Why no-one’s using your data management tool

Have you taken the time to carefully select a data management tool for your staff and organisation to use, but are finding that hardly anyone uses it and that the uptake is fairly low?

This can be really demoralising especially if you’ve taken the time to carefully select and procure the tool and know that if only people used it, the whole organisation and everyone in it would really benefit from it.

In order to combat this and to get people to more enthusiastically adopt your carefully chosen data management tool, the first step is to understand what the resistances may be around it. Let’s see if we can take a look at some of these together:

1. They don’t see the need for or benefit of change

When a new data management tool is brought in, staff are often not clear about why this tool has been chosen and why there is any need for it at all. From their perspective, the way they are and have been doing things works well for them and so why change it!? They’ve figured out how to make their operational processes work, they know how to do it and so having to do anything differently would be disruptive and feel like an unnecessary hassle.

In order to get people on side, it’s important to recognise that it’s a big deal for them to have to change the way that they work and to establish that you understand this and appreciate their support in entertaining a new way of doing things and in giving it a try.

Focus on highlighting the benefits and the positive impact the new tool will have. Take the time to sit down and explain to your staff how the new way of working will benefit them specifically, how it will be better and easier in the long run and how it suits their particular needs. One example of how this can be done is to run boot-camps or workshops explaining how to use the new tool and showcasing its functionality, which can promote confidence both in using the tool and in it being the right tool to use. This will help to encourage them to adopt the new method of working and the new tool.

2. Lack of effective change management

If a new tool has been introduced quite suddenly and without involving the end users in the selection process, it can feel like it’s being brought in out of the blue and without their needs really being considered. A lack of communication can lead to confusion, distrust and even resentment.

Therefore, if possible, as soon as you’ve decided that you want to bring in a different tool to support better data management in your team, consult your staff and include them in the process. Tell them why you’re seeking a new tool, tell them what you’re trying to help them do and then ask them for their perspective. Ask them what they need, what their challenges are, what a good tool looks like to them and make sure that all of their views, feedback and thoughts are clearly captured, logged and taken into account at each stage of the selection and buying process. Work with them to build migration plans as the new tool is introduced, existing data migrated in, processes updated to use it, and old infrastructure archived away.

Keep them in the loop as you make key decisions about the tool and address any concerns as they arise. Make sure that the data management tool that you’re bringing in addresses the various challenges that your team has highlighted and show them how it does this and/or work with them to ensure that it will definitely do what they need it to do, and that there is a clear migration plan that meets all stakeholders’ needs.

3. Fear of the unknown or lack of skills

Often the introduction of a new piece of technology is met with justifiable scepticism. Some of this is due to the fact that it is new and that there will be a need to learn how to use it and how to get the most out of it. This requirement to learn and/or to be trained up in the new tool can be overwhelming and put many people off.

It will be easier to get people to try the new system if you offer guidance and training, if you select a tool that looks and feels familiar to any current systems your staff are used to, if you explain any new terminology the tool uses that might not be familiar, and if any training required is easy to follow and can be accessed and consumed easily. If the learning process can be made fun and rewarding, people are much more likely to want to get involved and thus get more out of the tool. Those people will become torch bearers for the new system, helping to educate the rest of their teams and becoming a point of contact between their team and you.

These are the 3 most common problems that we see occurring when a new data management tool isn’t getting used in an organisation, and suggestions for ways to overcome them in your teams.

If you need any help with your organisation’s data management or want to explore how we and/or our data tools could help you, feel free to get in touch!