Reshaping Talent Management With Digital Transformation
Global organizations are now seven years ahead of the scheduled digital transformation initiatives. The role of HR professionals in enabling the speedy adoption of digital technologies is of great importance
COVID-19 has pushed companies over the edge of technological transformation and has speeded the adoption of digital technologies by several years. (McKinsey COVID-19 Survey)
Driven by the urgency led by COVID-19, organizations have been forced to reshape their entire business models to stay competitive in the changing and external environment and remain connected with employees, customers, and suppliers. As a result, global organizations are now seven years ahead of the scheduled digital transformation initiatives.
The role of HR professionals in enabling the speedy adoption of digital technologies is of paramount importance. It is the contribution of talent management professionals that separates organizations, which thrive despite a crisis and those who are left behind.
Owing to the rapid changes in the business ecosystem, a report by McLean and Company Trends shows that major skill gaps in talent management need the attention of leaders now more than ever. The HR teams and leaders must work towards closing these skill gaps by improving talent acquisition, retention, diversity and inclusion, and employee experiences through digitally transformation.
How to get started with the digital transformation of talent management?
Companies have accelerated the digitalization of their customer base and supply chain relations as well as of their internal operations by 3 to 4 years. -McKinsey Global Survey of Executives (2020)
If you haven’t started yet, begin with the analysis of gaps in existing talent management strategy of your organization. Some popular concern areas where such gaps are found include:
- Recruiting from thousands of applicants, and effective talent acquisition
- Retention of top talent and diverse set of people
- Lack of an extended visibility into employee capabilities and skills
- Mismanagement of workforce strategy in contrast to business strategy
What do top organizations do to fix these gaps?
The key solutions that can drive digital transformation to resolve the above-mentioned problem areas areas are:
- Legacy recruitment and applicant tracking systems
One of the most pressing challenges for HR in today’s virtual first world is to attract and recruit the most qualified and talented candidates. Agile organizations combat this by relying on automated applicant tracking systems as an aspect of digital transformation strategy.
According to a recent COVID-19 survey by McKinsey, 75% of the companies digitally transforming their operations were able to fill the tech talent gaps during the COVID-19 outbreak.
2. Top Talent Retention
Employees who can’t find a career path internally in an organization while they find a growth opportunity in another organization are one of the primary reasons for the decreasing average tenure of employees at companies. Therefore, the best way possible for retaining top talent retention is to give career guidance to the employees, and open pathways for internal mobility as well (both vertical and horizontal). Organizations can provide employees a self-service option for personalized coaching guidance and take periodic auto-feedback to take a step forward toward retaining their best employees.
3. Lack of Visibility
Often so happens that HRs, and even team leaders and top executives have no idea of “other skills and capabilities” of their employees. It highly restricts talent managers’ view on talent placement within the organization and give right growth opportunities to employees. The lack of visibility from the employer’s end also limits their ability to benchmark talent, formulate programmatic, scalable, and adaptable career development opportunities. Ultimately, the HR professionals fail to redeploy talent in flexible ways that can serve business strategies transforming at a rapid pace impacted by the global pandemic.
4. Workforce strategies that don’t align
The workforce strategies that don’t align with the business strategies also waste opportunities, and reduce morale, workforce productivity, and professional growth. While companies extensively invest in building meaningful infrastructures like learning management systems and several other employee experiences and development tools, they often fail to deliver a unified platform for growth opportunities to the right person at the right time.
Overcoming the challenges
Talent management is an integral part of every organization. HRs are one of the important business partners who have all the means to lead good returns and even make plans for the company’s future. Here is what talent managers can do to deliver higher contributions toward digital transformation:
● By merging the ongoing business insights based on technology management, data analytics, and business transformation apps and tools, talent management platforms can build personalized and digitally driven employee experiences.
● The primary goal of any talent management platform must revolve around delivering a personalized employee experience at scale through all communication channels that the organization relies on — whether it’s digital or human.
● Talent management platforms must be developed in-empathy to deliver immediate & beneficial outcomes that further strengthen team inclusion. One of the best talent management platforms provide apps, data, and contextual intelligence to navigate task ownership within an organization and improve accountability.
Wrapping Up
Transforming employee experience up to an extent where people have an immediate affinity for the organization they apply to and where self-service options are intuitive enough is the goal for most organizations today. This can be achieved only through personalization at a scale, real-time automation, and visibility. These core values must be the center of the digital evolution efforts made by organizations.
