Damien Leach

Chief Technology Officer, APJ, Workday said that Singapore benefits from high levels of digital agility where 63% of organisations are in the integrated and agile stages of digital agility maturity.

This number is higher than the regional average where only 38% of APAC organisations are in the advanced stages of digital agility.

Leach added that the pandemic has accelerated the use of technology adoption across the region, with some markets advancing in digital transformation at a faster pace than the rest.

For organisations that are lagging in digital agility i.e. agility followers, which make up 37% of organisations in Singapore, technology adoption is often driven by functional and lineof-business requirements as necessitated by immediate needs such as e-commerce, safety measures, and remote work during the pandemic.

The study found that the fear of failure and the lack of crossdepartmental collaboration were among the top challenges cited by organisations in Singapore in pursuing digital transformation.

For example, only 36% of organisations in Singapore are supported by an integrated HR and finance platform with predictive analytics.

Leach added that another cause is older Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) deployments in different systems resulting in silos and often ownership of those legacy silos is held by different parts of the organisation. Additionally, organisations face challenges in bringing together the information from different functions in the company in realtime.

To gain a competitive advantage in the digital-first economy and thrive in these uncertain times, business leaders

need to move away from legacy on-premise systems that are fragmented to native cloud solutions that can scale and adapt as business demand changes. “This allows CIOs, CFOs, and CHROs to act as a tight, collaborative team to increase the pace of digital transformation initiatives to provide a unified data view of people, finance, and planning,” Leach said.

Being data-driven in the context of digital agility means that the organisation leverages real-time information from the various work processes to make informed and timely decisions. For routine situations, being data-driven would also mean that the organisation is able to automate processes based on a select set of rules and conditions. In doing so, employees can pursue more strategic and fulfilling tasks.

As hybrid becomes the default mode of work, CHROs play a pivotal role in helping employees stay engaged and productive through strategic employee experience (EX) initiatives. They must be able to scale HR services while meeting employee expectations for personalised and intuitive support experiences, and at the same time, be adept at reinventing traditional EX programmes to address the needs of workers facing remote and hybrid work challenges.

To this end, organisations need an integrated HR service delivery strategy where EX platforms provide a unified and intelligent workspace – one that incorporates employee listening and sentiment analysis as well as skills and gigs to ensure talent retention and career growth. A unified system will also provide access to resources such as mental well-being tools, and offers insights and analytics around employee engagement.