Digital HR - a new skill set for People Advisors

One of the predictions by Deloitte in the recent report 'Everything Is Becoming Digital' is that Digital HR is here to stay. We, in HR, have to “do digital,” as well as “be digital,” in everything we do.

The role of HR is undergoing a major shift as things are becoming agile day by day. HR has to do the reskilling of their teams on priority so that they can be ready for addressing the needs of Digital workforce. It is a challenge and a real complex problem to be addressed in the digital economy. 

People Advisors face exceptional challenges as they contemplate the impact of strategies adopted while ascending from 1X to 5X. Aligning human capital with business objectives is the overriding need as our business makes a move to the next level. Technology plays a key role in supporting People advisors when business is growing and going through a major transformation.  Latest reports published by consultancy firms confirm that businesses are gradually relying on technology to make data-driven decisions in talent management, acquisition, retention, and engagement. This is where the need of digital skills becomes more important for People or Talent advisors. New age people leaders/advisors must understand and arrest the impact of technology on company culture, strategy, operational plans and future talent requirements.

AAA’s – Skills for Digital HR.

Analytics is the future role of every HR.

Correlate the people data coming from different systems (like Employee Information Management System, Performance Management System, CRM, etc.) to business performance. Analytics skills are must for HR’s now as there is a huge amount of data available and one has to come up with trends so that it can reflect back to the business outcome. Most companies are taking decisions w.r.t. their HR strategies in a function like Talent - Management, Retention, Engagement, and Development completed based on the data and doing the intervention accordingly. HR Business Partners and line managers now gain the demonstrated benefits of analytics through prebuilt dashboards customized as per the company requirements for real time view of what is happening in their org.

Automation of existing manual processes as it is all about doing more with less. 

We need to move employees thinking away from a dependence to independence culture. Self-service models are highly appreciated as the entire industry is moving towards agile and HR cannot stay back from this change. Automate as much as the processes you can so that HR can focus more on strategic interventions instead of spending time in executing operational activities.

An explosion of innovation - Gamification

Gamification is the key to win the “Talent Game”. In today’s digital era companies are playing and competing strongly when it comes to “The Talent Game” to hire, develop and retain the top talent. The workforce is no more local and have become global nowadays. The Internet is so easily available that it becomes a major area for HR to look into it while building and designing any new systems when you want your employees to use it. With the Digital in 2017 Global Overview report from We Are Social and HootSuite revealing that more than half of the world’s population now uses the internet and has a mobile phone now. In addition to this, More than half of the world’s web traffic now comes from mobile phones

As a people advisor, everyone is expecting you to create a social, mobile, and consumer-style experience for employees. Today, virtually every single company is undergoing a digital transformation. It’s important to have the right tools and technology, but knowing what to do with the tools is another matter. Although some HR professionals may be quite comfortable and capable in analyzing and leveraging the data, many HR functions still struggle to correlate its impact on the business performance.  

My Inference:-

Digital innovation has transformed the rules around talent and talent management. This is a time for valiant decisions, new strategies and to introduce a new skill set for HR professionals. We’ve already seen a digital change announced by global bests and this is the best time to explore and invest in your team if you are leading the group of People Advisors / Talent Management / Recruitment or Learning and Development. You have to rewrite the rulebook and find new ways to improve employee experience through digital solutions in order to attract and retain the best talent in this changing environment.