The digital transformation of the company requires the HR transformation

Digitalisation, which was introduced through marketing to optimise customer relations, has gradually spread to all levels of the company: from manufacturing to purchasing, production and logistics. In the digital age, customers who have become kings expect exclusive offers at increasingly competitive prices. In the same way in companies, the HR function must be a major actor in the digital transformation but also guarantee a high quality support to employees.

Repositioning human resources with digital technology

 The latter provides support in three significant missions.

• Customer-centric: The first consists in supporting the company in its customer-centric orientation with committed employees. It is a question of taking advantage of digital technology to optimize the relationship with the customer. It is a question of having the necessary tools, being trained, as well as the new ways of working that they induce.
• Employee-centric: The second is to refocus employees on the core of HR concerns. Today, they expect more flexibility, trust and responsibility from the company. This new way of working also requires a review of the services provided by HR to employees, the transformation of workspaces and the deployment of new tools.
• Business Partner : The third mission is to confer a business partner role on the HR function. To this end, it must use on its own account the digital innovations that relieve it of administrative tasks and thus focus on activities with higher added value.

Digitize to improve HR performance

Today, the dynamic has begun and the HR function is considered as a pioneer in terms of digitalization. According to a 2018 MARKESS study, nearly 60% of HR decision-makers consider their function as mature with regard to digital and more than 70% of them see it as a major asset to improve performance. In addition, digitalization has allowed HR to relieve itself of a number of tasks. In 2018, 72% of HR decision-makers reported the presence of self-service tools in their company. Employees and managers have access to a range of digital tools to support them.

Innovations in analysis also help to establish the strategic role. Nearly 80% of HR decision-makers now express a strong need to analyze their data, which is often growing exponentially. Analytical tools of the predictive and prescriptive type provide more visibility and thus support decision-making. Social networks also play a major role and allow HR to measure the social climate by identifying possible tensions within the company.

Develop HR marketing

Just like marketing and customer relations departments, whose mission is to implement actions to attract customers, HR managers must attract candidates and retain talent internally. Digital technology fully supports this evolution! More than half of the HR decision-makers interviewed by Markess see digital as a way to manage talent and their employer brand.

Aware that offering career development opportunities is the key to employee retention, digital makes it easier to manage internal mobility. Other areas of loyalty such as teleworking and employee experience should also be taken into consideration. Today, more than 80% of HR decision-makers place it in too many of their missions.

Putting digital technology at the service of employees

The generation of Millennials is forcing companies to provide quality digital services. They want to find in their work the same communication tools that are omnipresent in their private lives, allowing them to connect to the company’s applications at any time and wherever they are. Thus, in 2018, more than 60% of HR decision-makers were considering the implementation of a digital safe and electronic signature.

E-training is one of the major concerns of the HR function, as it aims to acquire new skills throughout their professional lives. More than 50% of them want to set up MOOCs (Massive Online Open Course) quickly. COOCs (Corporate Online Open Course) delivering educational content reserved for employees and focused on products/services have also entered companies. More than 60% of HR decision-makers believe that providing services that meet expectations improves engagement.

Finally, information is at the centre of internal requests. While connected objects are developing in the private sector, analysis and reporting tools, which are easy to visualize and interpret, offer managers indicators to facilitate their missions to daily life.

Reorganize the human resources department with digital technology

Digitisation does not take place without impacting the HRD. More than 80% of HR decision-makers agree that the digitalization of the function is done above all through the implementation of new operating models such as Cloud, SaaS, PaaS, etc.

An awareness that was not recent because since the 2000s the “on demand” mode adopted through solutions dedicated to recruitment was already unanimously accepted. Now the model has evolved towards the Cloud with SaaS HR solutions such as talent, time, mobility, succession and succession management as well as administrative processes such as payroll and leave management. Like the marketing department, the HR function has become one of the most adept at cloud computing in 2018, with more than 70% of HR decision-makers using it to manage all or part of their HR processes.

Finally, to succeed in its digital transformation, the HR function must surround itself with the appropriate skills. The areas of expertise are diverse, from HR marketers to community managers, CDOs (Chief Data Officers) and CLMs (Chief Legal Officers). Not to mention the new legal issues with the DGMP, which no longer leaves room for error.