Implementing ERP software into your business is an impressive milestone that highlights the fact that a business is experiencing favorable growth and is primed for future success. If only all your employees felt this way. No matter how helpful you deem ERP software to be, there will always be hesitation among employees and an unwillingness to adapt to these new processes. Perhaps the three most common complaints from employees during ERP training is that they are too busy and the training process itself is too complex and long:
Too Busy
There is no denying that in order to train employees on a new software system, it will require their undivided attention. Unfortunately, there is no button to put the business world on pause to allow your employees to give their full attention to understand the breadth of an ERP platform. The phones will still be ringing, orders will still be coming in, and inventory will still need to be picked, packed and shipped. This creates difficulty and stress among employees who need to juggle their everyday activities all while learning (and hopefully absorbing) the new information being provided during training sessions.
As a business owner, you must be conscious of this difficulty and ensure that employees have enough time to manage their daily tasks in addition to the training. This could involve taking breaks during peak business times or creating a training schedule that ensures employees are in the training sessions that apply directly to their role in the company. For example, a warehouse worker might not find much use in a training session for building high-level sales reports.
Too Complex
In addition to the time being spent on ERP training, many employees will find the new software too complex. For many employees and companies using outdated business processes, there is often a level of hesitation and reluctance to adapt to new technology. A strong ERP platform is essentially a web of interconnected processes designed to connect all aspects of a business. Understandably, many employees have difficulty learning the new processes being taught, especially when many are already ‘set in their ways’.
The best way to deal with this situation is to educate your employees about the need for an ERP system and why the company decided to implement software in the first place. The owners understand that they must streamline processes in order stay competitive in an ever-changing marketplace. It is important to make sure employees know that the software is there to help them and to grow the business. Tedious processes that may have taken hours before can be automated by ERP software, and it is imperative that employees understand this reality. Once they understand that the software is there to make their lives easier, there will be more of a willingness to learn.
Too Long
Even once your employees ‘buy-in’ to the training process and are willing to learn about the system, the process will still be lengthy. This is just the reality of an ERP system. There are so many intricacies involved that it will take a great deal of time to train every employee to feel truly comfortable on the system. Unfortunately, there is no quick fix solution to deal with this scenario. Since you’re paying for the implementation, you would hope that the software vendor is being thorough in their training so that your employees don’t find themselves too overwhelmed when you go-live.
Implementing software is a difficult but worthwhile process. No matter how much you may need new software, there will always be employees who are not willing to make the switch. However, if you take the time to educate and explain to your employees why software is necessary and how it will benefit them, they will be more willing to adapt.
