Selecting and introducing software is no easy feat and software adoption tends to remain a challenge for organisations of all sizes. To get it right, you have to have a clear plan in place, including how you will ease the process for your team.
Mastering software implementation is key to improving adoption rates in your organisation, as they in turn form the foundation for safety involvement. This article will explain what these rates are and why they matter in safety. It will also share a few tips on how to improve them in your organisation.
What Are Adoption Rates?
The adoption rate in the software industry refers to how well people/users adopt and use software for a specific purpose.
In the safety world, adoption rates refer to how well people adopt software to increase the reporting of safety-related observations. The adoption rate can be measured from 0 - 100% and is often considered successful at around 65%.
When looking at the adoption rate, you must consider the ease of use of the tool for everyone who needs to use it. That would be everyone from end-users in the field who just need to report observations, to admin users. A lot of software solutions get complex very fast with too many features targeted at admins.
Higher adoption rates are often reflective of the simplicity of the tool and how quickly users can learn how to use it and all its features.
Why Do Adoption Rates Matter In Safety?
Adoption rates are important in safety as they point to the usability of a new safety platform. They tell you whether users are actually able to do what they need to on your platform. This includes reporting incidents and safety observations, following up on reports, and more.
When you have a low adoption rate, this means it’s difficult for your workers to make reports because the software isn’t easy to use. Or, perhaps they haven’t been trained on how the software works or how to use it.
No or low reporting leads to safety issues going unaddressed, compromising everybody’s well-being. By improving your adoption rate through adequate training and the use of the right safety software, you ensure that people can report unsafe conditions and issues and you can resolve them.How To Improve The Adoption Rate
Here are several simple steps that you can include in your plan to improve usability and adoption:
- Goals and KPIs. Set clear goals and safety metrics to track so that you can measure the progress of your adoption and system success.
- User education and onboarding. Offer workshops and training to teach workers how to report and use the systems.
- Regular visibility. Have posters and other visible instructions around the workplace that reiterate how to use the platform.
- Feedback. Establish methods for users to provide feedback about their experience of the system. Using this insight, you can improve your education and onboarding approaches.
Final thoughts
There are simple ways to increase software adoption rates. The important thing is to consider the people who will use the system and make it easier for them. Use some of the tips above and choose a safety platform built with the end user in mind in order to boost your adoption rate.
Another topic that plays a huge role in creating safety culture is metrics and KPIs. How is your organisation utilising them compared to the industry standards? If you are interested to learn more, have a look at our FREE guide:
We are building the world's first operational involvement platform. Our mission is to make the process of finding, sharing, fixing and learning from issues and observations as easy as thinking about them and as rewarding as being remembered for them.
By doing this, we are making work more meaningful for all parties involved.
More information at falcony.io.
