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The 10 questions and avenues of the ANACT to conduct projects adapted to the challenges of the company and its employees

Published on 28 January 2020
Update on 26 September 2022
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Summary

"Digital transformations are now imposing themselves on companies and are shaking up temporalities, cooperation and relations with customers. These transformations closely condition the working conditions of all. However, it is not always easy to find one's way through. Change often seems to be undergone rather than discussed and negotiated. How can we do things differently and better master the potential offered by digital technology?

In 10 questions on mastering digital transformations, the French National Agency for the Improvement of Working Conditions (ANACT) suggests ways for company players to take ownership of these transformations and conduct projects adapted to the challenges of the company and its employees.

Excerpts from the ten questions.

What is it about?"Digital systems tend to rationalize activity within specific frameworks. The risk is to consider that it is then only up to human and organizational systems to adapt. In order to reduce the tension between the possible benefits and risks of digital technology, the company needs to think about what it wants to do with it and how best to adapt the project to its intended purpose. The successful implementation of a new digital system depends to a large extent on the ability of the social actors to take up the challenge of consultation in order to take advantage of the best aspects of digital technology and to avoid a certain number of threats.(...)No determinism attributed to technology should lead to a lack of consultation. What are the challenges associated with digital transformation?"The digital transformation of work is often presented as a sign of the normal, even "inevitable" evolution of technological progress. They often seem to be non-negotiable, as if there were no way to discuss their usefulness or the modalities of their integration. Digital technology appears to be essentially a matter for designers and management. It is a kind of "black box" for future users. (...)"However, experience shows that an overly technical representation of digital systems presents many pitfalls affecting both performance and working conditions" (...)"For all these reasons, it is important to introduce into the design and distribution of digital systems a greater concern for the "worker experience". (...)"But to do this, we must open the "black box" of digital transformations and accept to submit the changes to a greater collective deliberation, even if it means modifying the initial meaning. (...)What are the keys to opening the black box?"The success of a digital transformation project lies above all in the ability to mobilize the players involved. The challenge is to conduct a participative and concerted approach "by taking control" collectively of the way in which changes are integrated into the workplace. This can involve both internal actors within the company - management, system designers, managers, employees and staff representatives - and external actors (designers, service providers, developers, etc.). We must avoid a situation where changes are experienced as top-down and prescriptive. (...)

The ANACT lists here six questions that "open the black box" of digital transformations in order to better master the meaning of the changes to come.

  • "Usefulness: to which actors and in what way is the transformation project useful?
  • Accessibility: how is access to technology and information organized? Will users have the means and skills to access them?
  • Usability: will the device that is to be implemented be easily usable in concrete work situations?
  • Discussability: is it possible to discuss the current and future transformations? Are the representations and opinions of designers, salespeople, management, technical services, employee representatives and workers taken into account?
  • Understandability: Is the project understandable from the point of view of the "worker-experience"? Does it make sense in the context of the work?
  • Adaptability: is the project adaptable to field constraints and resources and to specific work contexts?"
How to debate the usefulness of digital transformation projects?

"The implementation of a new technology never has a single purpose. Asking the question of its usefulness collectively means identifying how it can be useful to the various players involved: management, technical and operational departments, workers, service providers, users and customers. It also means assessing the benefits (cooperation, production quality, efficiency, etc.) and potential risks of using digitalization: operations that cannot be automated using algorithms, the need to personalize the relationship with the customer, etc.How to improve accessibility to digital systems?"Since digital technologies are becoming more widespread in the population, companies sometimes take for granted that they are mastered by their employees"(...)Accessibility criteria for a new digital system are often defined for "a typical user" and are not adapted to all future users in a work situation." (...)The issue of the digital divide is difficult to address, as users may find it difficult to express their lack of comfort. (...)How to facilitate the "usability" of digital systems?"The experience-worker is still little mobilized to improve the usability of digital technologies. It is not very detailed in the specifications of transformation projects". (...)"Why work on usability? To integrate the constraints of real work into digital systems and determine the most effective conditions of use. To reveal risks and opportunities that were not foreseen at the outset". (...)How to encourage greater "discussability" of transformation projects?"Discussability" refers to the possibility of collectively debating the conditions for implementing new equipment. For the actors in the company, this requirement requires entering into the game of negotiation and co-construction by taking into account the different technical, organizational and strategic facets of the projects. (...)"How to make a project intelligible to give it meaning?"The intelligibility of a project, even when well conceived, is never immediately clear. The meaning of the project may not be shared by the different actors. Participatory work is therefore necessary to discuss the ins and outs of a project, i.e. what is expected in terms of goals, the means available, the probable impacts and the way in which these will be managed, etc." (...) (...)"In addition, it is important to be able to leave yourself room for maneuver in order to quickly change a project and better adapt it to the needs of users. Indeed, any digital transformation project only really makes sense from the concrete experience of workers, in response to problems and events experienced. It is necessary to go back and forth between the theoretical aims of the project - its target - and the way it is tested in practice. This process is an opportunity for real organizational learning. When completed, it makes the project more intelligible to all the actors. (...)What levers can be used to adapt digital tools to work situations?"The question is how to adapt the digital transformation project to the characteristics of the workplace and to the various objectives (increased productivity, quality of service, speed, reduced drudgery, development of skills, etc.). The challenge is to adapt work to people and not the other way around, considering the project as a path to the best potential solution. (...)What are the conditions for closing the "black box"?"The mastery of digital transformations represents an opportunity to renew the practices of change in companies. (...)"But for this, it is necessary to propose a methodological device to: facilitate discussions between stakeholders ; question the conditions of acceptability of the changes; enrich and specify the conditions of integration of digital technologies; build and share common references". (...)

The ANACT distinguishes here between different stages:

  • Before launching projects: a foresight phase
  • In project design: a simulation phase
  • During the deployment of the projects: an experimentation phase
  • During the deployment: a training phase
  • After deployment: an evaluation and support phase
This list of questions to ask is completed by an appendix devoted to "methods for accompanying digital transformations" .

Référence :

Digital: ANACT's areas of work 

The National Agency for the Improvement of Working Conditions aims to jointly improve working conditions and the performance of the structures that make up the French economic fabric. It supports both the private and public sectors, focusing on work organization and industrial relations.

Anact-Aract has identified three areas of work around digital technology:

  • Support for social dialogue actors: Equip social dialogue actors to understand the impacts of digital technology on the quality of life at work and support the consultation and negotiation processes. Example: collective survey tool (roadbook to be published).
  • Support for the articulation of forms of dialogue within the company: Test change management approaches linking internal dialogue on the meaning of the project, technical dialogue with suppliers, taking into account the employees' point of view. Example: guide "10 questions on the control of digital transformations". -
  • Supporting the action of branches: Building support for SMEs so that they can take control of the transformations in their sector. Example: study in support of the Union of Employers of the Social and Solidarity Economy to prepare an interprofessional agreement on the impacts of digital technology.
 

 

Sources

The 10 questions and avenues of the ANACT to conduct projects adapted to the challenges of the company and its employees

"Digital transformations are now imposing themselves on companies and are shaking up temporalities, cooperation and relations with customers. These transformations closely condition the working conditions of all. However, it is not always easy to find one's way through. Change often seems to be undergone rather than discussed and negotiated. How can we do things differently and better master the potential offered by digital technology?

In 10 questions on mastering digital transformations, the French National Agency for the Improvement of Working Conditions (ANACT) suggests ways for company players to take ownership of these transformations and conduct projects adapted to the challenges of the company and its employees.

Excerpts from the ten questions.

What is it about?"Digital systems tend to rationalize activity within specific frameworks. The risk is to consider that it is then only up to human and organizational systems to adapt. In order to reduce the tension between the possible benefits and risks of digital technology, the company needs to think about what it wants to do with it and how best to adapt the project to its intended purpose. The successful implementation of a new digital system depends to a large extent on the ability of the social actors to take up the challenge of consultation in order to take advantage of the best aspects of digital technology and to avoid a certain number of threats.(...)No determinism attributed to technology should lead to a lack of consultation. What are the challenges associated with digital transformation?"The digital transformation of work is often presented as a sign of the normal, even "inevitable" evolution of technological progress. They often seem to be non-negotiable, as if there were no way to discuss their usefulness or the modalities of their integration. Digital technology appears to be essentially a matter for designers and management. It is a kind of "black box" for future users. (...)"However, experience shows that an overly technical representation of digital systems presents many pitfalls affecting both performance and working conditions" (...)"For all these reasons, it is important to introduce into the design and distribution of digital systems a greater concern for the "worker experience". (...)"But to do this, we must open the "black box" of digital transformations and accept to submit the changes to a greater collective deliberation, even if it means modifying the initial meaning. (...)What are the keys to opening the black box?"The success of a digital transformation project lies above all in the ability to mobilize the players involved. The challenge is to conduct a participative and concerted approach "by taking control" collectively of the way in which changes are integrated into the workplace. This can involve both internal actors within the company - management, system designers, managers, employees and staff representatives - and external actors (designers, service providers, developers, etc.). We must avoid a situation where changes are experienced as top-down and prescriptive. (...)

The ANACT lists here six questions that "open the black box" of digital transformations in order to better master the meaning of the changes to come.

  • "Usefulness: to which actors and in what way is the transformation project useful?
  • Accessibility: how is access to technology and information organized? Will users have the means and skills to access them?
  • Usability: will the device that is to be implemented be easily usable in concrete work situations?
  • Discussability: is it possible to discuss the current and future transformations? Are the representations and opinions of designers, salespeople, management, technical services, employee representatives and workers taken into account?
  • Understandability: Is the project understandable from the point of view of the "worker-experience"? Does it make sense in the context of the work?
  • Adaptability: is the project adaptable to field constraints and resources and to specific work contexts?"
How to debate the usefulness of digital transformation projects?

"The implementation of a new technology never has a single purpose. Asking the question of its usefulness collectively means identifying how it can be useful to the various players involved: management, technical and operational departments, workers, service providers, users and customers. It also means assessing the benefits (cooperation, production quality, efficiency, etc.) and potential risks of using digitalization: operations that cannot be automated using algorithms, the need to personalize the relationship with the customer, etc.How to improve accessibility to digital systems?"Since digital technologies are becoming more widespread in the population, companies sometimes take for granted that they are mastered by their employees"(...)Accessibility criteria for a new digital system are often defined for "a typical user" and are not adapted to all future users in a work situation." (...)The issue of the digital divide is difficult to address, as users may find it difficult to express their lack of comfort. (...)How to facilitate the "usability" of digital systems?"The experience-worker is still little mobilized to improve the usability of digital technologies. It is not very detailed in the specifications of transformation projects". (...)"Why work on usability? To integrate the constraints of real work into digital systems and determine the most effective conditions of use. To reveal risks and opportunities that were not foreseen at the outset". (...)How to encourage greater "discussability" of transformation projects?"Discussability" refers to the possibility of collectively debating the conditions for implementing new equipment. For the actors in the company, this requirement requires entering into the game of negotiation and co-construction by taking into account the different technical, organizational and strategic facets of the projects. (...)"How to make a project intelligible to give it meaning?"The intelligibility of a project, even when well conceived, is never immediately clear. The meaning of the project may not be shared by the different actors. Participatory work is therefore necessary to discuss the ins and outs of a project, i.e. what is expected in terms of goals, the means available, the probable impacts and the way in which these will be managed, etc." (...) (...)"In addition, it is important to be able to leave yourself room for maneuver in order to quickly change a project and better adapt it to the needs of users. Indeed, any digital transformation project only really makes sense from the concrete experience of workers, in response to problems and events experienced. It is necessary to go back and forth between the theoretical aims of the project - its target - and the way it is tested in practice. This process is an opportunity for real organizational learning. When completed, it makes the project more intelligible to all the actors. (...)What levers can be used to adapt digital tools to work situations?"The question is how to adapt the digital transformation project to the characteristics of the workplace and to the various objectives (increased productivity, quality of service, speed, reduced drudgery, development of skills, etc.). The challenge is to adapt work to people and not the other way around, considering the project as a path to the best potential solution. (...)What are the conditions for closing the "black box"?"The mastery of digital transformations represents an opportunity to renew the practices of change in companies. (...)"But for this, it is necessary to propose a methodological device to: facilitate discussions between stakeholders ; question the conditions of acceptability of the changes; enrich and specify the conditions of integration of digital technologies; build and share common references". (...)

The ANACT distinguishes here between different stages:

  • Before launching projects: a foresight phase
  • In project design: a simulation phase
  • During the deployment of the projects: an experimentation phase
  • During the deployment: a training phase
  • After deployment: an evaluation and support phase
This list of questions to ask is completed by an appendix devoted to "methods for accompanying digital transformations" .

Référence :

Digital: ANACT's areas of work 

The National Agency for the Improvement of Working Conditions aims to jointly improve working conditions and the performance of the structures that make up the French economic fabric. It supports both the private and public sectors, focusing on work organization and industrial relations.

Anact-Aract has identified three areas of work around digital technology:

  • Support for social dialogue actors: Equip social dialogue actors to understand the impacts of digital technology on the quality of life at work and support the consultation and negotiation processes. Example: collective survey tool (roadbook to be published).
  • Support for the articulation of forms of dialogue within the company: Test change management approaches linking internal dialogue on the meaning of the project, technical dialogue with suppliers, taking into account the employees' point of view. Example: guide "10 questions on the control of digital transformations". -
  • Supporting the action of branches: Building support for SMEs so that they can take control of the transformations in their sector. Example: study in support of the Union of Employers of the Social and Solidarity Economy to prepare an interprofessional agreement on the impacts of digital technology.
 

 

Sources

Labo Société Numérique

Labo République Française Agence nationale de cohésion des territoires
The 10 questions and avenues of the ANACT to conduct projects adapted to the challenges of the company and its employees