So your company updates their system. Your staff are still requesting access and typing things out multiple times to get by with what they have.

This can happen to many companies when there’s outdated culture and processes. Not all debt is caused by outdated technology.

When technology debt and culture debt go hand in hand, it’s harder to update processes to match what the technology allows.

Workforce planning should be part of the solution, not an afterthought.

In this article, you will learn:

• What Does Technology Debt and Culture Debt Look Like?
• How Can Each Cause More Issues?
• Where Workforce Planning Comes In
• Begin By Looking At Your Current Processes
• Analyze if Changes are Impacting Your Company
• Final Thoughts

What Does Technology Debt and Culture Debt Look Like?

When companies choose to not update their system, it causes them to work around their technology. These shortcuts can add onto their workload, forcing their team to learn workarounds.

Technology Debt can build up when a business doesn’t fix their outdated system. Once their system can no longer update, your business may have more tech debt than you know.

Technology debt can prevent your business from implementing new technologies. KPMG’s 2026 survey of 648 senior U.S. technology professionals at companies with more than $100 million in revenue.

Your company can also have culture debt, and these can build on one another when there is poor communication within your team. You might have members that don’t understand their job or aren’t given the right information to communicate to others.

Workarounds can make both types of debt harder to spot and resolve. Once your team learns how to work around the problem, it’s unlikely they will learn how to correct the problem.

With research on the future of work from Joey Havens, we are learning that technology, employees, and leaders need to be prepared for what the future holds for businesses. If your workforce planning isn’t keeping your employees current, your company is behind.

How Can Each Cause More Issues?

Let’s say your retail store isn’t keeping accurate stock information in one platform. They may create a document that tracks all inventory and update it manually, allowing them to communicate with customers on items that are not updated in their platform.

As the staff learn how to work with the document, they may no longer trust the platform they’re using. This can lead to further problems, once the company updates their system they may still use that document instead.

Why would this be an issue?

Well because now they aren’t using their new system, the company may not realise the full benefit of the new system.

Culture can also lead to more debt, if your company doesn’t have a proper workflow and no one is informed, employees will continue working off old processes. Maybe each department is buying software for themselves, leading to too many programs and more outdated information.

You can have projects in place to better each area, but if everyone isn’t informed, your business will continue to work around those problems.

There has to be someone that takes responsibility, once those employees learn the new processes, they can communicate to others that aren’t as tech savvy.

Where Workforce Planning Comes In

So when you hear workforce planning, it may only come to mind that you are hiring and filling positions that need to be filled. But did you think about the tasks those employees will be performing?

Perhaps you have a new software that can perform some of your employees’ jobs, what tasks will they be performing now? Do they know what skills they will need to gain, what will your manager evaluate on when assessing performance?

Research from the World Economic Forum identifies skills employers expect to become more important, including technology and human skills. As technology grows, humans will need to learn how to better work with these machines. Your company needs to allow room for your employees to gain these skills.

By listing out how your company can work, you are able to know what employees will be responsible for, what skills they will need to learn. As well as allow time for your team to update their new skillset.

• Responsible parties, who will have control over this process.
• What skills will employees need and what tasks can they eliminate?
• Allow enough time for them to learn these new skills, maybe schedule testing sessions to analyze if there needs to be any changes.
• Have your managers ready to assist, employees need to know who to reach out to if they have questions.

Having a manager trained on this, will allow employees to know that if there is an issue with this change, they can reach out and learn more.

Allow them time to learn, train them on how to complete these tasks, don’t simply show them how the button works.

Once your business implements new software, staff may struggle to adopt the new system if old processes and responsibilities remain unchanged.

Begin By Looking At Your Current Processes

It may seem easy, just change everything that’s outdated, however this will cause your team to feel overwhelmed. Find one process that your team struggles with, that could lead to you saving money and time.

Maybe it’s your onboarding process, getting products, anything that your team spends too much time on that involves more than one employee.

1. Analyze what your employees are doing

Once you find your issue, observe how they complete their task. There may be more work happening than you know, take notes on everything they do to get this completed. Some may be inputting the same information in multiple platforms that you aren’t aware of.

2. Find out why your employees are doing this.

Is this happening because of outdated technology, or lack of knowledge, find the root of your issue and address that. It could be multiple things, make sure your employees know what will change.

3. How will your company change?

Now that you know what your team is doing, discuss how you will change your process. Make sure all employees understand who is responsible and what they need to do going forward. Test out these new processes, make sure nothing will cause more harm than good.

4. Once your team has adjusted, allow time.

Your employees will need time to adjust, maybe even schedule training to ensure they know what to do. Tell your employees why you’re changing your process, not just to update technology, but because teams can work more effectively together.

Take small steps, when your team understands one process, begin updating another.

Analyze if Changes are Impacting Your Company

Installing new software can help, but does not itself prove either debt has decreased.

Before you change your process, learn what steps you’re taking, how is this affecting your employees, do you know why they do things a certain way? These are questions you’ll want to ask when learning how your team completes their tasks.

Then you can analyze, after training, are your employees:

• Completing work quicker
• Have easier access to information
• Know who to contact
• Learning how to work off your new methods

Don’t assume that because your dashboard looks good, employees aren’t working around the issue, learn from them. What can be changed? Why is something not sticking with your team? Once you figure out the root cause, work with your team to better it.

When your company has updated their technology, it’s possible for debt to build up when processes are poorly maintained, responsibilities are unclear or people do not receive sufficient support.

Final Thoughts

When you allow technology to get behind, it’s harder to change things around. Having culture debt can cause your employees to not want to change, as they aren’t informed on how they can improve. Work with your employees and help them learn, then your business will be moving in the right direction.