The HR digital revolution is here and now. Hitherto, HR was deemed a cost center and was perhaps one of the last in line for any significant investment or transformation. The digital revolution taking place across the enterprise value chain has indeed affected the staid old world of Human Resources Management and efforts are underway to digitize the Recruit to Retire value stream.

Of course, even before the advent of the digitalization wave, many progressive companies have embarked on endeavors to transform HR from a record keeping function to one of managing and harnessing human capital.

What are the factors necessitating HR digital revolution and transformation?

HR (Human Resources) is being impacted in several ways by the digital revolution:

• Employee expectations around experience, ease of use, clarity of communication, anytime and anywhere access and transparency have caused and are causing significant stress on HR departments to keep up with the times.
• The recruitment field has changed from the days of yore of listing a job posting on an online job board. Today, the recruitment function has to engage the target workforce on social media channels – much before they have become a real prospective candidate.
• The advent of review boards and hashtags has changed the game forever as there are several venues for potential employees as well as current employees to praise, vent, and engage in the social chatter about the company.
• As scarcity for talent continues, particularly in the highly skilled STEM areas, the HR function is a lynchpin of attracting, retaining, motivating and improving the workforce.
• The ever increasing number of digitally savvy millennials entering the workforce are also having their say and impact on how HR function operates and evolves.

Which are the HR Capabilities witnessing the effects of the HR Digital Revolution?

• Recruitment and Hiring
  • Increased speed of interactions and hence decisions
  • From salaries information to culture to employee grievances, there is an online venue for everything and everyone
  • Engagement online in social media and interest communities to target and prime the recruiting pipeline
  • In addition to traditional resumes, online gravitas, thought leadership contributions and participation in interest groups are becoming a substantive weighting factor in hiring decisions
  • Video interviews to reduce cost, increase engagement, and minimize the friction of travel
• Compensation and Payroll
  • Employees are demanding transparency and clarity on the payroll necessitating clear English explanation of deductions and perks.
  • With salary information available online, per company per job title, there is also a demand for equal pay for equal work and a way to have an evidence based discussion.
• Learning and Development
  • Training courses – simple tutorials as well as structured certificate programs – are increasingly delivered across a variety of channels with a seamless transition from medium to another.
  • Innovative techniques like virtual mentoring have made it possible to offer peer mentoring at scale
  • The ubiquity of video to learn almost anything is helping employees gain new skills and improve existing ones
• Performance and Talent Management
  • Technology enabled real-time feedback
  • Quick and almost daily sentiment analysis thru employee feedback on the go
  • Multi-dimensional assessments are possible with technology triangulating formal and informal feedback to provide 360-degree view
• People Analytics
  • People analytics is helping companies identify competencies and skills that are often not a part of the official job description.
  • Similarly, identifying the traits for success or failure and how to nurture and grow the positive attributes thru deeper data analysis

These are but a few of the areas of HR being impacted by the HR digital revolution. Of course, technologies like mobility, cloud, social and analytics have profound implications and are foundational to the revolution taking place in the HR realm.

To help assess the impact of the digital technologies on your HR processes and systems, and build an HR Digital Transformation Roadmap, please contact CIOPages.com HR advisory services team.

For other perspectives, check out Deloitte and Accenture.

To keep tabs about the digital revolution of HR as well as general HR transformation topics, please see CIOPages.com HR Transformation Resources. If you are currently planning an HR transformation, our HR Transformation Toolkit may be an accelerator.