Modernizing Your Business: Prepare Your Staff for Your Move to the Cloud
Nowadays, many companies are going through a digital transformation. They’re modernizing their business operations using advanced digital technologies. The main reason companies do this is that they must keep up with the latest market trends and consumer demands.
by EMMA WORDEN
By creating a whole new experience, companies can remain relevant and competitive in today’s market. Now, the major factor in a digital transformation process is cloud migration.
Yes, pretty much everything gets moved to the cloud so that companies can fully utilize cloud-based services, such as SaaS (Software as a Service), PaaS (Platform as a Service) and IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service), among others, of course.
However, to migrate to the cloud successfully, you must also prepare your staff for it. If they don’t know how to leverage cloud services, then those services won’t be much of a help to you. With that in mind, here are a few ways to prepare your staff for your move to the cloud.
Plan your migration in advance
A lot of company owners just do things without informing their employees about it. When it comes to cloud migration, this can be quite a mistake. Your employees must know what’s going on so that they know how to adapt to the situation accordingly.
Even though most people simply hate company meetings, now would be a good time to hold one and explain the process to your employees. After all, they are the ones that will be using new cloud services on a daily basis.
Moreover, cloud migration is lengthy and a demanding process, and you’ll need your staff to help you formulate a strategy. Another thing that’s important to mention is that your employees will participate in that very process from the start. The least they can do is prepare all the files and data to be moved to the cloud.
Train your staff
Staff training should be a mandatory employee-growth strategy in every company, regardless of whether you want to move to the cloud or not. In this particular case, training your staff is of vital importance. Your employees must be ready to adopt new roles.
That said, the cloud environment differs from a traditional and in-house virtual environment. That’s why staff needs to be trained in IT, as well as in handling, operating and maintaining cloud services. Here are a few training options you should strongly consider:
— Cloud awareness and foundation training for all employees
— Role-based specialized training for technical staff members
— Experience training for technical staff
— Advanced training and professional certification for administrators and support staff
For example, if you plan on using AWS (Amazon Web Services) outposts, it would be a good idea to provide your employees with adequate AWS training. Otherwise, they won’t be able to make sense of it all, let alone use the services properly.
Obtain certification
Certification is very valuable nowadays both for company owners and for their employees. When it comes to employees, helping them get certified as a proof of competence helps them become more engaged, productive, and it raises their morale.
Moreover, it allows them to advance in their career and seek a better position within the company. Even if it happens that some employees leave your company at one point, they’ll have some valuable experience to take with them.
Therefore, helping your employees get a certification, especially in the field of cloud services will serve as a powerful incentive and a reward. As you may already know, the path to certification also includes additional training which will benefit your employees. Here are a few examples of helping your employees obtain certification:
— Seminar attendance
— Webinar attendance
— Online courses
— Classroom courses
Test your new environment
One of the best ways to prepare your staff for the cloud migration is to test the new environment. Once your staff has undergone training and perhaps even obtained certification, it’s time to put their newly-acquired skills to the test.
A lot of companies do this by building and shipping a new product. This doesn’t have to be something monumental. In fact, a test product will do just fine. What’s more, many cloud service provides already provide testing tools and services as part of their offer.
What that means is that your testing phase won’t be a major undertaking, and it won’t hurt your company’s budget. This will not only help you test your employees’ skills but also help you test the entire cloud environment you’re about to implement or migrate to.
Create a new company culture
Once your cloud migration is complete, it’s time to create a new company culture that thrives on cloud-based technologies. This is also part of preparing your staff for the cloud as such environments require collaboration, transparency and openness.
Creating a new culture that will foster these traits can be challenging but it will benefit both the company and its employees.
Simply put, preparing your staff for the cloud is not only about the technical know-how but also about working on their soft skills that will allow them to leverage the full potential of cloud computing and cloud-based services. Such an endeavor requires a lot of teamwork and trust so that it can function properly and ensure maximum productivity and overall performance.
Migrating to the cloud is a long process paved with challenges and obstacles. A company alone cannot succeed in cloud migration without employees who will know how to make the best out of the new environment. That’s why it’s vital that you prepare your staff for the cloud as soon as possible.
Emma is a digital marketer and blogger from Sydney. After getting a marketing degree she started working with Australian startups on business and marketing development. Emma writes for many relevant, industry related online publications and does a job of an Executive Editor at Bizzmark blog and a guest lecturer at Melbourne University. Interested in marketing, startups and latest business trends. Follow Emma on Twitter.
