Digital transformation and the world-class HR difference
| Pages | 86-88 |
| Published date | 10 April 2017 |
| Date | 10 April 2017 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/SHR-01-2017-0001 |
| Author | Dorothée El-Khoury |
| Subject Matter | HR & organizational behaviour,Employee behaviour |
Digital transformation and the world-class
HR difference
Dorothée El-Khoury
Dorothée El-Khoury is HR Practice
Leader at the The Hackett Group,
Paris, France.
Research from The Hackett
Group defines world-class
HR organizations as those
that feature in the top quartile for
both effectiveness and efficiency
across a number of metrics. In
practice and performance, the
differences between these
organizations and the rest are
substantial.
World-class HR departments
employ 32 per cent fewer staff
than the peer group and spend 23
per cent less per employee. This
has substantial financial
advantages: a company that
generates US$10bn a year in
revenue can take up to US$14mn
out of their cost base if they
can achieve world-class
status.
This performance difference has
not arisen in a vacuum. The best
HR organizations know how to
leverage digital technologies,
analytics, resource allocation,
business partnering, service
design and delivery to the greater
business’ advantage. Their greater
understanding and efficient,
budget-friendly philosophy is
essential to their superiority over
the peer group.
For companies who hope to catch up
with world-class performance,
progress should focus on the
following five areas.
Digital transformation
How HR positions itself in digital
transformation is very revealing of its
ability to act as a valued business
partner. World-class HR functions
play a leadership role in the digital
transformation of their organization,
while others are trying to figure out
how to use what they see as a new
set of IT tools to serve the same old
processes.
The digital world requires new skills to
make, collect, cleanse and make
sense of the mass of new information
available, to the benefit of the
business. It will bring dramatic
changes to the workforce, decreasing
sharply in numbers as robots replace
humans while specializing steeply for
the remaining roles. Also, digital world
has completely transformed the
workplace: the way employees
interact, when and where they work
from, what information they use to do
their jobs, how they see their career
and what they expect from their
employer has completely changed,
and it is HR’s responsibility to ensure
that the business needs are fulfilled in
this context. HR must ensure that the
new skill requirements are
understood; that the company has a
brand to attract these scarce profiles;
that employees enjoy the workplace
and are willing to further engage; and
that the people with outdated profiles
are re-skilled efficiently or managed
out of the business in a respectful
manner.
Strategic commentary
PAGE 86 STRATEGIC HR REVIEW VOL. 16 NO. 2 2017, pp. 86-88, © Emerald Publishing Limited, ISSN 1475-4398 DOI 10.1108/SHR-01-2017-0001
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