HR Has to Go Digital Now

There would be little argument to say that 2020 has not been the year that most businesses expected and that this has impacted HR departments perhaps more than most with furlough schemes, redundancies, overnight remote working and mental health issues all under the scrutiny of stricter and sticker compliance regulation.

According to the analysis firm Gartner, up to 80% of organisations fell behind with the technology required for HR departments to function efficiently at the beginning of the pandemic, even though they were digitally enabled.

So why was this?

Whilst technology to aid business process has been in existence for some time implementation was always slow. Typically, this was caused by simply thinking too big, too quickly and as a result far too many people becoming involved in the process or else a fear of cultural change and on rarer occasions a reluctance to invest preferring the “if it’s not broken” perspective.

Traditionally this has caused the introduction of new beneficial tech to be relegated in the list of priorities and rollout inevitably becomes both slow and cumbersome.

The events of 2020 surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic have forced HR departments to fast track their digital plans to meet the new work challenges, not least, the large numbers of their staff now consistently working away from the office but requiring regular access to filing remaining in the office.

Suddenly, almost overnight, a nice to have has become a crucial business tool to ensure staff can communicate efficiently and carry out their tasks effectively.

Previous
Next

The shift from on-premise to Cloud

Until relatively recently, on-premise solutions were the most popular means of delivering document management solutions, however these required often significant up-front expenditure and ongoing support from in-house IT teams.

Over recent years on-premise has been replaced by Cloud solutions in popularity, a trajectory which has increased dramatically due to Coronavirus, owing to its flexibility and that it may be used from any location and on any device and generally funded by monthly subscription rather than capital outlay.

This has been particularly beneficial to HR and Payroll departments, who still require to work with employees and manage their sensitive information even when working remotely.

They have quickly realised that their traditional working methods of manual processes and face to face meetings have had to be replaced with electronic working and MS Teams.

A recent survey has indicated that 79% of businesses have increased their budgets this year to accommodate the need for digital working and clearly HR have been very much one of the drivers of this initiative.

People have changed

Change or more precisely the fear of change, has often been a major factor in HR departments retaining traditional methods of filing and working.

One of the few positives to come out of this year has been that people have been forced to embrace digital media in both their work and personal lives. From Teams and Zoom meetings to live streaming of events and webinars they have adopted new skills and with-it confidence.

This has served to make people more comfortable than ever before in both working and relaxing digitally, so much so that McKinsey & Co in a recent survey discovered that 75% of people intend to continue with these new outlets once things return to a degree of normality.

Employers too have learned, some to their extreme cost, that happenings such as COVID left them rather flat footed and have to protect themselves from this repeating in the future now the potential of a Worldwide pandemics exists.

What of the Future

Even amongst the most reluctant businesses the paperless office revolution is set to continue with HR set to be the lead in this.

The future indicates that people will continue to work remotely at least partially and to facilitate this employee records must be managed digitally and centrally with existing manual processes being automated.

The obvious benefits to both employers and HR teams are numerous, from a reduction in office costs to greater security and compliance.

Employees mental health has become a consideration in recent months like never before. Employers will in the future need to provide flexibility and a better work life balance to compete for the most talented workers and of course digital working will allow them to recruit from further afield as proximity to the office will be far less a consideration.

It seems likely that those businesses which stubbornly refuse to adopt the new way of working will struggle to compete, be slower in reacting to opportunity and be less attractive to the best talent.

If you need help in transforming your HR and payroll to grasp the future and prosper, we’re here to help, why not get in touch and let one of our experts assist you.

24th December 2020Trending Today HR Has to Go Digital Now Working from…