Introduction

Does digital transformation impact me?

Far from just a big business challenge, IDC defines digital transformation as the application of digital technologies that fundamentally impact all aspects of business and society as a whole. In this respect, digital transformation touches all organizations, their customers, and fundamentally their employees.

What if my team is too busy to address this?

By failing to address digital technologies, your organization could become less competitive. More importantly, you could start to lose talented employees and become less successful in attracting new ones. Digital transformation is also the source of new ideas, business models, and ways of working. It has the potential to reengage employees, management, and customers through new methods and tools.

Can digital transformation help me in my role?

Digital transformation has the potential to reinvigorate the HR functions, freeing up more of your time to concentrate on delivering value to the business, rather than managing requests. Around the world, small and medium-sized businesses are investing in resources to improve employee productivity and their competitive positions.

How does digital HR transformation happen?

Far from an overnight solution, digital transformation and HR transformation are a journey that you can begin at any time using the skills and people you already have access to. This IDC interactive guide takes you on this journey, outlining the drivers and key aspects you need to consider. It also helps you understand where you should be heading and the kinds of challenges you can address through HR transformation. Critically, it shows you how digital will transform your own role.

Disruption and Transformation

Digital Transformation is Happening

Digital transformation is happening in more and more organizations, and small and medium businesses can not afford to ignore it. Critically for HR, the barriers to successful transformation are people, knowledge, and culture. Like it or not, the business will be looking to the HR department to support these initiatives and make this happen for the employee base.

Organizations engaged in
digital transformation (%)

Who is Leading
DX? (%)

Top 4 Recognized Barriers to Successful Digital Transformation:

24%

People
Our organization does not have enough people with digital skills

22%

Knowledge
We lack a sufficient understanding of what digital transformation is and who can help us

21%

Financial incentives
Our financial systems do not incentivise us to take the required risks for digital businesses

21%

Culture
Our organization does not have a risk-taking, innovation-driven culture

TAKEAWAY:

The fundamentals of digital transformation success will be based on HR transformation success.

Transformation of the workforce, and the way it is utilized, managed, and improved, is a central feature of this process. On top of everyday tasks and managing a team, many HR professionals will be tasked with keeping pace and delivering change.

This can only be achieved by HR helping to create an agile organization that meets the demands of the business, but also one that helps employees and managers become and remain engaged, productive, and focused. At the same time, HR must maintain a development path and training goals, and manage overall employee performance. This includes not only the talent you have, but also the talent you target. To achieve this, HR professionals must:

Drive HR transformation through a highly engaged workforce

Ensure HR becomes a central to delivering transformation and continuous change

Create an agile, flexible, and reactive organization, built on a collaborative culture

Develop, retain, and attract the right talent into and within the business

TAKEAWAY:

Ensure your HR processes begin with the employee, involve managers, and result in a highly engaged and collaborative workforce.

HR is No Longer a Support Function

HR is central to delivering digital transformation, but very few HR leaders are heading this process … why?

This comes down to the traditional perception that HR professionals are less strategic and that their department (which may be under-resourced) does not possess the necessary skills or leverage within the business.

HR departments and HR leaders cannot afford to be seen as a process and policy driven section of the business. They must be seen as central to the business and demand a seat at the table.

TAKEAWAY:

Those leading digital transformation must be made aware of the "people" element, sooner rather than later …

Your Existing Resources Will be Key

Q. When choosing an external service provider in support of your digital transformation, which type of provider would you prefer to use for each of the following stages?

TAKEAWAY:

The process of digital transformation requires identification, availability, and access to the right talent. You cannot hire your way to transformation …

Delivering Strategic HR

Become a "strategic" HR department

Strategic HR is the process of delivering HR based on wider business objectives and outcomes, rather than process or administrative requirements — the bigger picture as opposed to (or as well as) the everyday.

Within four years (2012-2016), there has been a significant increase in the number of organizations that implement a formal talent management strategy.

TAKEAWAY:

Now is the time to formalize your talent management strategy.

The Transformation Journey is About Changing HR Priorities

One of the first steps to delivering HR transformation is automating processes and streamlining everyday tasks and admin. From here, you can drive employee engagement, which is central to productivity and talent retention.

TAKEAWAY:

The shift in importance placed on HR priorities signals a change in focus and a migration away from administration and towards performance and talent management. This has to be supported by automation and self-service tools.

Despite the Urgency of an HR Strategy …

Q. How many organizations have talent management and HR systems integrated?

A. Only 17% of organizations have talent management and HR systems integrated.

Q. How many organizations believe top talent is tapped wherever it is?

A. Only 10% believe top talent is tapped wherever it is.

Q. How many organizations have self-organizing teams?

A. Only 8% have self-organizing teams.

Q. How many organizations have collaborative, agile, and adaptive work methods in place?

A. Only 16% have collaborative, agile, and adaptive work methods in place.

TAKEAWAY:

Very few organizations are addressing this. LOOK FOR QUICK WINS.

Avoid the Downward Spiral of Talent Retention

HR professionals need to break this vicious circle before it becomes a downward spiral. New tools and processes are one way to drive improved employee (and management) engagement, as well as streamline HR functions to enable a more strategic focus.

Realizing the Transformation Journey

Employees Are Your Competitive Advantage

Attract

the best talent, into the best roles, with clear (and parallel) career development, as well as attracting employees from across deprtments.

Develop

talent across the organization, reskilling and retraining where possible, as well as empowering talent with the tools to enable this.

Retain

people, skills, and enagement by delivering opportunity and progression. Most critically, retain a highly engaged workforce.

Optimize

talent, skills, and potential (future capability). Ensure that the human capital and knowledge capital of the business exceeds the sum of the parts.

IDC has identified five key trends and actions to address the challenges of digital transformation and the development of HR

EMPOWERING HR ACROSS THE BUSINESS

IDC research shows that organizations want an inclusive HR system that lets HR staff, managers, and employees become responsible for their own experience without complicated procedures.
HR professionals must empower LOB and employees, turning everyone into "HR experts."
How do I empower LOB? What software, processes, and policies do I need in place?

IMPACTFUL HR DECISION MAKING

Analytics throughout the employee life cycle can deliver significant benefits, from identifying candidate suitability to determining flight risk and possible courses of action.
59% of the respondents in IDC’s Western Europe HCM survey said that analytics and dashboards are either very or extremely important when making decisions about investing in HCM software solutions.

CONTINUOUS EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT

6% of Fortune 500 companies have abandoned rankings and annual reviews.
IDC research shows more organizations are performing frequent appraisals.
Continuous, "check-in" style personal development, engaging HR processes for performance, learning/development, and more regular feedback from peers and supervisors are becoming the norm.

MANAGING A FLEXIBLE WORKFORCE

Only 10% of Western European HCM survey respondents were able to tap into talent wherever it is, through employment, contingent, contract, or freelancers.
Yet up to 30% of large company HR spend goes towards contingent workers.
With these employees now critical to the talent ecosystem, HR demands a redefinition of both the processes and how to best manage these people.

SOCIAL AND COLLABORATIVE LEARNING

Over half of respondents in IDC's Western Europe HCM survey said that learning integration in a complete employee life-cycle solution is a high priority.
HCM systems should also provide the opportunity for social learning, turning everyone into both "teachers" and "students."
Best practices are better communicated, databases of experiences are created, and content distributed.

TAKEAWAY:

By addressing these initiatives, HR can deliver increased value but also gain time and insight to become more strategic and deliver increased value.

HR Must Move to the Center of Business Decision Making

HR departments want a solution that frees up time from HR admin, allows for strategic inputs, and helps them deal with issues of planning, resourcing, and development.

Line-of-business managers want their staff to be engaged, with a high level of self-service, and to fulfill HR-related tasks with ease and on time.

Executives want to complete business transformation projects that will future proof their organizations. They care about efficiency, engagement, and productivity.

Employees want self-service, zero-hassle, easy-to-use HR tools that help them keep track of their KPIs, their development goals, and their prospective paths.

TAKEAWAY:

These fundamental target groups form the backbone of strategic HR initatives, therefore delivering change

The Strategic HR Journey

Strategic HR means HR transformation

The successful system must include the following:

Ability to reduce mundane and repetitive tasks for user, HR staff, and managers
Ability to interface with the existing data and offer insights and information that is tangible and useful
Ability to incorporate feedback, training plans, and workforce planning into multiple and easy-to-use views

Next Steps

Playbook - Things to Focus On

Executive Stakeholders

Clearly communicate the company vision for HR and digital transformation.	Spell out the vision with clear roles and responsibilities and set communication guidelines across the organization.
Find the bottlenecks and take action to meet the challenge.	Streamline processes, secure buy-in from the executive team for rapid action on emerging issues and simplify approval for actions in line with the vision.
Rethink your talent needs and devise the plan to act.	Make talent retention and attraction a key part of your strategy with continuous updates tied to performance.
Devise a long-term training and development plan and muster resources to drive engagement with it.	Ask for business units to create distinct and comprehensive training plans that will meet their teams’ needs and fit with the company vision.
Make HR transformation the core of your digital transformation project with your people leading the change in your organization.	Embracing change will require new measurements and KPIs, and new structures, goals, and incentives that need executive support as they trickle down in the organization.

Business Managers

Clearly communicate the company vision for HR and digital transformation.	Understand your team’s role and responsibilities and monitor the progress that you are making, by incentivizing your team members to act.
Find the bottlenecks and take action to meet the challenge	Pay attention to established practices and seek out delays and inefficiencies, work with your team to streamline process, and focus on the delivery of value.
Rethink your talent needs and devise the plan to act.	Think and plan for the long-term, determine skills that will be needed for the future, and create bespoke talent pools and succession plans.
Devise a long-term training and development plan and muster resources to drive engagement with it.	Work with the business to determine what skills are no longer needed and which employees need to be retrained and ensure new staff gets access to rich and relevant materials.
Make HR transformation the core of your digital transformation project with your people leading the change in your organization.	Make use of new tools, analytics and frequent feedback to monitor process of your digital transformation responsibilities and lead your team in line with the company vision.

HR Departments

Clearly communicate the company vision for HR and digital transformation.	Let your department take the lead in fostering this vision and use internal communications to reinforce change and regular staff surveys to drive engagement.
Find the bottlenecks and take action to meet the challenge.	Collect the inputs from different departments, document and curate best practices and help managers be productive and on time with the right set of tools.
Rethink your talent needs and devise the plan to act.	Maintain an overview of the talent needs for your organization in the long-term, keep managers tied to their plans, check progress, and update role profiles and skills inventory.
Devise a long-term training and development plan and muster resources to drive engagement with it.	Ensure that HR systems allow for distributed and social learning, maintain and curate the library for relevant content across the organization, and integrate learning as part of development and engagement policies.
Make HR transformation the core of your digital transformation project with your people leading the change in your organization.	Reshape the scope of the HR department to be less process oriented and more strategic while making change a key measure of success.

Executive Stakeholders
Clearly communicate the company vision for HR and digital transformation.	Spell out the vision with clear roles and responsibilities and set communication guidelines across the organization
Find the bottlenecks and take action to meet the challenge.	Streamline processes, secure buy-in from the executive team for rapid action on emerging issues and simplify approval for actions in line with the vision.
Rethink your talent needs and devise the plan to act.	Make talent retention and attraction a key part of your strategy with continuous updates tied to performance.
Devise a long-term training and development plan and muster resources to drive engagement with it.	Ask for business units to create distinct and comprehensive training plans that will meet their teams’ needs and fit with the company vision.
Make HR transformation the core of your digital transformation project with your people leading the change in your organization	Embracing change will require new measurements and KPIs, and new structures, goals, and incentives that need executive support as they trickle down in the organization.

Business Managers
Clearly communicate the company vision for HR and digital transformation.	Understand your team’s role and responsibilities and monitor the progress that you are making, by incentivizing your team members to act.
Find the bottlenecks and take action to meet the challenge.	Pay attention to established practices and seek out delays and inefficiencies, work with your team to streamline process and focus on the delivery of value.
Rethink your talent needs and devise the plan to act.	Think and plan for the long-term, determine skills that will be needed for the future, and create bespoke talent pools and succession plans.
Devise a long-term training and development plan and muster resources to drive engagement with it.	Work with the business to determine what skills are no longer needed and which employees need to be retrained and ensure new staff gets access to rich and relevant materials.
Make HR transformation the core of your digital transformation project with your people leading the change in your organization.	Make use of new tools, analytics and frequent feedback to monitor process of your digital transformation responsibilities and lead your team in line with the company vision.

HR Departments
Clearly communicate the company vision for HR and digital transformation.	Let your department take the lead in fostering this vision and use internal coms to reinforce change and regular staff surveys to drive engagement.
Find the bottlenecks and take action to meet the challenge.	Collect the inputs from different departments, document and curate best practices and help managers be productive and on time with the right set of tools.
Rethink your talent needs and devise the plan to act.	Maintain an overview of the talent needs for your organization in the long-term, keep managers tied to their plans, check progress, and update role profiles and skills inventory.
Devise a long-term training and development plan and muster resources to drive engagement with it.	Ensure that HR systems allow for distributed and social learning, maintain and curate the library for relevant content across the organization, and integrate learning as part of development and engagement policies.
Make HR transformation the core of your digital transformation project with your people leading the change in your organization.	Reshape the scope of the HR department to be less process oriented and more strategic while making change a key measure of success.

Recommendations

1

Transform your HR role and that of your department from a keeper of records to a strategic business partner. This means becoming a driver of change, creator of efficiencies, and agent of growth and talent attraction. Use HR to guide your business transformation rather than just keeping score of the process. Freeing up your time is central to achieving this.
2

Enable your HR department to become more efficient, save time, and spend resources on securing better access to talent and higher employee engagement.
3

Start by automating some of the mundane and repetitive tasks your team has to perform on a daily basis. One way to address this is by focusing on employee and management self-service, such as web-based holiday requests, or access to HR policies online.
4

Rethink the skills your organization needs and how you can attract the best fit for open positions. Reevaluate your hiring process to ensure the best talent flow.
5

Think about automating training and development, so employees can self-learn and also teach each other. Personal development, will lead to more engaged employees and a happier workforce.
6

Make better use of analytics to identify why some employees leave. Find new ways to engage them and build policies around succession planning.
7

Empower your organization with a strong HR department that will foster your employer brand and raise your visibility in the market.

Scorecard

	Functional	Tactical	Strategic
Talent	Simple recruiting and development structures in place — disconnected from each other and with minimal ability to engage contingent labor	Some integration between recruiting and development and performance management but still siloed — gig economy still at arm's length	Integrated talent attraction, retention, and engagement planning with regular performance and development feedback with talent tapped everywhere and anywhere
Culture	Lack of unified culture — departmental guidelines and local practices prevail	General values and principles that guide a corporate vision but not fully aligned between roles, functions, and departments	Well communicated and articulated culture that drives business, digital, and HR transformation across all departments, roles, and geos
Learning	Decentralised and ad hoc, learning is completed to satisfy legislative requirements or CPDs and is disjointed from performance, compensation, and development	Breadth and width of corporate knowledge and corporately sanctioned training materials but rigid and inflexible learning structures with regular intervals and limited input by end users	Distributed learning where company-curated material and end-user-created content coexist to support engagement, on-the-job learning, and KPIs
Planning	Ad hoc planning decision making and processes, no distinct plan for the future, no succession planning or talent pool in place	Some succession planning and some best practices in place and the ability to plan in the medium term but limited view beyond the horizon	Clearly defined succession planning, alumni programs, ability to adjust to flexible workforce requirements, and ability to plan for the long term

	Functional
Talent	Simple recruiting and development structures in place – disconnected from each other and with minimal ability to engage contingent labor
Culture	Lack of unified culture – departmental guidelines and local practices prevail
Learning	Decentralized and ad hoc, learning is completed to satisfy legislative requirements or CPDs and is disjointed from performance, compensation and development
Planning	Ad hoc planning decision making and processes, no distinct plan for the future, no succession planning or talent pool in place.

	Tactical
Talent	Some integration between recruiting and development and performance management but still siloed – gig economy still at arms’ length.
Culture	General values and principles that guide a corporate vision but not fully aligned between roles, functions and departments
Learning	Breadth and width of corporate knowledge and corporately sanctioned training materials but rigid and inflexible learning structures with regular intervals and limited input by end users.
Planning	Some succession planning and some best practices in place and the ability to plan in the medium term but limited view beyond the horizon.

	Strategic
Talent	Integrated talent attraction, retention and engagement planning with regular performance and development feedback with talent tapped everywhere and anywhere
Culture	Well communicated and articulated culture that drives business, digital and HR transformation across all departments, roles and geos.
Learning	Distributed learning where company curated material and end user created content coexist to support engagement, on-the job learning and KPIs.
Planning	Clearly defined succession planning, alumni programs, ability to adjust in flexible workforce requirements and ability to plan for the long-term.

HR TRANSFORMATION AND THE DIGITAL JOURNEY How Small and Medium-Sized Businesses Can Deliver Strategic HR

Introduction

Does digital transformation impact me?

What if my team is too busy to address this?

Can digital transformation help me in my role?

How does digital HR transformation happen?

Disruption and Transformation

Digital Transformation is Happening

Organizations engaged indigital transformation (%)

Who is Leading DX? (%)

Top 4 Recognized Barriers to Successful Digital Transformation:

TAKEAWAY:

TAKEAWAY:

HR is No Longer a Support Function

TAKEAWAY:

Your Existing Resources Will be Key

TAKEAWAY:

Delivering Strategic HR

Become a "strategic" HR department

TAKEAWAY:

The Transformation Journey is About Changing HR Priorities

TAKEAWAY:

Despite the Urgency of an HR Strategy …

TAKEAWAY:

Avoid the Downward Spiral of Talent Retention

Increasing talent scarcity

Difficulty adapting to changing work practices

Unable to deliver business outcomes

Inability to handle high employee expectations

Realizing the Transformation Journey

Employees Are Your Competitive Advantage

Attract

Develop

Retain

Optimize

IDC has identified five key trends and actions to address the challenges of digital transformation and the development of HR

TAKEAWAY:

HR Must Move to the Center of Business Decision Making

TAKEAWAY:

The Strategic HR Journey

Strategic HR means HR transformation

Next Steps

Playbook - Things to Focus On

Executive Stakeholders

Business Managers

HR Departments

Recommendations

Scorecard

Let your CxO know why digital transformation is needed now.

HR TRANSFORMATION AND THE DIGITAL JOURNEY
How Small and Medium-Sized Businesses
Can Deliver Strategic HR

Organizations engaged in
digital transformation (%)

Who is Leading
DX? (%)