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“Technology has become
an integral part of our lives whether you like it or not”, I overheard my
nephew telling his mother the other day. Yes, indeed. It’s rather foolish to
run away from technology when it has become ubiquitous. It’s not just the
popularity of social media or our excessive dependency on electronic gadgets,
technology, if adapted smartly by business establishments can usher in growth
and success.
In the present times or
should I say the digital age that we live in, HR professionals get the unique
advantage in building a digital eco system that is centred around people,
technology and processes. Besides ensuring seamless workflow and increasing
productivity, a digital eco system (if managed effectively by HR) can bring
about a paradigm shift in the way
we work.
I feel to go digital, HR professionals
should take the lead and should be willing to acquire new skills and adapt to changes
in the organizational thinking. Some of the simple measures HR can take is
listed below:
- Identify and understand - Does your organization have a digital status at all? Identify and understand this aspect at the outset.
- Knowledge sharing – This can play an important role in devising a digital strategy. Look out for people in your organization who possess strong digital skills and take their help to devise a digital strategy and ask them to share their knowledge with their colleagues
- Provide resources and incentives – HR department’s prerogative should be to educate and make the workforce understand the importance of a digital strategy.
If there is a digital divide between the top management and the employees, make sure incentives and educational resources are provided to bridge the gap.
I was recently reading
a report called ‘Building the Digital HR Organization’ by Accenture and
Success Factors wherein they have reiterated the need for HR operations to
change, to be more streamlined, and more agile to keep up with today’s
workforce. The report further states that digital technology is shaping the
future of Human Resources, and it outlines three ways that technology will
disrupt how future HR departments operate.
According to me, this
report is a must read for all those who are serious and committed towards
ushering in HR initiatives in the digital age. For the benefit of my readers, I
have picked up few important points from this report. It gives a lucid
description of how Digital technology is driving change for HR in three key
ways:
ü Enables
new approaches to delivering HR services - Social media and other mobile tools
are regularly used by our employees today. These tools can be effectively used
to communicate about HR services and engage employees on their own terms. This
is a simple but straightforward approach of using familiar technologies to
reach employees in new ways. The use of multiple channels to provide HR
services will ensure that it can reach employees anywhere, anytime and on any
device.
ü Talent
management becomes easier - With the help of technology, HR can be extended to
the organization, allowing managers and employees to manage their own profiles
and perform many other processes in a self-service format. This can help with
recruitment, on boarding, training, performance reviews, and even career path
strategy and succession planning.
ü Allows
HR to act more like marketing - Technology enables customization. The HR
department can use technology to act more like a marketing department by
tailoring messaging to specific groups, customizing employee options and
focusing on individual or group performance measures. An individual employee
performance can be focused/assessed more easily through this method thereby
eliminating the one-size-fits-all approach which often turns out to be
ineffective and unfair.
