HR Professionals Of The Future Will Be Data Scientists First
HR and Rewards are experiencing a technological transformation, but it will require a transformation in HR skills too. Get it right and companies can expect to maximize ROI for technology and also mould their HR departments into strategic business partners, writes Ken Charman is CEO of uFlexReward
The technology revolution that is currently underway in HR could be totally undermined if HR practitioners do not have the skills needed to make the most of new digital solutions.
While HR is one of the last operational areas to see the full force of technology transformation, it is in the crosshairs of an increasing number of software vendors. Technology strategists look at the outdated and manual processes that still occur across HR and Rewards as the perfect opportunity for automation solutions. At the same time, organizations see the huge cost of resourcing and want to find new ways of recruiting and retaining employees, building talent pools and maximizing their investments.
With digital transformation expected to strongly impact all areas of HR from the nature of work, the future skills required for an organization’s workforce, to the delivery of reward, we are at the cusp of significant, even transformative changes. However, understanding how specific digital solutions address the individual requirements of your organization is vital. Even more important though is the need to ensure you are putting these technology solutions in the hands of HR and reward leaders that can make the most of them.
This will require a transformation in HR skills that is just as significant as any technology investment. Get it right and organizations can expect to not only maximize ROI on the technology but also mould their HR departments into ones that are strategic business partners responsible for significant impact on the company’s bottom line, and also with the analytic capability to understand and make sense of a greater degree of data in the future.
The HR Technology Revolution Is Upon Us
Organizations are investing more than ever in HR technology as vendors develop solutions that incorporate a range of innovative technologies. In the last year, organizations have increased their investment in HR technology by 29%, resulting in the HR technology market growing by 10%.
A range of trends are emerging, including the shift from engagement to productivity in core systems, the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the significance of gig workforce management.
Unilever’s use of AI is just one example of the change that is occurring. As a business, it recruits more than 30,000 people a year and processes around 1.8 million job applications. This obviously takes a lot of time and effort, so Unilever made use of AI in an online platform that enabled candidates to be assessed at home in front of a computer or mobile screen.
With the candidates asked to perform a series of tests, machine learning algorithms then assessed their suitability for different roles, resulting in 70,000 hours of interviews and assessments being saved from HR employees’ time.
Apart from AI, another key area of innovation in this sector is HR analytics, which relates to the area of productivity. This emerging trend is a methodology for creating insights on how investments in human capital assets contribute to the success of an organization. This is done by applying statistical methods to integrated HR, talent management, financial and operational data.
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Tech Solutions Without Data Skills Are Pointless
While these solutions and the results they produce will sound very tempting to Chief Human Resource Officers (CHROs), companies should tread carefully in their vendor selection process.
The most important first step is to identify what the company really needs, rather than be sold the benefits of a particular technology. Practitioner-led solutions, which have been built and are maintained by professionals with real HR industry experience, are usually the best option for organizations that don’t fully understand which solution fits their needs.
This consultative approach shouldn’t end with sales and onboarding either. The best practitioners will understand the importance of upskilling HR teams to make the most of the new technology that should become a fundamental part of an HR employee’s job.
Recent research from the CIPD on people analytics shows how important this upskilling will be. At present, only half (54%) of companies think their HR team has demonstrable numerical and statistical skills. In addition, only 40% think those teams are able to tackle organization issues using analytics data.
Data science skills will play an increasingly important role within organizations that invest in the new wave of HR technologies, as these organizations look to make the most of their investments. That means having intellectually curious people who can interrogate and interpret the data, deciphering where it has come from, what it tells them and what the anomalies are.
Once the skills are in place within the HR team, the next area ripe for distribution is rewards. So much of HR analysis is linked to productivity, attraction, motivation, and retention which are all linked too, and very dependent on the reward. Yet, the traditional reward model of fixed structures and pay ranges within an organization does not easily lend itself to the adaptability and flexibility the future ‘digital workforce’ will require.
The absence of any system capable of consolidating and analyzing global reward data, on a granular, employee-level, is a data gap that needs to be resolved, especially for global organizations that require consistency in rewards across functions and countries.
Working with Unilever for seven years to build such a system to consolidate and analyze global reward data has made the reward more engaging and relevant for employees. Unilever are now able to experiment with the data to truly understand what motivates their employees which will lead to greater employee retention and address a number of other workplace requirements, that soon will become mandatory for organizations like the gender pay gap, diversity reporting and more.
Data-Driven HR Will Power Organization Transformation
The benefits of this upskilling will not be limited to making the most of new technology either. By introducing data science as a core skill within HR departments, organizations can change their employees from people managers to business strategists.
The HR professionals of the future will be advising organizations on everything from pay ratio adjustments and cost-effective locations to borderless workforces. This will be possible because they are able to act on the data at their fingertips, developing interpretable models and explainable analytical results that win over the confidence of key decision-makers.
This type of technology transformation within HR departments may seem like it’s a long way off for some organizations, and achieving this change alone could feel like a major success. However, once that first milestone has been passed, it cannot be a one-off event.
Learn More: Automation Technology Makes Human Resources More ‘Human’
The technology skills of today are attainable for anyone wanting to transform their career but these skills are also finite in their relevance. In fact, the half-life of a technology skill is thought to be just two years. Therefore individuals will need to constantly refresh the ones they have, even if they have only just been learned.
This will result in a bigger emphasis on relevant skills as opposed to years of experience when deciding how valuable an employee is, particularly as the open marketplace for global talent expands. While such changes will affect all aspects of work, HR departments that are able to change their practices now, molding themselves into data-driven, skills-based teams, will be able to lead this change across organizations.
Learn More: Understanding the Essence of HR Digital Transformation
