In 2019, every workforce needs strong digital skills to make their business more productive and competitive. However, many businesses do not have any digital literacy programs in place to ensure their employees have the skills they need to succeed in the digital world. Businesses need to implement a digital literacy initiative with the right elements in place. Here are four key aspects of any digital literacy program:

1. The program must provide more than technical competency

It’s important to first ensure your business has a good understanding of what digital literacy is. Be sure to provide a broad definition that is also ambitious. It needs to encompass a broad range of skills such as using digital tools, locating information and promoting collaboration. When we refer to ambition, it means providing employees with various levels of digital competency that they can progress through on their digital journey. An example of a good definition is as follows: Digital literacy is having the awareness and capability to use digital tools effectively and efficiently to solve business problems.

The above definition highlights that it’s not just about being ale to use the digital tools, it’s about being confident enough to use them in a way that lets you solve complex business problems.

2. Ensure you embrace a holistic approach to digital literacy

Your digital literacy program needs to be more than ad-hoc initiatives that simply provide basic digital training. A recent study by the Digital Workplace Group highlighted that six out of ten organisations don’t have any form of digital skills program in place. This suggests that many businesses take the ad-hoc approach, which won’t improve the digital literacy of employees in the long run. Business need to avoid running initiatives that focus on one specific technology, as this focus is too narrow. A more holistic approach is required to improve overall digital capability in the business.

3. Ensure the program caters to different learning styles

Everyone has different ways they like to learn and this needs to be considered when building a digital literacy program. It’s important that you cater to the various learning styles to ensure everyone is benefiting from the program. One approach to follow is the Theory of Multiple Intelligences, which was developed by Harvard psychologist, Howard Gardner. His theory identifies that people display eight types of intelligence which will determine how they best learn:

1. Visual-spatial
2. Linguistic-verbal
3. Interpersonal
4. Intrapersonal
5. Logical-Mathematical
6. Musical
7. Bodily-kinesthetic
8. Naturalistic

We are all a blend of these various intelligences and styles of learning. Having this front of mind and thinking them through will enable leaders to develop a holistic initiative that brings together formal and informal styles of learning. This will increase the odds that everyone in the literacy program will get the most from it. In addition to formal methods such as classroom training, it’s also worth looking into mentoring through online communities or speaking series.

4. Support ongoing digital learning

Before you embark on the digital program journey, you need to ensure you measure and understand the digital capability of your workforce. This will ensure you can tailor and tweak it to be exactly what your workforce need. Digital literacy programs are often designed without any knowledge of the current strengths and weaknesses of the workforce in mind. Understanding your workforces’ capabilities will better serve employees with actionable insights on their digital readiness. This will inform you on where to focus your digital investment and what digital skills require the most work. Having a baseline in place of current capabilities will also help track progress of digital programs and their success.

By taking the above four elements into consideration, you’re best placed to develop an effective digital literacy program for your business. The need for employees to be confident and comfortable with digital tools is only going to increase as technology plays a bigger part in our lives. As a result, the biggest risk a business leader can take is not developing a digital literacy program at all.