Wutan Huatan Jisuan Jishu
ISSN:1001-1749
A STUDY ON DIGITAL READINESS OF
EMPLOYEES AT WORKPLACE
Author- Debarun Choudhury (MBA Student)
Contact- 8486808567
H. No 37, Livestock Farm Campus, Khanapara, Guwahati. Assam- 781022.
Abstract- The digital world has evolved significantly in recent times and has completely changed the business
landscape. The way business was being operated some years ago have completely turned around in this
present era due to digitalization at workplace. Although organizations have successfully adapted this mode,
but all the employees are still not ready digitally. The attitude of employees towards learning new mode of
work is still a concern.
Many organizations have already implemented these changes, but majority of the employees are still not able
to keep up with the pace. So, it is the responsibility of the organizations to align the workforce with the
current digitalized culture. The measure of digital readiness is also hindered due to unavailability of proper
assessment tools to test the employee’s digital readiness from time to time.
Further, from the findings it is revealed that employee attitude, agility and adaptability plays a crucial role
for attaining the goal of digital readiness along with proper assessments of employees from time to time to
find the areas that needs more attention to make improvements. The responsibility also falls at the
organization to provide the right infrastructure to its employees to attain the goal of digital readiness.
Keywords: Digital World, Digital Readiness, Employee Attitude, Adaptability, Agility, Dynamic Environment.
INTRODUCTION
In this research work we study how digitally ready
the employees of the organizations are and are they
capable enough to adapt to these currently trending
and upcoming changes in the way work is being
done. The employees have already mastered the
traditional ways but to adapt to this digital world is
not an easy task, but to survive in this VUCA
(Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, Ambiguity) world
they need to outshine each and every one and for this
the most important element currently trending is
being ready and capable digitally. Digitalization have
eased the way of working and initiatives should be
taken by every employee to be competitive because
only than the employee can survive at their
workplace and achieve the desired objectives.
With the increased adoption of automation and data
driven technologies, the workforce is changing
rapidly regardless of whether the employees are
Volume XVI, Issue XII, December/2020
prepared to face it or not. Keeping up with this
velocity of change is vital to success. This means
building digital readiness among the employees and
filling the digital talent gap. Every organization in
order to be efficient and to survive in the competitive
world is converting every manual work into
automation to achieve the goals quickly and without
wasting many resources.
The main focus of this study is to find out whether
the employees working in organizations are capable
enough to keep their place intact and are digitally
ready to adapt to this change and also their attitude
towards advancements of organizations towards a
digitized work culture to be an asset to the
organization. Whether the employees have the
capacity to work not only in their office space but
from anywhere in the world, in such prevailing times
due to the pandemic Covid-19 is such an example
which have forced the workforce to showcase their
adaptability and readiness in using technology and
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prove their worth to the organization. For the purpose
of achieving digital readiness throughout the
organization and the employees, it is necessary for
the employees to have a learning attitude towards
these new developments and need to work on their
agility and adaptability, otherwise in current scenario
the employees are being replaced quickly if they are
not updated with latest changes happening around.
Thus, digital readiness is the inclination and
willingness to adapt and switch towards a digital
technology and readiness of employees to bring in a
change in the organizational, individual and industry
to achieve their goals faster and efficiently with
positive results.
RESEARCH
HYPOTHESIS
PROBLEM,
OBJECTIVE,
2.1. ProblemThe Research Problem identified is that the attitude
of employees towards digital advancement at
workplace is towards the resisting side and also the
problem of being less adaptability towards change
and agility is hampering the employees in achieving
the goal of digital readiness.
2.2 Objectives1) To study the digital readiness of employees at
workplace.
2) To study the attitude of employees towards
digital advancement.
2.3. HypothesisHo: In changing environment, there is no significant
relationship between adaptability to change and
digital readiness.
Ha: In changing environment, there is a significant
relationship between adaptability to
change and
digital readiness.
REVIEW OF LITERATURE
Digital readiness basically means the digital ability or
how ready the employees of organizations are to use
digital medium to work at their workplace. The
employees are the building blocks of any business
Volume XVI, Issue XII, December/2020
and it is essential for organizations to train their
employees to undertake digital transformation for
personal and as well as for professional growth. For
an organization to train every employee of the
organization to be in sync with digital technology, the
employees need to onboard the digital readiness train.
The digital transformation strategy of every
organization needs to be well prepared to
accommodate various aspects of digitalization. It
needs to have defined objective, a business plan, as
well as a workforce ready to take on challenges that
comes in the way of achieving digital readiness.
Technology is making progress at a rapid speed and
is altering the roles of employees. Digital
transformation is challenging the business framework
and with changing technology the workplace culture
is also changing.
The change towards attaining an environment of
digital readiness can be achieved when there will be
enough digital savvy leaders who can lead and
transform the workplace. The digital savvy leaders
are an added advantage to the digital transformation.
(Kathpalia, 2020)
Organizations future readiness can be defined based
on four dimensions, i.e. organization, culture,
employees and digital environment. To remain
competitive and future ready and able to manage the
current economic, political and social challenges as
well as seize new growth opportunities, it is
important that the companies consider all these
dimensions (Deloitte, Digital Future Readiness,
2017).
Digital readiness is the key for industry 4.0.
Incorporating a digitally ready workforce is crucial to
future competitiveness of the companies. The
employees and customers are being closely
networked while human and artificial intelligence
and use of robots across the value chain is becoming
a reality. The attitude of employees plays a crucial
role in this aspect as at majority times we have seen
that employees are reluctant to adapt and are less
agile, which is not helping organizations towards
creating a digitally ready workforce.
The Cisco Global Digital Readiness Index research
report is a study conducted by Cisco and Gartner
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which analyzed multiple sources of data to create
like-for-like measures to determine digital readiness
scores for 118 countries. Countries included in the
study were restricted to those with a population of
more than three million, and those that were not the
subject of significant trade embargoes. In total, 118
countries were scored on digital readiness based on
seven components. These are:
ISSN:1001-1749
accordingly measures can be taken towards becoming
an effective digitally effective workforce.
• Technology Infrastructure: Available to enable
digital activities and connected consumers (Internet
of Things, Cloud).
• Technology Adoption: Demand for digital products
and services.
• Human Capital: Build and maintain a skilled labor
force to support digital innovation.
• Basic Human Needs: For a population to survive
and thrive.
•
Ease
of
Doing
Business:
Basic
infrastructure/policies needed to support business
continuity.
• Business and Government Investment: Private and
public investment in innovation and technology.
• Start-Up Environment: Environment which fosters
innovation within a community. (Cisco, 2018).
The Aon’s Digital Readiness Model can be applied in
practice to assess and understand individuals, teams
or the entire employee population's digital
competencies. By using the ADEPT-15 personality
questionnaire in combination with the cognitive
ability test grid challenge you receive a
comprehensive overview of a person's digital
readiness. The result is a digital readiness profile
highlighting how the person maps onto the model's
eleven competencies. The model has been developed
over years of analysis researching how people
successfully work within digital environments. An
assessment of personality and ability measures the
level of digital competence, summarized in an
individual report showing strengths and development
areas. (Aon, 2020). This, the majority of
organization’s poor digitally ready workforce is due
to lack of proper assessment tools. Once the right tool
is implemented, the weaknesses can be reported and
Volume XVI, Issue XII, December/2020
(AON, 2020) Image- 1
Research GapDigital readiness in current scenario is not just a need
but also a necessity to survive in the workplace. The
attitude and behavior of employees plays a vital role
in achieving the goal of digital readiness. A certain
class or age group of employees are not that agile to
be able to adapt to this change. The transformation is
fast and due to lack of adaptability they are lacking
behind from the millennial working class. The
curiosity to learn something new often fades after a
period of time so the organizations needs to keep in
mind about this issue and regular assessments are
needed to assess the employees and also keep them
up to date with the latest changes in digital
transformation. The employees are often reluctant to
adapt to new working ways and are comfortable in
their traditional methods of working. In this scenario,
the organizations need to make these employees
understand about such changes and their impact in
the careers of such employees who are not ready
digitally.
Thus, for ensuring that the employees are ready
digitally the organizations must ensure that right
digital infrastructure is being provided to the
employees and continuous assessments are being
done from time to time for effective results. The
employees also need to start working on them and
improve their agility, adaptability, flexibility,
mobility and so on. (Deloitte, Digital Future
Readiness, 2017)
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It is also essential to take certain psychometric tests
of the employees to know about their cognitive
abilities and their attitude towards a digital way of
working as that would be beneficial to create an
empathetic relationship as well as to build a training
chart which can be followed to train the employees to
create a digitally ready workforce.
Employees with technical and cognitive digital skills
help drive productivity, innovation, agility, and
improved work quality. A digital-ready workforce
achieves business objectives and digitally literate
employees are more engaged in their day-to-day
work and better equipped to adapt as technological
advances evolve their roles. (Weise, 2015).Hence this
research article focuses on the degree to which
employees are ready to work efficiently using the
digital platform. Also, this research aims to enhance
the existing literature on digitalization by
understanding the attitude of employees towards
advancement in the digital world.
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Research DesignThe purpose of the study is to gain employees
insights regarding how digitally ready they at their
workplace are and what is their attitude towards
getting ready digitally. The research design used is
descriptive research design.
Research MethodThe research method used for the research work is
Quantitative Research Method.
Area of ResearchThe area taken for the purpose of the research work is
in the state of Maharashtra.
ISSN:1001-1749
Sampling UnitThe questionnaire was circulated among employees
of IT and Manufacturing Sector working in the state
of Maharashtra.
Statistical ToolThe statistical tool used for the research is SPSS
Analysis. The hypothesis was tested on SPSS
software using Spearman’s Correlation.
DATA ANALYSIS
Reliability Analysis.
Reliability is the extent to which a questionnaire, test,
observations or any measurement procedure produces
an equivalent result on repeated trials. It is the
stability or consistency scores over time or across
responders. It is noted that reliability pertains to
scores and not people. Thus, in the research it is
never said that someone was reliable. The extent to
which they agree on the scores for every contestant is
a sign of reliability. Similarly, the degree to which an
individual’s response (i.e., their scores) on a survey
would stay the same over time is also a sign of
reliability.
This method is the most considered general forms of
reliability estimation. In the internal consistency
method, reliability is considered as internal
consistency, which is the degree of inter correlation
among the items that constitute a scale. It represents
the level homogeneity in items of the scale. Internal
consistency is measured using a reliability coefficient
of Cronbach’s alpha.
The standardized Cronbach’s coefficient alpha has
been calculated for the 13 items of data collected.
Sampling DesignThe sampling design implemented for the research
wok is Simple Random Sampling.
Sample Size-
Table 1: Cronbach’s Alpha Coefficient
The questionnaire for my research was sent to 150
respondents. Out of which 101 of them responded
positively.
Volume XVI, Issue XII, December/2020
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The scale had a high level of internal consistency as
determined by Cronbach Alpha of 0.883. Thus, data
collected is reliable.
DEMOGRAPHIC ANALYSIS
The sampling unit of study includes employees of IT
sector and manufacturing sector. Nonprobability
sampling is adopted via distribution of questionnaire
virtually on emails and social ids.
1) Age
The questionnaire for my research work was
circulated among a sample where 56.44%
respondents were in the age group of 18-24,
(21.78%) were in the age group of 31-45, (19.80%)
were in the age group of 25-30 and least (1.98%) in
the age group of 45 and above.
2) Gender
Age
Percentages
18-24
56.44%
Gender
25-30
19.80%
Female
60.40%
31-45
21.78%
Male
38.61%
45 and above
1.98%
Other
0.99%
Grand Total
100.00%
Grand Total
100.00%
Table 2: Age
Percentages
Table 3: Gender
Gender
70.00%
60.00%
50.00%
40.00%
30.00%
20.00%
10.00%
0.00%
Table 2: Age
60.40%
38.61%
Total
0.99%
Female
Male
Other
Age
56.44
%
60.00%
50.00%
40.00%
19.80 21.78
30.00%
%
%
20.00%
10.00%
1.98%
0.00%
18-24 25-30 31-45 45 and
above
Graph 2: Gender
Total
The questionnaire for my research work was
circulated among a population of which majority of
respondents were female which consisted of (60.40),
male consisted of (38.61%) and (0.99%) of another
category.
STATISTICAL ANALYSIS
Graph 1: Age
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All the collected questionnaires are coded with help
of excel sheets and the same is uploaded in SPSS for
the purpose of analysis.
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corporate life as they are being easily replaced with
other employees those who are ready digitally. This
paper focuses to know the reason why employees are
facing problems in adapting and to know whether the
employees are having the right attitude they need at
their workplace to tackle such changes.
Table 4: Hypothesis Analysis
The Spearmen’s correlation coefficient “r” is 0.524.
As the significance of Spearman’s correlation
coefficient is positive, it can be concluded that there
is a positive correlation between the two variables,
which means increase in one variable causes the
same in the other.
Since “p” value is 0.00 which is <0.05, it can be
concluded that there is a statistically significant
relationship between the two variables.
So, in this case we reject the null hypothesis i.e., in
changing environment, there is no significant
relationship between adaptability to change and
digital readiness and accept the alternate hypothesis
i.e., in changing environment, there is a significant
relationship between adaptability to change and
digital readiness.
FINDINGS
This research paper on “Digital Readiness of
Employees at Workplace” aims to find the digital
readiness of employees at their workplace, focusing
mainly on the employees working in IT sector and
Manufacturing sector in the state of Maharashtra. The
term “Digitalization” is quite familiar with the
employees and more so with the employees of IT
sector rather than the Manufacturing sector. With the
introduction of latest technologies at workplace,
some employees are not being able to cope up with
these changes and it is causing real trouble in their
Volume XVI, Issue XII, December/2020
The reason why some employees are lagging behind
others in getting ready digitally is due to their poor
attitude to learn new things or simply lack of agility.
They resist adapting to new ways of work and are
comfortable in the orthodox ways itself. Change is
constant and keeping up with this change is necessary
to survive in this competitive environment. The
proper assessment of employees from time to time is
also lacking in many organizations. The right
platform is not enough for the employees, but proper
timely assessments are also needed from
organizations’ part. Things are changing rather
quickly so in order to cope up with it assessment of
employees is needed to find areas in which greater
focus can be given upon to improve in the future and
help the organization and as well that individuals
grow simultaneously.
The hypothesis for the study consisted of:
Ho: In changing environment, there is no significant
relationship between adaptability to change and
digital readiness.
Ha: In changing environment, there is a significant
relationship between adaptability to
change and
digital readiness
The responses were received, and the hypothesis was
proved in which the alternate hypothesis was
accepted, and the null hypothesis was rejected which
showed that there is a significant relationship
between adaptability to change and digital readiness.
From the response of the employees currently
working, though the term “Digitalization” is quite
familiar with the employees, yet there is a long way
for each and every one to be ready digitally. Most of
the employees feel they are ready digitally but still
around half of the workforce is yet to master and
adapt to these changes.
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The organizations, in order to cope up with their
competitors are implementing the latest changes in
technology and making the workforce a digitized
one. But the problem lies in effective utilization of
these technologies and digital platforms. It is found
that to make the employees familiar with these
changes, proper training is not being provided by the
organizations due to which the employees of a certain
group lag others.
The reason why some employees are lagging others
in getting ready digitally is due to their poor attitude
to learn new things or simply lack of agility. They
resist adapting to new ways of work and are
comfortable in the orthodox ways itself. Change is
constant and keeping up with this change is necessary
to survive in this competitive environment.
The proper assessment of employees from time to
time is also lacking in many organizations. The right
platform is not enough for the employees, but timely
assessments are also needed from organizations’ part.
Things are changing rather quickly so in order to
cope up with its assessment of employees is needed
to find areas in which greater focus can be given
upon to improve in the future and help the
organization and as well that individuals grow
simultaneously.
CONCLUSION
The research tested, supported and confirmed that the
hypothesis that in changing environment there is a
significant relation between adaptability to change
and digital readiness. It provides a comprehensive
and clear picture of the relationship that better
adaptability and agility of employees leads the
employees to be ready digitally.
In today’s organization employees are valuable
assets. In order to achieve both the organizational
goals and employees’ individual goals, both needs
work together in order to achieve the desired goals.
In a way digital readiness is required for every
employee to improve the quality of the employees
and as well as the industry they work in. In our study
we have seen employee’s point of view regarding
digitization of workplace and also their attitude
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towards the changes that are coming up in the
respective organizations. The changes are happening
quiet rapidly and adjusting to these changes is a
challenge for many employees. Thus, in this study we
focus on the digital readiness of employees at
workplace and the reasons why some employees are
lagging behind others. The adaptability to change and
employee attitude plays a huge role in this aspect.
Achieving digital readiness for each employee is a
major goal of every organization. Looking at the
current scenario, in order to survive the employees
needs to show the urge to learn the latest changes in
technology and adapt it to their day to day life at the
organization. The human resource department is one
of the most important area of every organization
which takes control of the human element. With
emergence of fast paced workforce and rapid
changes, development of new technology like people
analytics is helping this department a lot in saving
time and being effective. Keeping employee records
relating to attrition rate, salary records, and etc.
analytics is playing a big role. But in order to be able
to apply such tools at workplace digital readiness is
necessary for the employees who are handling such
tasks. The right attitude and initiative should come
from the employees itself only than successful
implementation of such tools will take place and the
organizations can benefit from it.
Digital readiness is something which will help
individuals and organizations grow simultaneously
but would also help the economy of the country grow
and compete in global environment as well. India is
still a developing country, although majority of the
global organizations are bringing in the changes for a
digitally savvy workforce, but the government can
also provide a helping hand for the upcoming youth
to compete with the world. Investments can be made
on digital readiness to promote digital inclusion with
the help of public-private partnership. Digital
readiness takes on special urgency not only because
one-third of the population is lacking, but because we
are on the brink of a new wave of innovation that the
“Internet of things” is driving. The “Internet of
things” is a game changer along with “People
Analytics” when thinking about digital readiness. The
digital innovation began from companies such as
Google, Apple and Amazon and went after
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transactional inefficiencies in established markets and
used communications networks to upend established
business institutions. So, if the organizations expect
its employees to be ready digitally, they should
provide them with the right platform and guidance
and the employees in turn need to work on their
agility to catch up with these changes along with
positive attitude.
Thus, future studies can be conducted regarding
digital readiness of employees taking a larger
population and adding new variables to it with the
help of in-depth interviews and new scaling
techniques with new objectives in place.
REFERENCES
Aon. (2020). Digital Readiness Assessment. London:
Aon.
Cisco, G. (2018). Global Digital Readiness.
Australia: Cisco.
Deloitte. (2017). Digital
Johannesburg: Deloitte.
Future
Readiness.
Deloitte. (n.d.). Digital Readiness.
Kathpalia, B. (2020). DigialREadiness Assessment.
Mumbai: Mettl .
Weise, E. (2015). Are your employees digita ready?
North America: Skillsoft.
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