Like any new corporate initiative, change isn’t always easy or smooth. It’s important to understand the potential obstacles you may face as an organization when driving sustainability efforts.
After achieving leadership buy-in for sustainability, you may face culture gaps, difficulty in changing employee habits and myths surrounding accessibility.
In this article, we will share practical advice for preventing roadblocks so you can transform your business into a sustainable, paperless organization.
1. Culture Gaps
For many organizations, perception vs. reality contributes to a frustrating culture gap and a weaker sense of urgency. While the majority of CxOs are concerned about climate change and believe a digital culture is the solution, a reality check with your employees may prove otherwise.
For leadership, this disparity creates a dangerous perception that digital transformation is further along than it really is. For the workforce, this creates a daily reminder of broader culture misalignment.
Close the gaps in culture with:
- A sustainability resource group comprised of employees at all levels to hold leadership accountable.
- Clear, frequent, transparent communication from leadership about goals, efforts, challenges and progress.
- Town hall meetings where leadership can answer questions about the organization’s sustainability efforts.
2. Employee Habits
User adoption is a common roadblock to achieving sustainability through digitalization. When it comes to keeping workflows and processes out of the printing queue, not all generations are created equal. Baby boomers and much of Gen X still remember a time when legal signatures required printing and training came in the form of giant three-ring binders.
Millennials and Gen Z are much more likely to be early adopters of technology than other generations. As technology natives, they expect to keep their world entirely digital, which creates a rift in the adoption of digitization among your workforce. For some, it is natural. For others, a completely digital environment may be a harder ask.
Encourage a digital culture through:
- Frequent training on enterprise technology and software, especially for new processes.
- A strong change management strategy and gradual approach to full digitization (don’t expect 100% compliance right away).
- An option for anonymous feedback about the digitalization efforts.
3. The Accessibility Myth
Many organizations still buy into the myth that it’s expensive to offer lightweight digital tools, such as PDF and eSigning, for everyone involved in a process or workflow.
Under the assumption that a feature-heavy Adobe solution is the only way to provide the basics, many IT teams may only have the budget to purchase licenses for 10% of the workforce.
This compromise leaves the other 90% ill-equipped to participate in a fully digital workflow and forces them into the printer and scanner cycle. A cost-effective solution like Nitro enables the entire organization to go digital. Giving everyone access to the same tools increases product usage, productivity and collaboration.
Improve digital accessibility by:
- Proving the value of your desired tool to leadership through comparative analysis.
- Implementing a proactive adoption policy and procedure (because changing habits is hard!).
- Measuring the impact of your efforts post-implementation to maintain buy-in.
Reach Your Sustainability Goals Faster Through Digitalization
Download our free guide with expert advice on how to build a realistic sustainability plan for your organization and successfully measure your outcomes.
You'll learn how to:
- Make the case for sustainability to your stakeholders
- Implement a digitalization strategy to support sustainability goals
- Create a culture of sustainability in your organization
- Measure and quantify your environmental and economic impact
- Choose a digital solution aligned to your business objectives
Questions? Reach out to our team of experts.