Employee Role Transformation and Adaptation in Digital Transformation: Barriers, Misalignments, and Solutions in Digital Tool Application

Employees must adapt to new digital tools and workflows as part of this digital transformation, but this process often faces significant barriers, including resistances to change, inadequate training and the complexity of technological tools themselves. This paper will focus on these challenges, including how misaligned leadership goals and rigid organisational cultures can further impede successful adaptation. It will examine case studies from retail and healthcare, and how tiered training programs, leadership involvement and culture play a role in this process. The findings reveal that addressing technological and human factors are important in allowing employees to not only adopt digital tools, but to actually applicable. Some practical recommendations to overcome these barriers include training employees on a case-by-case basis, and having leadership advocate for this digital transformation. Leaders should create an environment where employees feel empowered and supported.