Digitization and the adoption of new technologies have had a notable impact on all business divisions. Also in Human Resources, with great advances in many of its areas to improve many of its processes, always aimed at managing talent within companies. But also to attract you, at a time when companies have increasingly difficult to find professionals with very specific profiles. About all this, as well as the future of the HR department and the role that technology will have in its transformation, we have spoken with Patricia Santoni, CEO of Cegid Meta4.
[MCPRO] Digitization is a priority for most companies in the short or medium term, but within the processes that they undertake to advance in it, not all their departments advance at the same pace. In what situation are the Human Resources departments in this regard?
[Patricia Santoni] Indeed, the pandemic has accelerated the digitization of companies in all its areas, especially in the area of people management. In recent months, HR departments have realized the need to accelerate the digitization of their processes through the implementation of technological tools, as an essential element to overcome these moments of uncertainty. The pandemic has made it clear that we can safely manage countless processes in the cloud, without being more exposed to risks that we are not able to control, limit or manage. On the other side of the coin, companies that did not have the appropriate technology have been able to see how difficult it is to adapt to this new context without having Cloud solutions, always available, accessible from anywhere and with a high level of scalability.
However, according to our latest report developed together with The Valley Digital School “New ways of working, new paradigms of talent management ” in which we have consulted more than 150 HR directors of Spanish companies, only 33% of them have a defined plan and set objectives for the digitization of HR area processes, a fact that shows that digitization has become the pending issue for HR in the coming months.
[MCPRO] Your latest report on the state of digitization of the HR departments of companies shows interesting data about the processes carried out in the Human Resources area and their level of digitization, which are the ones that show a higher level of digitization in the present?
[Patricia Santoni] In those organizations where there is a digitization plan and defined objectives that are being worked on, the most digitized HR processes are Evaluation and Training (23%) and Payroll (22%), followed by those of Selection (18%), Personnel Administration and Time Management (16%), Compensation and Benefits (15%). Positioned in the queue of digitization would be Digital Signature (14%), Onboarding and Career Development (12%), Talent Review and Analytics / Scorecards (10%) and Succession Plans (5%).
3 – The role of HR departments has been essential to maintain the relationship of companies with their employees during the pandemic, especially in companies where most or all of their staff were teleworking. Now, in the process of returning to companies, many have chosen to change the format and not all of them are committed to full presence. The same happens with workers, who have changed their priorities with respect to presence in many cases. What is your preferred option for the return to the office?
[Patricia Santoni] There is no doubt that the effects of the pandemic have transformed traditional work patterns. During all these months, professionals have shown an extraordinary capacity to adapt to this new context, helping their companies to maintain business continuity in very difficult times. For this reason, it is perfectly understandable that more and more companies are betting on the adoption of flexible policies that allow them to provide their professionals with different options to respond to their needs. Everything indicates that hybrid work models will be the ones that will end up reigning as our report shows, being the option chosen by 62% of those surveyed.
Ultimately, efficiency, productivity and personalization will be the basis of the new approach to talent management and everything indicates that it will be necessary to establish a hybrid model with which organizations combine physical presence in offices with access to remote work through the coexistence of the on-premise model with the Cloud model.
4 – The hybrid or remote work modalities will require the HR Departments to be in more direct contact with all employees and facilitate their relationships between them and also with the different departments of the company. What tools can Human Resources Departments have to communicate with employees and receive their impressions and comments?
[Patricia Santoni] One aspect that will become especially important in the coming months is the management of diversity in organizations, supported by the implementation of technological solutions that allow employees to know and feel part of corporate values and culture. This will be possible through the creation of new channels and tools that provide the organization with fluid communication, both horizontally and vertically, and that provide employees with direct access to all information and obtaining constant feedback. , within the company’s own human capital management tools, such as its employee portal or giving access to the human resources management functionalities in the most common collaborative communication tools, such as TEAMS.
On the other hand, in this new context, the Human Resources area must ensure the management of all its processes to guarantee optimal working conditions, maintaining productivity levels similar to those prior to the pandemic and, all of this, without losing the motivation and commitment of its professionals. In all this complexity, technology and, in particular, Cloud HCM solutions have become an indispensable element to be able to adapt to this new reality and guarantee an optimized employee experience
5 – Everything points to the fact that, in the future, the arrival of new technologies and systems to the business world will make various types of jobs disappear. But in turn, others will be created thanks to these technologies, which will make HR Departments have to update and be aware of the new professional profiles that may arise in companies due to this evolution, which do you think will be the main profiles that will appear as a result?
[Patricia Santoni] According to our report, the appearance of new profiles such as those related to data analytics and employee experience, will be some of the most demanded by HR to adapt to the new needs of a digital work environment that has burst with more strength than ever after the pandemic.
And it is that, in the current uncertain panorama, the directors of people management need more than ever to have new tools and solutions technologies that allow them to activate analytical and predictive mechanisms in order, for example, to be able to size their workforce, make the right selection of their candidates or improve the work experience of their employees, among other critical issues.
Unlike more traditional tools, the new generation of guided analytics solutions or “Guided Analytics”Allow HR professionals to exploit the information of their organizations and professionals immediately, to obtain the best answers in a similar way to the principle used by Google assistants, Alexa, etc. based in “Ask me the question and I will offer you the answer”.
6 – Attracting talent is quite a complicated process for many companies, and the Human Resources Department plays an increasingly prominent role in achieving it. What elements and steps do you consider to be key to attracting professionals? How can you improve talent attraction from an HR point of view?
[Patricia Santoni] Without a doubt, talent is the most important value of a company and, a large part of the responsibility of generating positive experiences (professional, social, community and physical well-being) to turn our employees into ambassadors of our own brands, falls on the area Human Resources If an organization does not take care of its talent, it can reduce its productivity, negatively influencing business objectives.
From my point of view, in order to compete in the current war for talent, companies can rely on two fundamental pillars: organizational humanization, based on a corporate culture that prioritizes the well-being of people, and on collective leadership, focused on achieve results through the motivation and commitment of the teams to the project and the challenges to be achieved.
7 – The HR sector will also be affected by all kinds of changes in the future, which will give rise to new trends and consolidate other novelties and changes that they are already beginning to occur. What news can we expect for the future of Human Resources?
[Patricia Santoni] In addition to the analytical solutions that I have mentioned above, new emerging technologies such as Artificial Intelligence or RPAS will play a fundamental role in the evolution of companies’ digitization processes. On the other hand, the pandemic has shown us to reduce the time dedicated to administrative tasks of hiring, budgeting, control, paying taxes, payroll, social security, etc. It is key so that Human Resources professionals can deploy new policies and tools more oriented to the current context.
In short, a full talent management, which ranges from managing the selection and incorporation processes of new professional profiles, to the design of training plans, development and succession for professionals who are already part of the organization.
