Keys to HR Digital Transformation Success
A recent report from the IDC—HR Must Deliver on Digital Transformation—didn’t mince words, stating, “it is the responsibility of HR to address and deliver key elements of Digital Transformation.” A responsibility, yes—and a critical one—but also one teeming with opportunity. It’s an exciting time to be in HR, as new technologies allow leaders to do what they know they need to do: that is, create a culture of innovationand an employee base that is organized and eager to engage with both customers and stakeholders. When companies are focused on building trust and strong networks, both internal and external, they foster a culture of collaboration and cooperation—all keys to digital transformation success.
How specifically can HR help drive the mission forward? Here are six keys:
- Focus on motivating employees and improving performance. There are myriad options for HR teams to use tech to help motivate employees. For example, wellness tech is hot this year, giving HR the tools to encourage and incentivize employees to make healthy choices that make their lives better inside and outside of the office. Tech can also be leveraged for employee training and continued education. Interactive modules, for example, are far more engaging and inspiring than videos.
- Improve employee retention. Employee turnover is expensive. HR teams can leverage tech to improve retention in a variety of ways; keeping employees motivated and engaged while giving them the chance to be part of a corporate culture with which they fit well is an excellent start. But there’s more. By leveraging people analytics, HR teams can survey employee thoughts and behaviors that allow them to ultimately predict an issue before it arises, allowing time for a course correction if warranted and opening the door for the kind of communicative workplace environment top talent will stick around for.
- Improve corporate culture and engagement. Culture is the lifeblood of a company, regardless of industry, and HR has the goliath responsibility of cultivating a good one. Luckily, tech can help. Tools like enterprise social networks (ESNs) can keep employees engaged personally and professionally. HR software such as Trakstar, too, can help HR deliver information about goals in the workplace in a way that’s intuitive and unstuffy.
- Use technology to better match employee skills with tasks. One of the IDC’s recommendations for how companies can use strategic HR to lead digital transformation initiatives is a simple yet imperative one: “focus on getting the right skills for the right positions.” It sounds easy enough, yet in 2016, LinkedIn reportedfinding suitable candidates was the most cited challenge to hiring managers. If that’s the case, and if 46 percent of companies say finding suitable candidates is tough, it’s likely candidates are being matched with tasks for which they’re simply unfit to handle—a dynamic unfair to both the employee and the company. The power of algorithms, databases, and social and collaborative tools can ease this burden, allowing HR to better match candidates to positions and existing employees to tasks they’re both ready to handle and interested in tackling.
- Standardize HR processes with automation, thereby boosting efficiency and reducing costs. Screening resumes. Sending and examining form paperwork. Running the numbers for budgets. Fielding standard questions from employees old and new. These are just a few examples of standard HR processes that can be automated to save HR teams time and money. For example, recruitment management systems can now overhaul the entire recruitment process, from reviewing resumes to candidate scoring to onboarding—and the results, as we’ll see in a minute, are powerful.
- Secure a better inflow of talent. Tech—such as artificial intelligence (AI)—is used by many HR companies to help recruit and screen potential employees. Ideal, a recruiting software firm, reports companies utilizing AI to land top talent have experienced a performance increase of 20 percent, revenue growth of 4 percent per employee, and a stunning 35 percent decrease in turnover. Note, too, that AI can be useful even after the hiring choice is made. Some companies use AI chatbots in their onboarding—as my colleague Meghan Biro wrote about in Send in the Robots: The Good and Bad of Automating Your Hiring Process—to help acclimate new hires. Sometimes, their interactions are so seamless new employees don’t even realize they’re talking to a bot. HR, all the while, is left to put time and energy into building culture and finding ways to move the business forward.
What’s Next?
Modern HR teams are much more than resume reviewers and policy enforces. Their responsibilities extend deep into the culture of a company, its recruiting and retention efforts, and more—all of which have a direct impact on employee and company growth and productivity. In other words, your HR team today doesn’t push paper; what you do directly affects the bottom line of the business, and you should be leveraging technology to optimize your efforts. Your competitors are.
How does your company approach HR digital transformation? What digital tools do you use to streamline HR operations and build engagement? I’d love to hear your thoughts.
Additional Resources on This Topic
What is Digital Transformation?
Digital Transformation is workforce transformation: Why HR must assume a leadership role
Photo Credit: jeffpulvino Flickr via Compfight cc
This article was first published on FOW Media.
Shelly Kramer is a Principal Analyst and Founding Partner at Futurum Research. A serial entrepreneur with a technology centric focus, she has worked alongside some of the world’s largest brands to embrace disruption and spur innovation, understand and address the realities of the connected customer, and help navigate the process of digital transformation. She brings 20 years’ experience as a brand strategist to her work at Futurum, and has deep experience helping global companies with marketing challenges, GTM strategies, messaging develoment, and driving strategy and digital transformation for B2B brands across multiple verticals. Shelly’s coverage areas include Collaboration/CX/SaaS, platforms, ESG, and Cybersecurity, as well as topics and trends related to the Future of Work, the transformation of the workplace and how people and technology are driving that transformation. A transplanted New Yorker, she has learned to love life in the Midwest, and has firsthand experience that some of the most innovative minds and most successful companies in the world also happen to live in “flyover country.”