The technology revolution has delivered challenges on many fronts for organizations seeking to utilize its numerous opportunities. On the human resources front, the revolution brings the dual challenge of finding tech savvy associates and using technology to empower those associates.
Hence, an education session on finding tech savvy associates and empowering them to use technology drew a large audience during last week's grocershop show at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas.
"It's a matter of making clear that technology is not just something that the nerds do in the corner, it is something that is part of all of our jobs," said panelist Luke Anderson, chief information officer at Cub Foods Inc., a Stillwater, Minnesota-based supermarket chain. "Every year that goes by, certainly every decade that goes by, technology becomes more important."
Anderson, along with panelists Jennifer Hopper, chief information officer at Save A Lot Food Stores Ltd., a St. Ann, Missouri-based supermarket chain, and Sarah Engel, president of January Digital, a New York City-based digital consulting company, agreed that technology cannot be viewed as the exclusive domain of the IT department, but must be embraced by the entire organization.
They also agreed that the IT department needs to take leadership in accomplishing this goal.
"You really have to focus on this from a training or a change-management perspective in having those skills within your own team," Anderson said. At the same time, the IT people have to be mindful of the fact that technology is not something all employees are thinking about every day.
"It's a natural evolution, but we really have to realize it doesn't seem natural for everybody," he said.
On a positive note, the panelists agreed people in general are more tech savvy today. Engel of January Digital said many people in their 20s and 30s have intellectual curiosity and they value training.
"One thing that we found is they want that continuing education and they consider it really vital to them," she said. "They also want to be able to name it and put it on their LinkedIn (pages)."
A dual approach
Anderson and Hopper both said their companies have a two-pronged approach for improving employee tech knowledge: training existing associates and looking for talent outside the company.
"I like that because you get some of the legacy knowledge as well as new knowledge from the outside," Hopper said.
In seeking people outside the company, Hopper said Save A Lot considers a person's attitude and aptitude more than industry experience. Attitude is whether they want to be a team player while aptitude is their existing skill set.
Cub Foods has had as many as five people in the last two years that came from their stores who combine a love of technology with their knowledge of how the stores operate, Anderson said. These associates were eventually able to contribute to the company's IT development and bring it to more parts of the organization.
As for finding the right people outside the organization, it is a challenge, but one that has proven successful.
"We have to think of ways to use our local brands to attract people to work for that hometown company and still give them great technology opportunities," Anderson said. "The big success for us is finding those people who have a natural interest in technology even if they're not in that organization."
Hybrid work schedules bring challenges
One issue many organizations face in the post-COVID era is educating associates within a hybrid work schedule where employees are not coming to the work site five days a week. Because hybrid schedules have become more common, some prospective employees expect they won't have to be on site for as many days as the company may want.
The panelists agreed Zoom calls are important for training people. "It's different interaction, but it doesn't mean we can't be successful," Hopper said.
The panelists nonetheless agreed that on-site training is still important since personal interaction is necessary.
Anderson said training works best when the employees are on site and can ask questions in the presence of company staff. Cub Foods finds online training from technology partners helpful, and employees need to be on site to benefit from this training. Management tells them they will have questions after the training, and being on site makes it easy for them to ask questions.
"Hearing other people asking those questions, you can learn from those things maybe you didn't even know," he said.
He also said it helps to use "bite size" in training, such as 10 minutes every week.
"Using a platform to enable that kind of refresher in small bites over time…that's something that's really helped for us," he said.
Hopper said employee led training has been successful for Save A Lot. There is employee led training over lunch every Friday.
"They themselves upskilled themselves and their colleagues," she said. "It's not a hierarchy thing."
Jennifer Hopper of Save A Lot Food Stores Ltd. emphasized the importance of associate-led technology training. Photo provided by groceryshop. |
AI creates challenges
The panelists also agreed the growing role of artificial intelligence makes training especially important. Anderson said many long-time veterans are retiring and the new generation will be relying more on AI.
"Using AI to bolster their decision making…just makes it easier for a newer store employee to know how to order produce," he offered as an example.
While most of the discussion focused on making associates tech savvy, one listener raised the need for making upper management aware of the importance of technology.
The question was posed: What do the upper management-level people, who often have a bottom line perspective, need to see to support technology investments?
Anderson and Hopper both said their companies look for a strong use case.