“It doesn’t matter which way you look, or where you are in your work or your career,” says Tina Rose, founder of Education Unlimited. “All of us are impacted by having (or not having) digital capability.”

Assumptions are easy to make, and gaps are easy to miss

In many organisations, leaders assume their people are fine with digital tools because most have a smartphone, or because younger team members are seen as “digital natives.” Staff themselves even nod along without feeling confident or in control.

Unfortunately, it’s hard to see your own gaps. Someone might say, “I’m good with Excel,” for example, because they’ve always used it, but they’ve never needed to work with formulas, filters, or macros. When the job suddenly demands that, they stumble.

Tina explains, “There are just so many assumptions being made about what people understand and can do,” she says. “And if they’re not given any time and space to learn, or even make mistakes, when do they ever actually increase their skills?”

AI is accelerating change across systems, platforms, and processes. People must adapt quickly, often without much time to learn, experiment, and make mistakes. It’s often only when something goes wrong that the gaps are visible. The consequences can be major: frustrated customers, compliance issues or performance conversations that could have been avoided.

Hidden digital gaps impact business

Unseen gaps in digital skills shape how the whole organisation functions. Managers can end up doing basic admin and data entry instead of focusing on higher-value work.

If you invest in automation, digital platforms and data systems, it’s usually to help people ‘work smarter’. But without a clear picture of your team’s digital capability, those investments can never deliver their full potential.

A digital learning stocktake: Education Unlimited’s Digital Diagnostic

At Education Unlimited, we’ve spent many years supporting workplaces to build foundational skills – literacy, numeracy, communication, and now digital capability. We always start by understanding people’s learning needs so we can tailor our training.

Our digital diagnostic assesses your team’s digital capability by evaluating the tasks they face every day at work. You can see where people are already strong, where they’re just getting by, and where they need help.

For Tina, it’s about more than data. “Our whole kaupapa is to empower people to increase their skills,” she says. “To give them an opportunity to grow in an environment where they can make mistakes and not be embarrassed or afraid they’ll break something.”

Built and refined with real workplaces – now available more widely

Our digital diagnostic has grown from bespoke tools we developed and refined with large employers like NZ Post and The Warehouse Group.

We’ve taken what we learned from those projects and refined it for relevance across a range of organisations. For the first time, our digital diagnostic is available to all Education Unlimited clients.

What employers gain from a digital diagnostic

Auditing your team’s digital skills provides insights for decisions about systems, training, and support.

A Digital Diagnostic can help you:

• Align people’s skills with the systems and platforms you’re rolling out

• Identify where targeted training could unlock the biggest gains

• Design learning that meets people where they are

• Signal that you’re serious about investing in your people.

“It comes down to one key question for business leaders: are you comfortable making assumptions about your people’s digital capability, or would you rather know?”

If you’d like to see what a Digital Diagnostic looks like in your organisation, get in touch.

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