On Wednesday, we hosted a Virtual Think IT Panel Event on the topic, Digital Fatigue. A huge thank you to our panelists, Kader Sakkaria, Vice President, Digital Transformation, Data, Analytics, RPA and AI at Realogy Holdings Corp., Song Shin, Vice President, IT Manager at JPMorgan Chase, and Stephen Lavin, Chief Technology Officer at Redbox for sharing their experience and knowledge with digital fatigue. Thank you to everyone who joined us well!
Below you will find an overview of the most popular questions from our members and a summary of what was discussed.
How has the push for digitalization changed from the beginning of 2020 to now?
Companies are seeing that it does not take long for employees to get ramped up. Now digitalization includes migration plans and pushing services through multiple platforms. Everything moving forward will continue to be digitized, especially during COVID to make sure people have access to what is needed.
How have your early entry and talent development efforts changed? (Things like internships and Genesys Works if you’re involved in that)
Some companies are still doing internships, and some have been put on hold. Companies want to make sure that the interns are still getting the value out of their internships, and it may be more challenging to do while working remotely. For the interns that are going forward with their internship, they are having a virtual desktop and getting trained all remotely.
Has your hiring/screening process changed? If we are digitally strained, can anyone effectively screen candidates? Are your hiring managers being retrained?
With the circumstances we are in, companies are advising some caution while hiring. They are onboarding a few people, but everything is online. Companies still have open positions, but everything has just been slowed down to ensure the safety of the organization.
How is your organization/team dealing with the conference call and video call fatigue?
Many teams started working remotely with always having their video on for their calls with each other. The panelists agreed that they are giving each other a break, and if they need to use only audio sometimes, that’s okay. With video calls, it’s difficult to completely understand someone’s body language and thoughts, which also causes digital video while trying to navigate that.
Have you seen changes in production from the beginning of COVID to now?
Companies are bringing new and interesting ways to look at production during COVID. For the first 6-8 weeks, they saw an increase in velocity and output. Now they are experiencing digital fatigue as they must produce more meetings with their teams. Companies are also tracking productivity from a holistic approach and being flexible with everyone’s schedule. They are missing the in-person communication, and it’s hard to be the most productive while having to wait longer for that communication.
Are you still doing work to “move forward” in the current COVID-19-driven situation, or are you primarily focusing mostly on keeping the lights on?)
All the panelists agreed that they are pedal to the medal and must prioritize a bit more. COVID isn’t affecting them as much as some of the other world events are. They are trying to keep things as normal as possible for their teams.
While companies continue to work remotely, they understand the digital fatigue their employees may be feeling right now. They are trying to alleviate that the best they can knowing that working remotely may continue.