A lot of companies rely on manual processes today although we are already finishing the second decade of the 21st century. And not only in the business sector – there is a lot of space for digitization in the government and local administration. While the basic digitalization has been done – we (almost) all use email, spreadsheets, etc. but not many business or administration processes are digitalized end to end. This is still a big challenge, says Vaclav Koranda, vice president - human resources, and member of the board of directors T-Systems Malaysia.

In an interaction of People Matters Global, Koranda shares insights on talent management, leveraging predictive analytics, and new-age learning and development.

Only 12% of organizations are currently using talent data to make informed decisions, according to Gartner. How do you see this? 

Well, looking at what is available on the market, I can’t see many matured tools available and ready for implementation. There are startups that are developing predictive analytics solutions based on big data and artificial intelligence. However, they still seem to be in the early development phase. I think we can expect them to be ready in 2-3 years. Then we will be able to see the percentage of users growing.

Reports say, investments in HR data and analytics mostly fail. How can HR teams deliver maximum value in the data-driven world?

In HR, typically we accumulate a lot of data. It is very tempting to jump on the current trend and start to analyze all sorts of data in many different ways. However, in order for it to be efficient and bring value to the company, the analytics must be performed with a business-driven goal and ultimately linked to business KPIs. Another question is the quality of the data we try to analyze. Typically, data regarding talent and skills are not easy to gather and analyze.

Large organizations have moved to predictive analytics, especially in the fields of attrition. Should SMEs and startups join the bandwagon?

I have had many discussions on this with my colleagues from SMEs and startups. They usually feel that they are not mature enough for this kind of analytics and first of all, they don’t have enough data to base the analytics upon. So for them, it would be definitely wrong to jump on the bandwagon just because other people jump. They have to make their own decision whether it can benefit their business or not.

Is HR really ready to shift to the tech-based learning driven by AI-based systems, and virtual reality?

I believe that we should ask the question a bit differently:  Are the employees ready? We have seen the hype about e-learning some 15 years ago. However, e-learning has never really become the holy grail of corporate learning and its usage and popularity are still well behind expectations. I am afraid that the same can happen to the recent inventions in the corporate learning sphere. We must enable our employees to be ready to use the new learning platforms. Only then they will be able to use them effectively.

In a survey, 67% percent of leaders believe their businesses must become significantly more digital to be competitive. What's your take on this?

Sometimes it is surprising how much companies rely on manual processes although we are already finishing the second decade of the 21st century. And not only in the business sector – I think there is a lot of space to digitalize in the government and local administration too. I think the basic digitalization has been done – we (almost) all use email, spreadsheets, etc. but not many business or administration processes are digitalized end to end. This is still a big challenge and we as T-Systems are trying to help our clients to solve it.

You have embarked on a project for increasing employee engagement, and productivity. Can you share some insights on what have you learned?

I have realized how much difference an engaged workforce can make. It is amazing to see how suddenly the barriers are torn down and differences no more matter and people can pull together like one.

 T-Systems has received several awards to help transform its clients with agility and innovative approach. Can you explain what do you do differently?

T-Systems/Deutsche Telekom is ranked as a relevant player in every segment of ICT and is considered a leader in three categories: IoT Cloud Backend-as-a-Service (BaaS), IoT Edge Technologies, and IoT Development Services. In addition, T-Systems/Deutsche Telekom is named one of the top three providers of IoT development services. In its 2018 report, Gartner evaluated T-Systems as a Leader in Europe for the 8th time in the Gartner Magic Quadrant 2018 – next to competitors such as Accenture, Atos, DXC Technology and IBM.