share their own experiences of a time when they didn’t get the memo.
Richard Pummell is the founder of two startups and specializes in human resources and employee engagement consulting. He knows all too well the pain an organization can experience when its employees are not onboarded properly to a new platform.
Richard’s story…
“Technology can really add spice to your life, particularly when it decides to do something different than expected!
As the founder of a startup, I’ve had to become the IT resource for a small group. One of my recent experiences involved migrating to a new email service to better enable collaboration on sharing calendars, documents, etc.
After experiencing frustration that my teammates weren’t accessing their sparkly new email accounts, I found out that the new service had immediately “suspended” their new accounts for no known reason. Meanwhile, my colleagues are cursing me because I’ve crowed about being able to set them up relatively easily and they are unable to log into their accounts.
It involved several conference calls, deleting of accounts and setting things up a second time to actually get everything to work. Some emails were lost in the transition along with some confidence, but we finally got everyone on the same page!”
Why Richard didn’t get the memo…
“This was definitely due to a complicated onboarding process — and these things don’t usually get the better of me! I followed all the procedures that were required in the onboarding documentation, and it looked as though everything was set up correctly. It wasn’t until colleagues complained of not receiving emails that I went into the system to do some further digging, and it showed the status of each email account was suspended. There was no information available on why, or what needed to be done to unsuspend the accounts.
I had to search online for additional information, and found that the accounts had to be deleted and recreated in order to get them to work! This also required new passwords to be established and communicated, calls with each of my colleagues to let them know about their updates, and we did lose some emails during the transition ….
I was never able to find out from the vendor what would have caused these accounts to go directly into a suspended state. There was nothing in their documentation warning that this could happen. Even after working with the company to get this rectified, there was no clear reason provided.”
Why didn’t you get the memo? I’m sure that I’m not the only one who’s experienced the negative consequences of using multiple digital platforms in the workplace, and I’d love to feature your stories!
Feel free to reach out and send me your stories!
