#learningintheflowofwork

According to a report published by a renowned consulting company, 79% of CEOs worldwide stated that a lack of critical skills in their workforce threatens their business growth. For example, finance organisations like banks and insurance companies need data visualization experts, while retailers need employees with customer experience. This debate also holds for digital HR transformation in an organisation.

While it may ‘seem’ easy to hire the workforce you need, upskilling existing employees and tapping their potential is a more affordable and practical option. When organisations are ready for a digital HR transformation, they must bring onboard all their employees and make them transformation-ready!

Apart from upskilling, organisations, especially the digital HR teams, must also consider redesigning workflows, reworking the organisational structure, and getting creative and innovative during recruitment, acquisitions, and partnerships.

As an organisation that is ready for the digital HR transformation, here are eight ways that may help you build your workforce for the future:

Have concrete business outcomes

Before you communicate with your employees about the change, you must tell them what you expect them to deliver with the digital HR transformation. Whether you are using digital tools and technology to upgrade your existing business model or you are looking to have an AI-enabled strategy that you would like them to execute, boost productivity and profitability or others, you must create a clear list of goals that you would like your employees to achieve and provide them with the required insights so they can take the first steps towards preparing themselves for the digital transformation.

With business outcomes and goal alignment, you may also require to restructure or combine roles as some of them become more important than others while others may be eliminated due to task automation. Organisations must clearly articulate the vision and business outcomes to all employees and other stakeholders before embarking on the digital HR transformation journey.

Emotional commitment

When bringing employees on board a new idea or plan, there must be a good balance of strategic and emotional commitment from them. For employees to be emotionally committed to the impending digital HR transformation, they must be excited, inspired and deeply connected with their own goals and the organisation’s larger purpose. Performing a survey to understand what excites and motivates your employees besides their paycheck is a good place to begin.

Compelling pilot experience

Most organisations run major transformation-related initiatives in a pilot format before going all out. This holds even when digitally transforming your HR. When you achieve significantly high employee experience scores in your pilot phase, not only is it an affirmation for expanding it to others, but the employees who participated in the pilot help bring others onboard with greater amount of trust.

Several aspects can improve employee experience, such as:

An improved interface on the mobile or desktop applications

Improved workspace design

The flexibility that offers a healthy work-life balance

Manageable workload

Learning experiences and development opportunities

Organisations looking to bring their employees onboard the digital transformation wave must design employee experience keeping this in mind.

Begin with high-impact roles (Top-down approach)

Though digital HR transformation will ultimately reach the entire organisation, some influential people and high-impact roles are who you should focus on first. These individuals are already in leadership roles or have skill sets critical to achieving your highest business priorities.

This activity may also involve reassigning people with these skills to essential roles or helping them upskill. According to a report, only 10% of an organisation’s workforce is at immediate risk of losing their jobs to automation. If you target this population and help them move to new roles, you are sure to garner more support from them.

Stimulate the development of new behaviour

When aiming at any form of workforce transformation, you must design the effort to instil new behaviours because what people do changes what they know! Though behavioural change takes time, you can develop several initiatives and incorporate them into training courses.

Avoid a top-down approach for a behavioural approach

A top-down approach is vastly preferred when working on bringing employees on board a transformation journey like this one. However, using the same approach for behavioural change fails. Employees today wish to be active participants in any change that affects them. They are also close to customers and actively participate in the day-to-day business execution. So, always promote grassroots efforts to encourage behavioural change in employees.

Plan and commit to the journey

Once you have decided to bring about digital HR transformation in your organisation, you must have a phase-wise plan for implementing it. Workforce transformation does not happen in just a few pockets of the company but extends throughout. Since the successful implementation of your digital transformation may take two to three years, you must plan and prepare for it without losing focus.

Align with company culture

Any workforce transformation exercise must be aligned with the culture of the organisation. When digital HR transformation resonates with the culture, employees are more likely to trust and believe it. It is essential to send the right signals to employees so that they are not anxious about how the new change will affect their livelihood and roles

While incorporating diversity and inclusivity in your digital HR transformation exercise, you must include all employees, regardless of their religion, caste, gender, or sexual orientation. Employees who are unwilling or excessively resistant are the ones who require more support. Understanding their views and what they have to say is recommended before deciding their future in the organisation.

Key Takeaway!