Digitizing human resources is a hot topic these days. What do companies expect from it? Optimizing processes, increasing efficiency and speed, and finally upgrading the HR function.
But will digitization of old processes be enough?
Today, companies face new challenges in the way they approach recruitment, retention and employee engagement.
New digital consumer practices overlap and lead to changed employees’ expectations, especially with regard to the digital environment. Does HR lead these new challenges or will it be missed?
Historically, the HR function was created to handle employee management. HR professionals provided legal compliance, the hassle of recruiting, processing, onboarding, evaluating, compensating and firing employees.
A good human resources expert was basically a specialized accountant with a sprinkling of legal skills that defined and managed 30 different processes related to the life of an average employee in a business.
This story is partly responsible for the poor reputation the HR function is facing today. In a job market centered around the company rather than the employee, HR was identified as the big brother voice rather than the employee friend.
HR professionals screened the candidates to ensure they could be shaped into the corporate culture; they would implement mass layoffs and shut down factories, they would be the force to beat for any career advancement; they will always cheat you out of a bonus based on a compensation network, etc. and so on.
In most countries, legal compliance is so complex and ever-changing that employee administration still represents most of the day-to-day work of the HR function.
In North America and Western Europe today, at least 30% of companies are already managing their payroll and the trend is growing. In Belgium outsourcing reaches 90%.
Today, hundreds of new collaborative software providers are inventing HR processes with end-to-end solutions
We can mention Cluster, for example, a solution for integrating artificial intelligence into HR data processing, recruitment prediction assessment, Talentsoft that offers a talent management toolkit, or a workday with its Saas payroll solution.
In that context, do we still need a special employee management function? With digitization of processes and outsourcing , can’t an employee manage directly from his or her business unit with the help of finance and IT?
Today’s demographics contribute to a very stressful market. In fact, as the baby boomers reach retirement age, they need to be replaced.
But in most countries the next generation (Generation X) is only half the size of the baby boom generation, creating a gap between supply and demand.
In addition, the economy is growing global and talent is increasingly mobile. Previously, HR departments competed only with their local peers.
Today, that competition transcends all boundaries, introducing new requirements for company branding strategies.
The arrival of Millennials (or Generation Y) into the job market is another challenge that the HR department needs to deal with.
Millennials represent the majority of the workforce today and will make up about 75% of the workforce by 2030.
Millennials’ expectations in the workplace seem to be completely different from the older generations.
Things like mobility, remote work, flexible hours, searching for meaning and personal development are weighing more and more in their choice of job.
Along with the importance of individual development, employees also expect more from their company in terms of community.
When historical communities – the village – disappear, people tend to search for digital communities, especially in their workplace.
Today most companies have to deal with a lot of staff shortages, which comes from a mismatch between workplace processes and employee expectations.
But while engagement plummets, it has also become the show’s biggest differentiator. In a context of extraordinary talent and global competition, the winners of tomorrow’s business will never be sure that those companies are leveraging their employee involvement
Digitization – Human resource opportunities for a strategic role at the executive table
“While our projects focus on the digital workplace and the employee experience, we rarely see HR as a digital transformation initiative. We work closely with other members of the C-suite – CIO , CEO, internal communications… ”
In recent years, digitization has dramatically changed the way companies operate. But in all digital transformation projects, human component is the key to success. From this point of view, digitalisation represents a unique opportunity for HR to move forward in a more strategic role as well
Related article – Human Resources : The most important players in the Digital Transformation
To meet the challenge of recruiting, growing and retaining talent, companies must reinvent the entire employee experience.
As with customer experience, someone must look at things from the employee’s perspective at every step of the employee’s journey with the company.
And although this seems logical, nobody really does it today. Business functions regard the employee as an asset to a certain position.
The IT function is concerned with how the digital systems are managed and maintained and how much this costs. The internal communication function is concerned with how efficiently these messages can be pushed to employees.
The financial function is concerned with money and insurance. Even the HR function is often primarily concerned with the way the process is carried out, as opposed to how an employee will go through that process.
All of the above applies in particular in the context of digitization and digital transformation.
Every business function is aimed at digitizing its business processes, without taking into account the entire digital experience of the employee.
As a result, the needs of employees are not met and digital transformation projects fail.
Employee Experience has no identified champion within the organizations, which is the perfect and natural opportunity for HR to fill this gap and claim ownership of the employee experience and its digital aspects.
Given the strategic importance of the challenge, this alone would justify HR playing a strategic role in the C-suite.
Read more at – HR training in Chandigarh
HR can also assist change management in relation to digital or corporate transformation projects.
HR can become partners with operational managers and develop their expertise in employee management. How to integrate older generations into digital processes, how to satisfy Millennials needs, capture and transfer expertise…. all are issues that HR can play a decisive role in.
HR can also bring value through internal community management. Internal communities represent an under-utilized strategic value for company. They help capture and transfer knowledge, develop a corporate culture, help engage and satisfy employees.
As with external communities, they need to be identified and then cultivated to grow and prosper. HR function also plays a role here.
The digitization of HR processes is in full swing, but the digitization of the old process is hardly revolutionary.
The human resources function is expected to play a major role in the digital transformation of the company and in defining the experience of digital employees. HR professionals must become marketers, community managers and change managers… or disappear.
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