Change is happening faster than ever, right across the globe: environmental pressures, population growth, massive advancements in technology, and significant shifts in the demographics of the workforce to name just a few.

The Future of Jobs Report from the World Economic Forum predicts that more than one-third of the skills we believe are essential for today's workforce will be changed or cease to be relevant in the future. 

No one clearly knows what the future entails. But what all of us can accept is that how businesses use technology and prepare their talent for these uncertain changes in the future shall determine their success in times of rapid changes. 

Shaswat Kumar, Asia Leader - Advisory and Cloud Solutions, Alight Solutions said, ‘Organizations with a clear HR Service Delivery Model and HR Technology Strategy are truly future ready to drive agility in HR.’

The findings of the Asia Pacific State of HR Transformation Study 2018-19 by Alight Solutions highlight that the organizations with a clear HR Service Delivery Model and HR Technology Strategy organizations are five-fold more confident on program design and execution, and are twice more productive. 

To explore how the HR industry will fare in 2019-20 participate in Alight’s HR Transformation Study 2019 to 2020. 

HR Service Delivery Model & its relevance 

As per the study, organizations that have their HR Operating Model complemented by a digital strategy are almost five times more confident of their future readiness than the organizations with limited or no clarity on HR’s Operating Model.

The former types of organizations are more mature and have an average HR:FTE ratio of 1:92.

Alight’s study suggests that mature organizations are not only focused on addressing talent risks like leadership pipeline and talent engagement but are also able to look out for future risks such as helping businesses align with the pace of innovation, and facilitating change caused by business model disruptions. 

“Looking at the risks that mature organizations are planning to address, it is clear that HR functions of tomorrow will have to help businesses attain future readiness, and adapt to business model disruption,” shared Vikrant Khanna, Asia Leader - HR Transformation, and Change, Alight Solutions. 

Shaswat further emphasized, “The burden of employee transactions and program administration on HR has to reduce. Technology needs to be leveraged far better to deliver employee services.

Hence, for organizations to become more future ready, the HR service delivery model must experience a shift and be driven by convergence of HR Technology and HR Operations.

Click here to share how will HR Service Delivery Model and its relevance further evolve. 

HR Technology: An imperative for future readiness

Application of technology and automation in HR has increased across the APAC region. About 80 percent of the respondents are already in the process of evaluating use cases and building scale for future investments in automation. 

But the question is, in which areas of HR should the investment in automation be maximum? 

Well, as per the study, process automation, machine learning and chatbots are likely to see the maximum growth when it comes to robotics adoption in APAC. Some of the notable functional areas where we see investments taking place are :

• Analytics / Reporting
• Payroll and Benefits
• Virtual Assistance
• Talent Management

While on the one hand the future for HR technology looks so bright, on the other hand, currently, organizations in APAC are struggling to get value out of the HR platforms they have invested in. 

Overall satisfaction in HR Technology has dipped six percentage points as compared to the 2016-17 study, and stands at 45 percent. 

The good news is that organizations are aware of the gaps in their current HR service delivery models and HR technology strategy. 

Nearly 60 percent of respondents plan on making new investments in the coming 12 to 24 months, making technology integral to HR functions. Further, taking action to drive HR effectiveness, nearly seven out of ten study participants are planning to: ‘Upskill competencies of current HR incumbents’, ‘Implement technology to better support talent management’, and ‘Overhaul their employee experience to align with digital expectations’.

“Going forward, selection of platform partners will be increasingly anchored around user experience, configurability, analytics and pace of innovation,” said Vikrant. 

As the HR function gets ready to deliver outcomes in an era that is dominated by employee experience, effective adoption of digital and maturing data science, it is important to also explore how the HR industry will fare in 2019-20. Participate in Alight’s HR Transformation Study 2019 to 20 and assess yourself and see how you fare with your peers in this transformation journey. 

Click here to be a part of this exclusive study.