Every company has a transformation agenda, whether it’s AI adoption, improved productivity, new operating models, or workforce agility.
But for organizations with large frontline workforces, the real transformation test is what happens when a manager needs to fill an open shift at 7 a.m.
That manager needs to know who is available, who has the right skills, what they will cost, whether assigning them creates a compliance issue, and how the decision affects the employee and the business. In many organizations, those answers aren’t easily found. This is where transformation breaks down.
For leaders, that points to an important shift in thinking: Transformation cannot be something we ask people to do in addition to their jobs. It must become part of how their jobs get done.
THE OPERATING LAYER MATTERS
Executives spend significant time developing and defining strategy. But that strategy’s success depends on thousands of decisions made far from the executive suite.
Earlier in my career, I tended to think about transformation in terms of major programs: the technology deployed, the process redesigned, or the milestone achieved. Over time, I’ve come to believe the more revealing test is much smaller. What became easier for a manager on Tuesday morning because of it?
When managers must manually connect information across scheduling, time, pay, skills, and other systems, we create friction in the point where organizations need speed.
The lesson for leaders is to examine transformation from the frontline backward. What decisions do our people make every day? What information do they need at that moment? How many systems must they navigate to get it?
Transformation becomes much more tangible when we start measuring it by what now works better.
AI MAKES THE FOUNDATION MORE IMPORTANT
AI’s arrival makes this especially urgent. There is enormous potential to help managers identify patterns and surface insights, while making faster decisions.
But AI doesn’t magically solve fragmented work, it further exposes the problem.
Intelligence is only as useful as the information and context supporting it. If an organization can’t easily understand who is available, what skills its people have, where labor costs are moving, or what risks a workforce decision might create, adding AI won’t produce better outcomes.
That means the AI conversation should start with the operating foundation. Are workforce data and workflows connected? Can managers get useful guidance when decisions are being made? Can leaders see the relationship between people decisions and business outcomes?
MAKE TRANSFORMATION PART OF THE WORK
The goal is to stop making employees and managers carry complexity that technology should handle for them. That starts with designing around decisions. Leaders should ensure that managers have the information and guidance they need in the moment, without having to reconstruct the bigger picture themselves. Technology should reduce the distance between a question and an answer.
It also means embedding guidance into the workflow. The best technology helps them understand what to do with it. When data and workflows are connected, managers can spend less time navigating processes and more time leading people.
And perhaps the simplest measure of transformation is the complexity it removes. Leaders should look beyond deployment, at what has become faster, clearer, or easier for the people doing the work.
Ultimately, transformation becomes real when the new way of working becomes the easiest way of working.
Steve Holdridge is president and COO of Dayforce.