Digital Fluency’s Impact on Products and Organizations

Managers who want the “trifecta” of good, fast, and affordable need to know about digital fluency, the ability to use technology to learn, work, and play effectively and ethically.

According to CompTIA’s June 2024 Workforce and Learning Trends Report, digital fluency has become an especially sought-after employee skill. Not only can digital fluency help employees work faster and better, which contributes to higher productivity and a more efficient organization, but it can also help employees have more fun. Although seldom discussed, employees need and deserve fun, or reward. Letting technology handle repetitive or labor-intensive tasks gives them time to focus on what they like best, which supports worker well-being.

Given its potential for positive impact on both organizations and the employee experience, I-O psychology professionals are being called upon to foster digital fluency in the workplace.

SIOP Fellow Steven T. Hunt, Ph.D., said that despite digital fluency’s notoriety for being poorly defined and coming with some risk, the use of digital tools is “an obvious yes” that organizations need to consider.

“Many companies prohibit employees from using non-company-sanctioned technology on the job,” he said, “and it’s hard to learn how to use a digital tool if you do not have access to the tool or time to use it.”

By providing access to digital tools and training on them, organizations can capitalize on the power of digital fluency. The first step to reaping the benefits of digital fluency is knowing what it is. SIOP Member Michael Mackay, Ph.D., from the Human Resources Research Organization (HumRRO), said it’s helpful to think of digital fluency as including two components:

• proficiency: a person’s ability to quickly learn to use a new piece of technology as intended
• innovation: a person’s ability to combine and adapt existing technologies to solve problems

Innovation builds on proficiency in that an individual needs to know how to use a piece of technology before they’re able to adapt or leverage it for creative purposes.

Although these two components may overlap, Mackay said, “it is important to distinguish between them because they have unique predictors.”

So how should I-O professionals implement or recognize these skills?

SIOP Member Jennifer Klafehn, Ph.D., also from HumRRO, said, that employers should “decide what types of technology are critical for their work and identify which employees are best positioned to either use or learn how to use those technologies quickly and effectively.”

To help achieve that, Klafehn suggested thinking of technology as a team member: integral to the work being done but wasted if not used effectively.

“Training ‘everyone on everything’ is not an option,” Klafehn said. “Being able to identify who already possesses those knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSAs) that would facilitate their learning…would be incredibly powerful.”

For example, she said, consider the people who grew up playing video games. “We're finding that because of those experiences, they're comfortable using similar types of technology in the workplace, and it's become an area of strength for them.”

And for employees for whom digital fluency is a growth area, Hunt adds, “We learn by doing, so interest in using digital tools is obviously going to impact acquisition of digital skills.”