Leadership in Practice
The UK’s fastest-growing news and insight platform for the care sector.
Practical advice, strategies and insights to help care sector leaders attract, recruit, retain and develop exceptional teams. Our guidance covers everything from writing job adverts that attract the right people and identifying interview red flags to understanding the cost of a toxic team member, with a range of resources to help you build stronger, more effective workforces.
Digital technology is now part of everyday care. Workers may use electronic care records, medication systems, rostering apps, secure messaging platforms, digital monitoring equipment and online training portals during a single shift. Artificial intelligence is likely to expand that list further.
For organisations, these systems promise better information, less paperwork and more efficient ways of working. For some care workers, they make familiar tasks faster and easier. For others, every new platform creates another opportunity to feel exposed.
An employee may be excellent at recognising changes in a person’s health, calming distress and building trust with families, yet feel completely different when asked to use an unfamiliar digital system. If that discomfort is ignored, digital change can undermine confidence, create risks and push experienced people out of the workforce.
Digital confidence is no longer an optional skill belonging to the IT department. It is becoming central to how care teams work.
A worker may be capable of using technology while still feeling anxious about it. They may understand the basic process but worry that one wrong click will delete a record, breach confidentiality or create evidence that can later be used against them. When the system behaves unexpectedly, they may become frightened to continue.
Confidence develops when people understand not only which buttons to press but why they are completing the task, what should happen next and where to seek help if something goes wrong. This distinction matters because managers can underestimate the support required. An employee who successfully completed an online module may still lack confidence during a real shift. Passing training is not the same as being ready to use a system safely under pressure.
Digital responsibilities were once concentrated among managers and administrators. Frontline workers might complete handwritten notes while someone else entered information into a computer. That has changed.
Care workers may now be expected to record information on mobile devices, confirm visits electronically, use digital medication systems and respond to updates during the shift. Technology has moved directly into the relationship between the worker and the person receiving support. This means digital ability can affect care quality and safety. If a worker cannot confidently access current information, complete an accurate record or respond to an alert, the consequences extend beyond administrative inconvenience.
Providers must therefore treat digital skills as part of workforce development rather than assuming employees will learn informally.
Older employees are often assumed to be less comfortable with technology, while younger workers are expected to understand every system immediately. Neither assumption is reliable.
A younger person may use social media confidently but have no experience of secure professional systems, structured care records or data protection. An older worker may be highly capable because they have already adapted to several generations of workplace technology.
Stereotypes can prevent people from asking for help. A younger employee may feel embarrassed because everyone expects them to know what to do. An older worker may worry that admitting uncertainty will confirm somebody else’s prejudice. Managers should assess what each person needs rather than using age as a shortcut. Digital confidence is shaped by access, experience, training, language, disability and the quality of the system itself, not simply by the year somebody was born.
When several workers struggle with the same digital process, leaders should consider whether the problem is the system.
Technology may involve confusing menus, unreliable connections or instructions written for technical specialists rather than care workers. Staff may need to enter the same information repeatedly or move through several screens to complete a simple task. A worker who hesitates may understand care perfectly well. They may be trying to prevent an error in a poorly designed system.
Organisations should avoid describing employees as resistant before examining their experience. Ask which stages create difficulty, what happens during a busy shift and whether the system functions reliably in the locations where it is needed. Care workers are more likely to support technology that genuinely makes their work easier. Resistance may be useful feedback.
When staff do not feel confident using an official system, they may create their own ways of completing the job. They write information on paper to enter later, share passwords, photograph a screen or send details through an unapproved messaging service. Some may ask a more confident colleague to complete records on their behalf.
These workarounds usually begin as attempts to keep the shift moving. However, they can create serious risks involving privacy, accuracy and accountability. Managers need a culture in which employees can admit they are struggling before unsafe habits develop.
If workers believe that asking for help will make them appear incapable, they will continue finding private solutions. Leaders may remain unaware until information is lost, a record is questioned or a data breach occurs. Psychological safety matters in digital practice as much as it does elsewhere in care.
A presentation or e-learning module can explain the basic features of a system, but digital confidence develops through practice.
Workers need protected time to use the technology in realistic situations. They should know how to correct an error, recover a forgotten password, report a fault and continue safely when the system is unavailable. Training should reflect different roles and shifts. A registered manager does not use technology in the same way as a homecare worker moving between visits. A night worker may not have immediate access to the same support available during office hours.
Give employees opportunities to repeat tasks without embarrassment. Provide written or visual instructions they can access while working, and ensure help is available when the system is actually being used. Support that exists only between nine and five will not meet the needs of a twenty-four-hour service.
Some organisations identify confident employees to support colleagues. Digital champions can make learning feel more accessible because help comes from somebody who understands the service. However, the role needs structure.
Champions should receive appropriate training, protected time and clarity about what they are responsible for. They should not become an unofficial helpdesk expected to answer questions during breaks or outside working hours. Managers must also avoid creating complete dependence on one individual. If the only digitally confident worker is absent or leaves, the service can become vulnerable.
Digital knowledge should be shared across the team, with formal technical support remaining available for problems beyond the champion’s role. Do not reward somebody’s confidence by giving them another unpaid job.
A system that works well for one employee may create barriers for another. Small text, colour-based alerts, complex language or time-limited screens can disadvantage workers with visual impairments, dyslexia, neurodivergence or other needs. Employees using English as an additional language may understand the care task while struggling with unnecessarily technical instructions.
Some people will need adjusted settings, assistive technology or additional training. These are not favours; they may be necessary to ensure equal access to work. Accessibility should be examined when selecting technology, not added after employees begin struggling.
Involve a diverse group of workers in testing. If a system is designed around one type of user, the organisation may unintentionally exclude valuable members of its workforce.
Digital recording can support safer and more coordinated care, but it can also affect how interactions feel. A person receiving support may believe the worker is distracted or uninterested because they are looking at a screen. Someone with dementia may become anxious about an unfamiliar device, while another person may not understand what information is being recorded.
Workers need guidance on using technology without allowing it to dominate the relationship. They should explain what they are doing, seek appropriate consent and remain attentive to the person’s response. Where possible, systems should reduce the time spent documenting rather than requiring workers to focus continuously on a device.
A care visit should not feel as though the screen has become the third, and most important person in the room.
Care providers cannot afford to lose experienced workers because technology was introduced badly. An employee who repeatedly feels embarrassed, rushed or unsupported may begin to believe that the sector no longer has a place for them. They may reduce their hours, avoid certain duties or leave altogether.
At the same time, applicants will increasingly expect employers to offer efficient and reliable digital tools. Younger and digitally confident workers may become frustrated by outdated systems, duplicated paperwork and processes that waste time.
The workforce challenge therefore works in both directions. Providers need to support people who lack confidence while also modernising systems that discourage those who already have it. Successful digital change brings the whole workforce forward rather than choosing between experience and technology.
Managers are often expected to lead digital change while learning the system themselves. They may receive a short demonstration and then become responsible for answering staff questions, monitoring compliance and resolving implementation problems. If they lack confidence, they may avoid the system, provide inconsistent instructions or become defensive when workers identify problems.
Senior leaders must prepare managers properly. They need to understand the purpose, risks, data responsibilities and contingency arrangements, not only the visible features.
Managers should also be allowed to say when something is not working. If leadership has invested heavily in a new system, people may feel pressure to describe it as successful regardless of the reality. Digital leadership requires curiosity and honesty, not pretending to understand everything.
As AI enters care, digital confidence will involve more than operating a device. Workers will need to question what technology produces. AI-generated content may sound convincing while containing mistakes, missing context or language that is inappropriate for the person concerned. Staff must understand that the output still requires human review.
A worker with low digital confidence may trust the system too much because it appears authoritative. Another may reject it completely because they do not understand how it reached its answer. Both responses create risks.
Training should help employees recognise what AI can and cannot do, protect confidential information and know where human judgement must remain decisive. Confidence should include the ability to challenge technology, not merely comply with it.
Digital confidence should not be addressed only when a new system launches or an error occurs. Use supervision to ask which tools the worker uses confidently, where they need support and whether technology is creating additional pressure. Include digital development within induction, appraisal and career planning.
Pay attention to changes in behaviour. An employee who avoids particular tasks, delays records or repeatedly asks someone else to log in may need support rather than discipline. Progress can be recognised too. Someone who once felt anxious may later be able to help colleagues, test a new feature or contribute to decisions about technology.
Digital development is now part of professional development.
Care workers do not need to become technology experts. They need enough knowledge and confidence to use the systems relevant to their work safely, responsibly and without constant fear.
That requires reliable tools, practical training and leaders who listen when staff identify problems. It also requires time. People cannot learn effectively while rushing between responsibilities and worrying that every mistake will be punished.
The care workforce already contains enormous experience, compassion and practical intelligence. Digital change should strengthen those qualities rather than making capable people question whether they still belong.
Technology will continue changing. The strongest organisations will not be those that introduce every new system first. They will be those that bring their workforce with them, and make sure nobody is quietly left behind.
Join organisations across health and social care that are investing in happier, healthier workplaces with the Daily Round Wellbeing Employer programme.
Download our Employer Wellbeing Brochure to discover what’s included, or become a Daily Round Wellbeing Employer today.
Posted by:
K Jadon
Editorial Assistant – The Daily Round
Busy day? We’ve got you covered. Get FREE daily news, practical insights, opportunities and wellbeing content, carefully curated for busy health and social care professionals. Just enter your details below to get The Daily Briefing delivered straight to your inbox.
newsdesk@dailyround.news