Digital HR: The Revolution of Human Resources
Published on February 9th, 2023
Digital transformation in the HR world is a hot topic that has swept companies away from their toes.
In this era, which is technologically and digitally loaded, not having a digitized HR process might come out as a shortcoming for you.
Here in this article, we have unfolded the importance of digital transformation in the HR world and how it is the next best thing for your organization right now.
What is Digital HR?
Digital HR refers to the use of technology and digital tools in the management of human resources processes and operations. This encompasses a wide range of HR activities, including but not limited to recruitment and selection, performance management, employee engagement, compensation and benefits management, and compliance with labor laws and regulations.
The goal of digital HR is to automate and streamline HR processes, make them more efficient and effective, and provide a better user experience for employees and managers. By leveraging technology, companies can improve data management and decision-making, and gain valuable insights into their workforce.
Examples of digital HR tools include HR information systems (HRIS), applicant tracking systems (ATS), performance management software, employee engagement platforms, and benefits administration systems. The use of these tools has become increasingly popular as companies look to modernize their HR practices and keep up with the fast-paced and constantly changing business environment.
According to Dave Ulrich, the father of modern HR, the journey of digital HR involves four phases:
- HR Efficiency: Companies engage in and develop technology platforms during this period, frequently working with pre-existing HR technology providers, to manage HR procedures effectively.
- HR Effectiveness: Technology is utilized in this phase to modernize personnel procedures (staffing, training), performance management, communication, and work.
- Information: Information is exchanged for its impact on business at this phase. Data is accessible, internal and external data are merged, and people analytics are used to generate business-relevant insights.
- Connection/Experience: Finally, Digital HR is used to link people in this last phase. Technology helps people feel more connected by leveraging social networks, fostering interpersonal interactions, and creating new experiences.
How is Digital HR changing the entire Human Resources Scenario?
Deloitte reports that 33% of the organizations it examined are employing artificial intelligence in some way, and 56% are restructuring their human resources programs to take advantage of digital and mobile solutions. This message is supported by a recent Gartner poll, which found that 58% of HR leaders rank implementing business transformations, particularly digital transformation, as a key priority.
Intrigued by the stats..
Here are some of the advantages that an HR personnel gets from digital HR transformation.
1. Automation gives the HR professional more time
The ability to automate readily repeatable, low-value processes frees up time that an HR professional may utilize to complete other, high-value tasks is perhaps one of the most evident advantages of adopting digital HR.
Data entry, applicant screening, and even payroll processing in some businesses might all need hours of attention each week that could be better spent on work that calls for more critical analysis, reasoning, and evaluation.
2. It highly improves the candidate's experience
The distinction between a human's personal and professional lives has blurred for workers in the twenty-first century. During working hours, they will check their social media accounts, but they will also check their business emails on the weekends.
As a result, when it comes to the digital workplace, they want to be treated like customers and expect their company to give them a similar user experience.
3. It increases HR efficiency
Making the conversion from manual to automated or tech-supported HR operations offers enhanced efficiency in many areas, beyond just freeing up time for other activities.
For instance, digitizing the hiring procedure can ease friction and enhance the way HR specialists treat job candidates. This can help keep qualified applicants from getting discouraged and quitting the application process. An HR professional has a better chance of recruiting the candidate who best fits the requirements of the post and the company culture if there are more high-quality applications.
Similarly to this, algorithms and artificial intelligence have made it simpler than ever to weed out applicants who don't fulfill the basic qualifications for a given job, freeing up the HR professional to concentrate on the candidates that truly deserve their time.
4. Accepting technology enables HR to make many of its operations more data-driven
Businesses daily produce vast amounts of data, both organizationally and personally. Businesses can use data in their decision-making processes and tie decisions back to a logical justification rather than an observation or gut reaction by learning how to collect and evaluate this data. This then makes it possible for processes to be more structured.
HR executives can set targets for improvement and better determine what, if any, impact is generated from changes to procedures or workflows by benchmarking key performance indicators like average cost per hire and time to recruit.
5. It builds a culture of continuous improvement
It's simple to track your employees' activities over time and gauge their rate of progress with digital HR. More particularly, manual annual reports may occasionally be unable to appropriately recognize an employee's contributions. However, it takes a while before you realize your mistakes.
You can observe the entire progress of your staff without much influence when using digital HR solutions. As a result, it is simple to create a data-driven employee report that accurately depicts their actual effort or shortcomings. And based on the report, you may decide what action to take next to regularly enhance your personnel management plans.
6. It also gives a competitive advantage
The future workforce, which consists of millennials and generation Z, is addicted to their phones and constantly connected to social media. When it comes to luring this demanding generation of workers, businesses that leverage these digital technologies for numerous HR purposes— sourcing, preselection, and learning & development, for example—have a substantial competitive advantage.
How to begin with Digital HR?
First things first, you need to figure out the area where you want to digitize your HR procedure. Take suggestions from your employees, colleagues, and stakeholders and ask them “Which areas of our HR processes could use a digital makeover?”
You will now get a long list of suggestions.
The following step is to rank these suggestions according to their impact and effort. The impact relates to how digitizing ideas will affect business. The time and money required to digitize the concepts are the focus of the effort.
Your starting point will be this matrix: Start with the concepts that will have a big impact with little work. They'll get you started quickly and assist you in developing the business case for digital HR.
You can leverage HireQuotient for digitizing and accelerating your HR procedure by using our pre-employment assessments. You can browse through our 300+ assessment library and find not the best candidate, but the right candidate for your organization.
Wrapping Up
By investing in technology platforms that manage HR processes efficiently, companies are able to free up resources and focus on upgrading practices in areas such as staffing, training, performance management, and communication. By combining internal and external data, companies can access relevant information to make informed decisions and create business-relevant insights.
Finally, by leveraging digital HR to create connections and experiences between people, companies can foster a stronger sense of belonging and increase employee engagement and satisfaction.
Authors
Radhika Sarraf
Radhika Sarraf is a content specialist and a woman of many passions who currently works at HireQuotient, a leading recruitment SaaS company. She is a versatile writer with experience in creating compelling articles, blogs, social media posts, and marketing collaterals.
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