Tips on How to Get Employees to Use SharePoint Correctly

As professional managers working in competitive & harsh organizational environments, we more than often have to deal with various types of challenges. One of these challenges relates to getting employees to adopt a business software app, and to use it correctly in the long-term.

Take SharePoint, for example. Managers responsible for SharePoint have to deal with a lot of challenges:

1. Getting their employees to adopt new business processes, new features or programs updates.

2. Training employees to use SharePoint correctly.

3. The never ending call for support during major periods of change within the corporation.

4. Convincing employees to focus solely on their work instead of wasting their time on technical issues.

As a manager, you’ve probably dealt with these issues, especially since implementing SharePoint 2013. SharePoint of course benefits your company by enabling your employees to connect and work with their fellow employees and organize their work much easier.

How to Overcome These Challenges with Ease 

In order to overcome these challenges, there are a few aspects you should try to change within your organization. Here they are:

1.   Do not try to teach your employees everything in a single training session.

You need to understand that it takes time for your employees to grasp all the new concepts. Start by explaining to them how SharePoint contributes positively to the business. Next, continue by presenting the back office processes embedded in SharePoint and then move on to the front office changes.

Teach your employees about the importance of sharing ideas, content and documents, while organizing their work to keep the whole team connected. Explain them how to use this tool and all of its capabilities.

 2.   Turn your Employees into Advocates of SharePoint

At this point, communication is key, since resistance to change appears when employees are unaware of all the facts. During the changing process, kindly ask for your employees’ feedback and keep track of their progress.

3.   Deliver Relevant and Impactful Training

As a rule of thumb, it is paramount to provide relevant training, which is specific to your employees’ needs. This is probably the best way to overcome the initial resistance to SharePoint from your employees. Show them how to use this tool practically and you will definitely remove their initial lack of enthusiasm.

4.   Ensure Correct Usage in the Long Run

Your employees should continue to receive continued support post the initial training. Real-time, step-by-step instructions should be available 24/7 to them in order to remind your employees of key aspects of SharePoint, in case they forget these. For this, online guidance software, such as WalkMe, is highly recommended. It has been proven that employees learn best through relevance, repetition, specificity and immediacy; SharePoint users are no exception.

Summary

Most employees today turn to helpdesk support whenever they encounter a problem. However, this is definitely not an efficient method for your business, especially if you want to implement SharePoint and enable your employees to make the most out of this tool. A combination of impactful, relevant and easy-to-absorb training coupled with continued support integrated with SharePoint will enable your employees to get accustomed to this software and leverage its benefits for your company.

 

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Marissa Hart is the Lead Author & Editor ShareMe. ShareMe is a blog focused on SharePoint Online. SharePoint Online delivers the powerful features of SharePoint without the associated overhead of managing the infrastructure.