The HR services function is at an interesting crossroad between traditional processes and digital transformation. As a function, HR services can be transformed with the help of three interdependent routes that can either work together or individually:
- Scaling of digital interventions to bring about transformation of core services
- Enriching employee experience through technology
- Collaborating with in house and/or outsourced service segments
While organizations have to prioritize among these paths, they must also face the challenge of managing relevant data for each of these to maintain agile services in the present and future.
This is where service blueprinting acts as a compass for your employee’s service journey.
Determine goals for digital transformation
Before organizations set out on the course of digital transformation in HR services, they must have a destination in mind.
Goals must be set clearly and transformation can be sought by finding efficient ways of achieving these.
For example, if you wish to reduce staff time spent on multi-lingual candidates, chat bots can deliver an excellent experience. An entirely digital pre-hire, hire and on-boarding experience will achieve the goal of gathering data and streamlining the process at the same time. These innovative methods not only help us attain set goals for HR but also enhance the candidate and employee experience, leading to a greater satisfaction. A good starting point to set your own goals is to determine industry best practices.
Set key milestones for digital transformation
The second step is to chart the course. Clearly, jumping onto the AI and RPA bandwagon is not for everyone at this stage and should be determined by your goals.
HR services must avoid longer winding paths and account for possible hurdles and changes in conditions.
Changes in market conditions (rapid fall in unemployment rates of contingent workforce), industry shifts (digitization of banking services) or candidate preferences (gig economy) mean processes need to be flexible. This involves innovations for simplifying the entire recruitment process around pre-screening and pre-on boarding – even before considering digital interventions. Setting specific milestones along the course can prove to be helpful, such as identifying and measuring key employee moments and unique cases.
Factor in employee experience
Of course, the employees must not feel disgruntled en route to this journey. Employee experience has been around as a concept for a while, and there are several competing techniques and frameworks to design and deliver this. The good news is the platforms supporting this concept have arrived as well.
Platforms like ServiceNow are starting to provide the employee engagement hub as a single service offering that combines all the connections and back end systems, in one omni-channel experience. Many challenges around the access for blue collar and factory workforce systems have disappeared entirely.
Services organizations still need to customize the experience per employee group, and that’s where Design Thinking led journeys help.
Organizations can do this by designing target employee journeys using personas.
Going from idea to operation
There are certain vehicles that can take you from start to finish of your digital transformation journey. One such vehicle is outsourcing. The decision to outsource HR transformation depends upon the organizations’ IT capability and the milestones set to achieve specific goals. Internal controls such as budgeting will also play a key role in this decision. Since employee experience is a direct feedback this can serve as a tangible KPI to help influence the decision of outsourcing.
From transformation to operation: A framework for digital transformation of HR services
The figure above describes detailed steps an organization can take to go from a transformation blueprint to operations. A good approach to this model is to run it in phases for short periods of time.
Each of the critical factors described above can be tested in these phases to arrive at a customized model that works best for the organization.
Want to learn more about digital transformation for HR services? Our experts are on the front lines of this discussion every day with our clients, and can share some rich perspectives with you on how to approach your digital future.
Vikram Das
Senior Principal
Vikram leads the HR Transformation team for the C-Suite Advisory practice in the UK, helping clients with digital transformation. He has advised some of our biggest clients on achieving back-office productivity through RPA, AI led insights and employee experience-led service mapping. Vikram has over 20 years of experience and prior to joining Infosys Consulting, he has worked in several consulting and delivery roles in firms like PriceWaterhouseCoopers, LogicaCMG(CGI) and Atos. He specializes in transformation of the HCM market from back office productivity to employee experience led focus.
