It is now beyond the time of considering if Digital HR Transformation is a need or a reality.
Today it is COVID-19, tomorrow it will be devaluation, economic recessions, or some other disease… given the situation that the globe has been recently faced with, lock-down and closing of most (if not all) businesses, the high dependency of having to work remotely to ensure some kind of business continuity. The new normal has helped us re-invent ourselves.
For businesses, the immediate need is not to understand the ‘potential’ of adopting digital HR, but the stages of digital HR transformation; it is no longer a nice-to-have, confined to big organizations.
The first step is to identify where you are in this curve and work your way towards building a clear execution plan.
As is State
Acts with the belief that current state will continue to exist
Distributed
Different trials of digital solutions exist, on the business and HR side, that are not connected
Strategic
Key decision makers across the organization work together to produce a unified digital strategy and implementation plan
Adaptive
The evolution process is continuous and fits the on-going needs
There are three ‘principles’ to follow as you think about the journey of digital HR transformation:
People - This is a key make it or break it for change. People being the ones involved in the execution of the change and those who are the ones who will be impacted by this change, i.e. the adopters. They can be those using the technology to deliver their work (HR), and the consumers (employees).
Process - These should continue to streamline and standardize how work is done in an organization, while lookig at ways to help improve productivity and efficiency, while adapting to an organization’s needs.
Purpose - Digitization helps organizations stay true to their purpose, while making it easier for their people to relate that to the work they do. If the organization is keen to deliver an exceptional ‘ccustomer experience’, how are its employees living these values and executing them.
As Is State …
Assess what you currently have and what you are missing. Look at examples of where the HR processes are scattered and how they require time and effort for execution (on the part of the doer and the employee experience).
Start creating awareness on what the missed opportunities are and how a step-by-step change can be adopted.
Engage employees by increasing their digital curiosity, as well as leaders, on what the need for change is and its value.
Distributed …
Define the business needs, what is available by the existing HR processes, what is the current fit and what is missing.
How is the process supported by technology, data management, service delivery models, reporting and analytics.
Where are the gaps? Start designing a roadmap of what the current state is and what the future state could be. Leverage the experience of your IT partners as you build your plan.
Strategic …
Find sponsorship from executive leadership to gain access to resources and start building a formal digital HR strategy.
Convince them using data on what currently exits and how the change would have impact on the business’ bottom line.
Re-design the HR operating model based on the future state you have defined. For added clarity, create a rough timeline.
Identify a group of change agents from across the different departments that will help in driving the roll-out and adoption.
Adaptive …
Optimize HR processes by continuing to review their impact on productivity, efficiency and effectiveness. Continuously look at ways for processes to evolve with the needs of the business.
Create connections between the business objectives and HR processes, examples being performance management goals, learning and development; workforce planning goals and how they feed into the talent acquisition activities.
The continuous learning and skill building is becoming more profoundly an urgent need. Digital Learning becomes critical either through eLearning adoption or the use of platforms that encourage peer mentoring and coaching. And creates opportunities for distributed teams to play a part in ‘projects’ and continuously learn. An advantage for businesses and a motivator for its people.
Use the power of data insights to continuously access adoption and how the dial is moving on specific areas like skill development, retention, the contributions of high potentials …. Just to name a few.
Finally, communicate regularly and through simple reports and dash-boards the impact of the change to the Leaders, the change agents and more broadly, across the organization. This not only creates awareness, but raises the level of employee engagement, that will naturally have a direct link on the company’s employer brand!
Our Mission …
Helping businesses maintain, scale and transform in a predictable manor, while focusing on their core asset – The People.