by Frew Murdoch
Roughly 17 years ago –the pre-Google age – there was not much of a relationship between HR technology and business. But since Google’s launch, there has been a flood of HR technology revolutions, for example, LinkedIn was formed and smartphones entered the market. HR technology and your workforce are now driving the decisions that are made when we engage internally and externally in our businesses. This means digitally enabling your workforce will result in better execution, innovation and agility which, in turn, will transform your business into a high-performing organisation (HPO).
Around 2011, after the global economic crisis, Accenture conducted research which revealed that HPOs continued their cost-cutting exercises and also began investing in HR technology. These HPOs fully embraced the digital age and began incorporating tools to take advantages of trends such as workforce mobility, cloud technology and analytics. This enabled these organisations to find better ways of resourcing their businesses.
What are the benefits of a digitally enabled workforce
Suren Govender, managing director at Accenture, said that digitally enabling your workforce does not only make mundane tasks such as applying for leave easier. It also has these benefits:
- Allowing for the recording and interpretation of analytics to help see the critical skills that an organisation will need in the future,
- Improving execution, innovation and agility across all the business processes, and
- Playing a transformative role in business success
Get a better insight into your workforce
Insights are best formed from data. Govender identified that companies which leverage analytics – study of data for insights – are more likely to be HPOs.
“80% of data collected by companies is never used. This is a huge lost opportunity for companies as interpreting this data can create actionable steps and value for the company, which can then be fed back into the company,” said Govender.
Let’s take the example of job profiles:
Janine is a recruiter at Company X. She posts a job profile onto LinkedIn as she is looking for a content editor. She is sent a CV by a prospective candidate who seems perfect for the job. After interviewing the candidate herself, Janine sends him for an interview with the client, after which he gets the job . Three months later, it turns out that the candidate was ill-suited for the job.
Use all the data available to get an accurate insight into prospective candidates
Instead of just using the candidate’s CV and interview performance as an indicator of job suitability, Janine should have tried to get a better understanding of the candidate by using all the data available to her.
Govender said that social media is great for leads but don’t just go on what LinkedIn tells you about people. Remember that LinkedIn contains what people want you to see and omits any negative qualities. Join the dots by:
- Contacting Sars,
- Contacting their banks (if they let you), and
- Take a glance at their Facebook and Google + profiles to see:
– Who they are talking to, and
– What sort of authority and brand they have.
The more data you record and interpret about the prospective candidate, the better the picture you get of the person as an individual.
Any digital experience had in your company should be as good as asking an expert
Digitally enabling your workforce should make your search for solutions – for processes, resourcing and HR self-service – more effective. The experience should be almost like emailing a question to a topic-relevant consultant or typing a query into Google!
This article first appeared on HR Pulse.