Before You Buy New Technology, Ask Your Staff What Problem Needs Solving

A demonstration makes the system look straightforward. Information appears instantly, reports take seconds and the promise of less administration is appealing. The harder question is how it will work during a busy shift, in someone’s home or when the person using it needs help.

With NHS technology spending forecast to rise by more than £2bn, investment in digital systems remains an important sector issue. For individual care providers, every purchase also requires a practical judgement about what the organisation needs and whether the proposed technology can deliver it.

That assessment should begin with the people doing the work.

Define the problem before looking at products

Start with a specific difficulty you want to address. Employees may be entering the same information twice, struggling to find current care instructions or spending too long coordinating rota changes.

Describe what happens now, who it affects and what improvement would look like. A clear problem gives you a basis for assessing products and deciding whether a purchase is necessary.

Sometimes the first improvement may involve changing a process, clarifying responsibilities or using an existing system more effectively. Establish that before committing to another subscription.

Ask staff to show you the work

Invite employees to explain how they complete the task in practice. Ask where delays happen, which steps are repeated and what they do when the usual process fails. Include people from different roles and shifts. A system that works well for an office administrator may be difficult for a homecare worker using a small screen between visits. Night staff may need support when the supplier’s helpdesk is closed.

Avoid relying entirely on your most confident technology users. Employees who need more support can help identify unclear instructions, accessibility barriers and assumptions that a demonstration may overlook.

As explored in Why Digital Confidence Is Becoming a Care Workforce Issue, introducing technology successfully requires attention to how employees experience it.

Turn frustrations into clear requirements

Use what staff tell you to define what the system must do. If poor connectivity is a recurring problem, ask how the product works when a connection is lost. If duplicated records consume time, establish whether the proposed system can exchange information with the software you already use. Distinguish essential requirements from attractive extras. A long list of features can distract from a basic task the product handles poorly.

Ask suppliers to demonstrate your actual working scenarios using fictional information. Include an ordinary task, a mistake that needs correcting and a situation where something goes wrong. Those examples can reveal more than a polished tour of the dashboard.

Examine where the work will go

A system may save time for one team while creating additional work for another. An automatically generated management report, for example, may depend on frontline staff completing more fields during every visit. Map the whole process before accepting a time-saving claim. Include entering information, checking it, correcting errors and transferring it elsewhere. Ask whether the technology removes work or changes who performs it. Both may be useful, but leaders need to understand the difference when assessing the benefit.

Give AI features their own assessment

If the product uses AI, establish exactly what that feature does. Does it draft text, summarise records, highlight patterns or recommend an action? Ask what information it uses, what its limitations are and how employees can challenge or correct the output.

Decide who will check results and whether that checking creates additional work. An instant summary offers limited benefit if a skilled employee must repeatedly reconstruct the original information to establish whether it is accurate. Agree the permitted use before the trial begins. Employees should understand what information they may enter and where professional judgement and approval remain necessary.

Trial it under realistic conditions

Where possible, begin with a limited trial that has a clear purpose, suitable safeguards and agreed review points. Include a representative group of employees and give them enough training and time to use the system properly. Testing should reflect the devices, locations and working patterns in which the product will eventually operate.

Ask users to record difficulties as well as benefits. Look for repeated workarounds, tasks completed outside the system and reliance on one confident colleague. These may indicate problems that will become more significant when use expands.

A trial should provide evidence for a decision. Keep open the possibility that the product may need changes or may not be suitable.

Measure the improvement you wanted

Record a starting point before introducing the system. Depending on the problem, this could include time spent on a task, duplicated entries, delayed records, scheduling errors or difficulties accessing information.

Compare those measures during the trial, allowing for the time people need to learn. Ask staff whether the change has improved their working day and consider the experience of people receiving care.

Usage figures alone will not answer these questions. Employees logging in regularly shows that a system is being used; it does not establish that it is helping.

Include the costs around the subscription

Consider implementation, training, devices, data transfer, staff cover and ongoing support alongside the purchase price. Establish who will maintain settings, manage access and help colleagues when problems arise.

Ask how information can be retrieved if you change supplier and what happens during an outage. Staff need a workable contingency process when care cannot wait for a technical fault to be resolved. These details should inform the buying decision rather than being left for managers to solve after the contract is signed.

Tell staff what their feedback changed

After the trial, explain what you learned and what happens next. If employees identified a problem that the supplier resolved, show them the change. If a concern remains, explain how it affects your decision.

Where you proceed, identify who owns implementation and when the benefits will be reviewed again. Where you decide against the purchase, retain what you learned about the original problem and consider the next practical step.

Technology investment should begin with a clear understanding of the work and end with evidence of improvement. Your staff can help establish both—provided they are involved while their experience can still influence the decision.

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