Leveraging digital in HR is no simple feat, it requires careful consideration and a lot of time, effort, and resources. So how do we approach a project of this magnitude?
Stages of HR digital transformation
Every organization that engages in digital transformation goes through six stages.
Business as usual: HR acts on the belief that current solutions will remain relevant.
Present and active: In this stage, through different jamaica mobile numbers list experimentations and trials digital literacy and creativity are created throughout the company.
Formalized: Experimentation becomes more intentional and there’s support from leadership.
Strategic: Multidisciplinary teams execute most digital HR initiatives. Collaboration increases, leading to strategic HR digital transformation road maps.
Converged: A dedicated digital transformation team guides digital support of HR strategy.
Innovative and adaptive: By now digital transformation has become the organization's 'business as usual' and is a continuous process.
Understanding these stages is important for several reasons. It helps organizations understand their progress in the digital transformation journey and to identify the next steps. Secondly, it ensures that objectives are aligned with the boarder business strategies. Lastly, it facilitates a structured approach to change. This way, organizations can easily adapt to technological changes and achieve their goals.
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Best Practices For Digital Transformation In Human Resources
Sometimes, starting with digital HR can be overwhelming. Following the best practices listed below will be key drivers for success.
Best Practices For Digital Transformation in HR
Assess your current HR processes
Start with an audit of the current situation. You can sort your priorities based on the audit and decide where to start. These are some questions to ask yourself:
What kind of HR tools are you currently using to run various HR processes?
What areas do you need to identify that could have the maximum impact? See if you can align it with your business goals.
How is each tool and solution maintained? Does it happen automatically?
If digital tools are already in place, create an overview of the current HR solutions. Do these systems communicate with each other? If so, how?
Define clear objectives and success metrics
Objectives and metrics tend to differ per organization. Let's say our goal is to improve operational efficiency at a lower cost, time, and people. In this case, you could use the following metrics to measure this goal:
HR cost per employee: Calculates the total HR expenditure with the total number of employees. A decrease in the HR cost per employee would mean that the digital transformation has made the HR process more cost-effective.
HR service delivery time: This calculates the average time taken to complete HR delivery services. Reduction in service delivery time reflects enhanced operational efficiency and faster response times due to digital tools and processes.
Employee service utilization rate: Tracks the percentage of HR-related transactions completed by employees using self-service portals or applications. A high utilization rate signifies that employees use HR digital tools to manage their needs. This reduces the administrative burden on the HR department, enhancing overall productivity and time spent on routine tasks.
Develop HR digital skills within your team
HR practitioners need the right skills to enforce digital transformation, starting with digital agility. Digital agility is the ability to rapidly adapt and leverage digital technologies to enhance HR processes, improve efficiency, and drive innovation.
You can develop digital agility by:
Familiarizing yourself with different types of technologies
Collaborating with other departments on innovation
Working on change management skills
Adopt a phased approach
A phased approach to digital transformation helps you make amends when needed. It’s better to start with a pilot project, before digitalizing a particular HR process. This will help you test and refine your HR digitalization strategy. For example, if you want to automate your payroll process, rather than doing that with your entire organization, start with one or two teams and then upscale.
Create cross-functional teams
IT, legal, and other stakeholders are important in building cross-functional transformation teams. These teams improve implementation and ensure compliance and alignment with broader organizational strategies.
Implement scalable solutions
Whether you implement HR software or tools, you want them to be scalable. The process of selecting, buying, implementing, and launching digital tools is costly in terms of time and money to repeat countless times. So, as the organization grows, the tools and software should also be scalable.
Focus on employee experience
Mostly, the company’s employees will use these tools regularly. Hence, the software rolled out should improve the employee experience. To ensure this happens, involve employees and ask for their opinions.
Prepare a change management plan
A digital change management plan should be in place to prepare people for upcoming changes. Thus, it would be wise to conduct the following activities:
Communicate with stakeholders to understand how the change will impact the company
Use the Cynefin framework to process how the change will occur through actionable steps
Base your change communications on the competing values framework
Use a stakeholder management template to manage multiple stakeholders
Build an integrated HR tech stack
Digital HR software is used for every HR process. You can categorize them into three technologies:
HR solutions: HRIS, payroll, compensation, and benefits management software.
Recruiting: ATS, pre-selection tools, referral software, etc.
Employee experience: Onboarding, LMS, performance management software, and rewards.
Most companies use tools and software from each category to build their HR stack. You should create an integrated HR stack wherein all elements work together. For instance, your HR Management System should integrate with your payroll software. A set of tools that cannot communicate with each other would be counterproductive, leading to different destinations for each HR process.