How To Support Your Staff Who Aren’t Computer Literate
Computer literacy is a necessary part of almost all modern job roles. Even industries that aren’t trditionally IT orientated have spent the last decade modernizing to use computers in their operations. Be it inputting or retrieving data, or even email communications, those who aren’t yet computer literate can easily get left behind by their colleagues, and even customers. Supporting these staff is the key to long-term productivity and efficient workflow. Here are our tips for IT support when it comes to those who aren’t quite tech-savvy just yet.
Take it Slow
While it can be frustrating to help people play catch-up, we often discount that some people don’t even have the basic computer skills to build upon when learning more specialised processes. Effective IT Support Rotherham-based is best enacted after people are completely up-to-date with the way their computer, laptop, or phone functions. Even just touching base with computer illiterate staff to check the extent of their understanding can help you plan what you’ll need to do to support certain people.
Ascertain Goals
Employees have a much better time becoming computer literate, or improving their IT skills, when they know what they are working towards. Say you’re scouring a database or report for information, but your employees can never quite get the data they want; working out where employees need to get to, and what they want from the programmes they’re using can help in understanding not only what you need to teach them, but how it can benefit them specifically.
It’s Not When, But How…
Being the only one on a team who knows how to complete certain processes on the computer can be an added stress, and distract you from your job. But if you find yourself helping your colleagues time and time again, you might not be helping them in the right way. Make sure to make these moments an opportunity for learning, rather than a favour from you. Direct the employees on the correct way to do things, but make sure they make all the inputs themselves. If they need extra help, you can write complex processes down, or let them know that many basic things only take a simple google search.
Computer Literacy for All
If you find yourself helping a certain number of colleagues with one process, it might be helpful to gather everyone together for a computer literacy refresher. Getting everyone in a setting specialised for learning can help people take new information on adequately. While you probably won’t need to actually teach anything new, just run over existing processes, it’s nice to get the whole team on the same page. It also means you don’t have to single out those who aren’t computer literate, and can promote team-work simultaneously.
Alternatively, see if you can up-skill your section of the workforce via courses, by asking for funds from higher-ups. Courses are often used for adding new skills to your employees’ individual repertoires, although there are countless courses out there for even the most basic of computer skills.
Call in the Specialists
Choosing the right IT specialists can benefit not only company productivity, but individual computer literacy too. IT support can help your employees realise the potential of the systems they are working with, and let them know what they need to learn in order to progress their computer literacy. This also helps to support non computer literate staff, as they have the assurance that nothing can go drastically wrong at their hands, with great IT support there to help.
