Congratulations! Your workplace has A leading telecommunications network used Companies are relying more and more
just implemented a human-first digital this strategy when it addressed struggling on digital customer service. They’re also
transformation. The bosses borrowed from retention practices in its call centres. Agents transforming logistics and commoditising
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs to make this were expected to handle calls outside of their functions that were once specialised. They
digital transformation sustainable and area of training, which led to subscription don’t have a choice: To be successful,
successful while still enriching human losses and misuse of special retention offers. they must place key employees,
lives. They’ve hit all the key steps: Rather than automate the whole process, the leadership and customers at the heart
• Ensuri ng your comfort and safety company consolidated retention activities and of decision-making. Their institutional
• Providing a sense of belonging ran targeted analysis and scenario modeling knowledge and experience is important,
• Building up your esteem based on historical customer behaviour. The and there are many things that robots
• Empowering you to self-actualise resulting technological solution removed still can’t do. A major UK grocery chain,
the guesswork and identified the optimal for example, realised a game-changing
The goal is to make this easier for you offer, allowing reps to focus on their primary tech transformation when it developed
while still improving operations. Clearly, responsibility—providing quality customer an actionable plan by leading workshops
it’s working. service. with team members and conducting
At the outset, making robotisation more Considering the human factor is the only way employees. The employees’ insights were
human seems like an unnecessary to deliver sustainable digital transformation. invaluable, and skipping that step would
complication to an already circuitous Digitisation is not an IT issue; rather, it’s have been a drag on productivity and profits
journey. In fact, delivering a digital a very human one, requiring a new way of for years to come.
transformation through a human-first working. It helps someone in accounting viewpoint makes decision-making easier. work with HR, R&D, and Purchasing by In the future, all of us might be replaced by
The bosses didn’t just say, “We’ve got X and tearing down traditional company hierarchies robots. For today, however, and as we look
Y tech, and we want to implement Z.” They and silos. The entire workforce and customer to the near future, humans are integral
looked at what would help their customers base gets to be involved in things like to business and, by default, to digital
and employees do their best work and then decision-making and product development. transformation. More technology does not
face-to-face interviews with more than 30
found tools that would deliver on that vision.
make our role as humans less important.
It does, however, redefine it, and it forces
companies to be more human in their
purview, their decision-making and their
SELF
ACTUALISATION
ESTEEM
long-term forecasting.
Taking a human approach to digitisation is
the difference between doing digital and
being digital. Ultimately, being digital is the
LOVE & BELONGING
only sustainable, successful option. And it
turns out that being digital is more human
SAFETY
than you ever expected.
PHYSIOLOGICAL NEEDS
MASLOW’S HIERARCHY OF NEEDS
DIGITECH Magazine
Summer 2017
11