A brave new digital world for HR
A recent study done by Accenture and
SAP identified three key trends that are going to enable this digital push for
HR
Anjali
is a new joinee to a top information technology (IT) organisation. The day she
joins, a suite of applications is installed on her phone. Her onboarding
document is are all digital and requires a single, digital signature to
complete the process.
An
app connects her to her virtual team with members sitting in multiple remote
locations. A companion video conferencing app places her into a video
conference where her boss, with a click of a button, flows down her weekly
goals to her. She and her boss quickly agree on the deliverables for the weak
and the signoff is a quick click of an 'Accept' button.
As
her work week progresses, the networking app connects her to folks who can help
her come to grips with her responsibilities. She uses the same app to e-thank
people who have helped her, boosting their ratings as well as garnering points
for herself as she starts to mesh into the organisation.
She
has also been given a wearable device that helps to track her daily health and
well-being and is pleasantly surprised when two weeks into her stay, she
receives some personalised advice on correlations between the time she has put
in at work and her health and what she needs to do to achieve some balance in
her life.
A
month after she joined the company, she realises that she is not really happy
with some of the processes in place. It is then that she discovers the
anonymous feedback groups where she can talk about her issues without the
threat of retribution. She quickly gets feedback and help from other employees
to solve her issues. It is then that she realises that she hasn't really seen
any human resources (HR) people helping with the onboarding. She knows that
there 'is' an HR department, but where in other companies, they would have been
running around with the little operational details, she sees them working on
plans for what the company calls the total employee experience.
Seems
futuristic? Well, yes and no. This scenario is one that could be coming to a
company near you fairly soon. Organisations the world over are struggling to
come to grips with the rapid digitisation of every sphere of our lives. Some
industry segments, especially the knowledge industry are better equipped to
deal with this trend than more conventional industries.
However,
this difference is not limited to industry segments but also to functional
areas within organisations. More data-centric functions like sales, marketing
and finance have been able to adapt themselves much better to this rapidly
unfolding digital change than less data-centric functions like HR. But things
are starting to change.
A
recent study done by Accenture and SAP identified three key trends that are
going to enable this digital push for HR. The first is in the use of mobile
tools, social media and digital services in helping to deliver HR services.
Given the ubiquitous use of smartphones, HR can utilise this medium to reach
out to employees on an individual basis and really automate processes thereby
allowing HR professionals to focus on core employee needs rather than be bogged
down in minute operational details.
The
second trend is what the study termed 'the democratisation of talent
management'. In other words, instead of a top-down approach to managing
employees where HR was seen as this evil, brooding presence overseeing every
minute detail of the employee lifecycle, talent management is now being seen in
a federated fashion where agile, self-managed teams abound within organisations
and managers are given greater autonomy in the way they manage their employees.
The
third trend enables HR to act more like marketing in that they can utilise the
techniques of individualised and targeted marketing towards managing their
talent. Instead of a one size fits all approach, the new way is to utilise
multiple lines of data to enable individualised, prescriptive solutions for
employees.
A
look at what's happening in industry shows us that the scenario outlined at the
beginning of this article is not that far off. If Microsoft's acquisition of
LinkedIn was the opening gambit, the recent announcement of a global strategic
partnership between Microsoft and Workday is the next move in this game.
Integrating Microsoft's Office365 platform with Workday's finance and HR
applications and then enabling LinkedIn's networking piece on top of that will
create a powerful platform that will, in their words, 'enable customers to
simplify day-to-day tasks, foster collaboration and increase productivity'.
Welcome to the brave new world.
Regards
Pralhad Jadhav
Senior Manager @ Library
Khaitan & Co
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