Technology, data employee experience: What’s high on agenda
For me personally, it’s all three. However, employee experience tops the chart and I look at data and technology as enablers. Workforce in organisations is truly diverse and globally spread, like never before. Apparel Group is a melting pot of employees from 65 nationalities.
Speed and agility are big asks from the function, for which data and technology become my biggest enablers. Eighty-five per cent of my workforce is in the stores and in order to communicate with them I have to depend on technology. I can no longer afford to get them all together in one place as my business will come to
a halt.
Employee experience should start right from the day we start to attract talent. And it should continue as we build awareness within the organisation, on our websites and on talent marketplaces on social media.
When they are hired, we enable a 30-60-90 day onboarding plan for them to settle in the organisation along with other engaging activities.
The biggest challenge for HR in your sector
I see attracting and retaining the right talent as the biggest challenge. Employees seek continuous engagement in this world, where they have access to many opportunities on social media.
The new generation seeks engagement on social media, as social currency is a big point of consideration for them. They relate to work cultures that increase their social currency. For instance, employees want to tag their organisation as a cool place to be in on their accounts.
HR as the ethics keeper
Human intelligence and power of empathy will still remain relevant. Talent is now globally spread and much more aware of their choices. Through data and AI, it is possible to gauge the trends of employee behaviours and their choices. But as human HRs (That is what I call it, because bots are already part of the HR workforce) you have the power to connect, infer and empathise with a person in that situation and act accordingly.
As human HRs you have the power to influence and inspire the workforce to deliver and over-achieve.
Role of analyst in HR
I see AI taking over this role big time, and as CHRO I am glad to have this tool available to me to obtain amazing analyses at the click of a button.
Robotic Process Automation – HR to play a more decisive role
Robotic Process Automation (RPA) will reduce administrative tasks, be more precise in predicting outcomes of actions and do it all at an amazing speed with information available whenever and wherever we want. Through employee pulse surveys I am able to see with precision, where the engagement issues are, with whom the problem lies and what I need to do to fix it. So, instead of spending hours and days on analysing the information I am able to use that time to fix the problem. This is what I call speed and agility in decision making.
(This article first appeared in HRKatha print magazine)
