Business processes across the world are being actively reshaped by the increasing use of technology. AI, automation, robotics, and digitization have the potential to completely change how businesses operate today. This has also meant that many business leaders today understand the relevance of using such technologies in improving their internal function. According to the latest Deloitte Human Capital Trends, CEOs across the globe await the changes that new age technology can bring in to their companies. But the study also reveals a trend that is alarming given such an expectation. Almost seventy percent of CEOs interviewed in the study point out that their current employees do not have the necessary skills in place to enable their organizations to adopt new technologies and ensure its ability to adapt to the changing times. 

This has, in turn, shifted the focus on HR professionals today. 

With the rising talent demand, such a shift is to be expected. As more and more companies come into the realm of business transformation, in bits or in shape of a complete company overhaul, their talent demand also shift; the rise of the digital savvy workforce has been one the most highlighted of such shifts. Many have as a result sought to bolster their respective HR functions. According to a recent Fosway group report, around 76 percent of the surveyed accompanies across Europe are planning to increase their investments into HR tech while over 95 percent feel that data analytics is slowly becoming an imperative for the function. Such high dependence on tech, however, requires an HR professional properly skilled and equipped to leverage their potential benefit. 

The digital age 

One piece of modern day tech invention that has greatly impacted how efficiently the HR functions operate has the advent of digital platforms. They have enabled the real-time collection of data across different areas like engagement, performance management, compensation etc while creating more ways for employees engage with the company; something that today has become a core part of talent retention. The use of digital platforms has helped HR interventions today to have the directly reach employees greatly increasing their efficiency. But due to this all, HR departments require to be technical skills and build an understanding of how the tools of a digital age, or its more often called, be “digitally literate” 

Although today the need for digital literacy is often organization-wide but to facilitate it through learning mechanisms which are more intuitive and engaging it is first necessary for HR professionals to be skilled enough to deploy new age learning mechanism. And given the growing reach of digitization, most such mechanisms require a deeper understanding of how digital can be leveraged to solve talent problems across the board. 

An analytically driven team

The other major aspect of modern HR teams is their ability to use data analytics to drive better people management. Application of big data analysis and analytical algorithms across company departments like sales and finance, but its slowly begun finding its place in making talent management practices more data-driven and bring in changes wherever necessary. This shift has in turn also led to the rise in demand of HR professionals who are skilled enough to work with and understand how to properly use data analytics. This importance has over time grown significantly, enough many to call HR professionals with the right skillset to drive people analytics, the ‘new breed’ of HR professionals. 

The benefits today of using data analytics to drive, monitor, and better talent management practices today depend on how skilled HR professionals are to do the same. So much so that many consider it to be a necessary skill for HR professionals to succeed professionally today. In turn, data analytics has helped HR professionals to prove their respective business heads the relevance of their intervention and how effective it has been in developing talent over time. It also helps show executive the need to bring in necessary change and helps create a behavioral shift for the same. With cost cutting often becoming a last resort, investments in talent such as hiring go down while layoffs begin. Often in such crucial times, data analytics can play a major role in helping HR build an objective case for the relevancy of their talent. To do this effectively then need to have skills like quantitative and statistical skills for projecting models, have the understanding in use of technology and ability to keep up with the rapidly changing of nature of generating business intelligence and analytics and strong capability to interpret and communicate results and findings, including statistical and qualitative information to executives to create a better case of their envisioned change. 

It is not necessary for HR professionals to perform heavy duty stats on know the complete in an outs of building a digital platform. What it requires definitely though is a clear understanding of how talent management principles have evolved and can envision the right change driven by the result of analyzing employee data.

To learn more on how organizations are gearing up to leverage technologies, join us for People Matters TechHR Conference on 28th February 2019 at Marina Bay Sands, Singapore. Register Now!