Decoding the changing role of HR in digital transformation
The future of the human resources industry is loaded with digital mindset and practices, and HR people are going to be the real agents of digital transformation for smart biz
IoT and advanced technologies are expected to replace all the conventional tools and systems at the workplaces with their digitized versions by 2022 in all the top 10 economies of the world. Now, the question arises, are the traditional businesses ready to adopt digital transformation? If ‘Yes’ then, are they prepared to exploit this transition, efficiently and effectively? The right people to answer this question are the human resource (HR) leaders of these organizations who do not just facilitate the transformation, but who create a digital environment in their respective organizations.
According to Ingrid Jenkins, Director, Human Resources at Microsoft Australia: “Transformation is underpinned by a digital mindset that is a unique interplay of technology, people and process and technology can also be used to vastly improve HR processes for employees and managers, resulting in a snowball effect of positivity, paving the way for greater digital transformation within a business.”
Digital transformation means inclusion of Big Data, Cognitive Augmentation, Physical Augmentation, Collaborative Augmentation, and the mass usage of Advanced Analytics throughout the organization.
To use these technological inputs as factors of enhanced productivity, the transformation entrusts new responsibilities to the HR department. These are described here:
TRANSFORMATION OF RECRUITMENT AND SELECTION
Making the prospective employees aware of the culture of the organization helps them to visualize their working environment and the other hand the employer can also judge easily that which candidate is tech savvy and which is not.
According to Jon Bischke, CEO of Entelo: “Digital profiles can provide far more insight into a candidate than a traditional résumé can, and many recruiters have realized that. Twenty years ago, the résumé was a piece of paper, now, it’s a collection of all [candidate] data that can be found online, like participation in online communities, conferences and meetups.
Recruiters can assess whether a person will fit, and learn if he or she has the right skills for a job.” Right from the application process to interview of the shortlisted candidates, HR people should employ all the latest digital tools and software in the hiring process.
TRANSFORMATION OF ONBOARDING PROGRAMMES
Virtual onboarding allows the highly busy managers to address the new employees from the remote locations because sometimes business visits cannot be postponed to ensure the presence in the onboarding programmes. Through digital onboarding they can focus equally on both the tasks.
Besides, they can make their presentations more impressive and impactful with the help of multimedia tools, as a result, more engaging, interactive, and effective onboarding for new recruits. So, making onboarding digitalised is the additional responsibility of the HR Department in this evolving era.
EMPOWERING THE EMPLOYEES WITH SELF-SERVICE TOOLS
Self-service tools lead to active participation of the employees even outside the workplace. They empower the employees with all the necessary data/ information required to accomplish their tasks and job responsibilities. Organisations with offices in multiple locations can easily understand the importance of self-service tools and knowledge/data banks. These self-service tools keep employees informed about changes in work plans, schedules, etc. Hence, to maximize the productivity and efficiency of the employees, HR must equip them with latest self-service tools.
DATA CENTRIC APPROACH
Data Analytics is the driver of digital transformation, and no data means no digitization. Data ensures accuracy, precision, authentication, and perfection. Useful to calculate current demands and effective to predict future trends, data science supports almost every department of the organization irrespective of size and functional classification. Data specifies tasks, helps in setting targets and assists in achieving these targets. From training of the employees to performance appraisal, HR managers use data to judiciously utilize organizational resources. So, fostering a culture of data-based operations is one of the key responsibilities of HR departments in digitally transformed organizations.
Based on the new and emerging norms of HR in digitally transformed companies, it is easy to foretell that the future of HR is loaded with digital mindset and practices, and they are going to be the real agents of digital transformation for smart businesses.