The last decade, especially the last five years, has brought revolutionary changes to businesses and all their operations in the technology landscape. HR, the core department of any organization, is no exception. After all, in the age of global competition, talent retention and employee satisfaction are vital for a company’s productivity, growth and efficiency.
Yet, according to the recent Gartner report, more than half (55 percent) of HR leaders think their current technology solutions do not address current and future business needs, with 46 percent convinced that current HR technology solutions hinder rather than improve the employee experience.
So, how do you streamline HR in the modern age of technology? In search of an answer to this tricky question, ERP Today tuned to a webinar organized by the digital services leader Inetum, “Outcome-focused HR Transformation – Making sure real-world value is delivered for organizations and employees,” which united Inetum’s experts and partners in sharing their differing perspectives and experience in HR transformation.
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Prioritize the ‘human’ in human resources, not just technology
Kicking off the discussion, the experts considered what mindset organizations must adopt to prepare themselves for a seamless HR transformation experience.
According to Jack Williamson, new business development director at Inetum UKI, when it comes to the evolution of HR, every company member is involved in “some way, shape or form,” with every department including different people with different skill sets. Therefore, when it comes to HR transformation, IT leaders must recognize that this difference is a key detail that must be remembered throughout the project because it will allow the company to work as a single unit and cater the transformation to each department, leading to stakeholder buy-in.
Ed Sparkes, change practice director at LACE Partners, added that HR leaders must focus on the end goal rather than temporary solutions. While it is easy to look for an easy fix, like paying for an upgrade or hiring a specialist to support your current system, your employees – just like your customers – need to be integral parts of that journey.
“[…] Before any building or selection can start, you have a lot of convincing to do [for] your key stakeholders to come on that journey with you, and you need to adjust that case for change to appeal to that particular stakeholder. Your value case needs to have a clear vision,” Sparkes said.
Once the mindset that focuses on the end goal is adopted, you’ll be able to identify the right software provider by asking the following questions: First, does the technology solve your problem and get you to your end goal? Second, what potential does that company’s software have? What features and timeline does it offer to get you to your goal even quicker? Thirdly, is this software a good fit for your organization? And finally, is the vendor’s team a good match for your own?
Business leaders need to think about the transformation of HR from a wider perspective rather than considering the adoption of technology alone. Again, bearing end users in mind, the whole experience must be seamless, with employees likely not even realizing what systems they are using and whether there have been any updates.
On that point, Mark Butler, sales manager of employee experience/efficiency in the public sector at ServiceNow, emphasized that crucially, while any software is naturally designed to work in modules – where “procurement is brilliant for procurement” and “HR is brilliant for HR” – employees “simply do not work in modules.” Today, the criteria for success have changed and productivity and behavior have become key metrics in the analysis of the success of an HR transformation.
“An employee just comes to the screen […] with a need to resolve something, to think about something, to get help with something and the last thing they want to think about is which module of which piece of software holds the data relevant to that. They just want to get that piece of work done,” Butler said.
Find the North Star and build a plan for your HR transformation journey
Now that you know what mindset to adopt and how to prioritize employees in your HR transformation, where do you start? Williamson said that to succeed, organizations must identify their high-level ‘North Star’ vision from the get-go and throughout the project, with everyone aligned on the problem statement.
“What are the critical and measurable success factors for each phase? What does success look like for each of those phases? Craft that overall tooling vision and we can start talking about technology at that point,” Williamson stated.
He added: “[… Once you] understand the North Star [and] the problem statements, […] pull that team together, both internal team with the stakeholders and the external expertise and get the right people in the room to make the right decisions that allow you to deliver that value early.”
For instance, Inetum worked with a customer in the infrastructure space whose HR transformation was a part of the wider Global Business Services (GBS) goal. According to Williamson, the company wanted to create “a single front door for employees to get everything they needed, […] not five different portals and systems that they currently had.”
The business development director shared that for him, that was a good example of a customer that had a clear ‘North Star’ vision of its overall goal: “They had a good understanding and they were fairly firm on their tooling in that they had the system of record which was SAP in this instance.
“They were very clear that this was and would remain as a system of record, but they described it in a way that was massively helpful already because it [allowed us] to go: ‘okay, the system of record and then the system of action […] and for them, that was the right combination.”
Voyage to HR stars
To recap the insight gathered at Inetum’s webinar:
Firstly, remember to focus on the end goal when planning to embark on an HR transformation journey as it is your employees that will be affected by changes – you want their experience to be streamlined, not complicated. This strategy will also help inform your decision-making when it comes to choosing the right software for your organization.
Secondly, think about the digital transformation from your employees’ perspective: after all, they do not think in modules and will need easy access to whatever information they need, otherwise, what even is the point of implementing changes?
Finally, find and establish the ‘North Star’ for your project that will allow you to develop a cohesive plan and employ the right team, ensuring seamless implementation and quick turnaround.
By finding the right mindset and knowing how to deploy the correct tools, your organization will not just cut costs and increase productivity, it will also build a powerful case that will boost talent attraction and retention, swooshing you to the top of the competition with a satisfied workforce by your side.