While the remote work revolution of the pandemic accelerated technology adoption, some HR practitioners are realising that the post-pandemic world has also created a new kind of digital divide.

People Matters spoke with Dr. Surapit Promsit, Institute Director, Continuing Education & Human Resources at Thammasat University and the Executive Director of the Personnel Management Association of Thailand (PMAT), on these challenges of innovation and the overall state of HR in Thailand.

“There are two sides to this,” Dr. Surapit said. “There are people who can adapt very quickly and thus move forward, and there are people who used to adapt but who probably need to go back to what they used to do before the pandemic. And so, there are two camps. The first camp is for people who really want to go and advance, and the second camp is for people who are still thinking that, probably, hybrid is the closest solution.”

From your vantage point, what are some practices that you think are effective, whether employers go into hybrid or working on site?

The number one thing we find is that the mindset of employees changed during turbulent times. They’re more willing to adapt to digital working and have become more aware of new ways of working and the need to be more analytical and data-driven to engage in their digital journey.

How do you see things changing now that we have newer challenges but that HR is still making sure that businesses and people remain productive?

In HR, we want to become more innovative, productive, and analytical [when it comes to] the employee journey. We also hope that we can segment them, understand them, and provide them with not one uniform employee journey but a customised one whether it is about their appraisals or rewards, or whether it is the way they are being recruited. The future is about customisation. At present, HR is trying to digitise. We are trying to change work practices in a lot of things we do, what we find to be problematic, especially how our structures and systems should be adapted to the future. There is going to be a lot of challenges, especially in the last quarter of this year and the first quarter of next year. I would imagine, next year, change would happen with regards to new customer expectations.

How is PMAT facilitating innovation and transformation across businesses in Thailand?

HR professionals need to understand these challenges – and that is why we are preparing the association with an event this week: Thailand HR Tech 2022. It's an educational kind of event where sessions aim to help us perform better especially in designing the employee journey, which is going to be even more digitised and more data-driven. HR is looking for a platform, looking for help and advice around change not just around technology but also around the supporting ecosystem.

What is your message to Thailand's HR leaders in this period of evolution?

I think HR is trying to push everyone to change. But believe it or not, the most difficult thing is for HR ourselves to change too. HR tends to be very admin focused. We're very busy. We have lots of regulations to look after; compliance to adhere to, and paperwork and administration, which no one understands. How are we going to ease these tasks and allow us to have more time for planning resource allocation? For placing the company in a more strategic position? I think we need time for that. It's not just technology [that will bring about change], but it is the understanding of how to apply technology in transforming transactional HR into a data-driven and strategic work. •