Digital transformation needs the human touch

Date10 April 2017
Published date10 April 2017
DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1108/SHR-02-2017-0011
Pages91-92
AuthorJavier Bajer
Subject MatterHR & organizational behaviour,Employee behaviour
Digital transformation needs the
human touch
Javier Bajer
Javier Bajer is Founding CEO at
The Talent Foundation, London,
UK.
Of course, we know that
digital transformation is
happening everywhere,
driving how we live, work and even
how we relate to each other.
From an HR perspective, things will
change dramatically. Talent
management and development
functions will be decentralised,
becoming powerful business tools
for individuals and their managers.
Most likely, our HR organisations will
get smaller and a lot more
business-relevant. Rather than
struggling to earn the position of
“business partners”, HR will become
more strategic and, as such, an
integral part of the business.
But for too many people, digital
transformation carries a daunting
perspective. There is a growing
conversation about how many of our
jobs are going to be replaced by
more “intelligent” alternatives. The
scaremongers have been too busy
warning us of the discouraging
future we are walking into. We have
been told of the number of jobs that
will disappear from this earth, a
consequence of the relentless
invasion of digital transformation.
There is even a BBC website where
you calculate the probability of
losing your job to a robot in the next
few years – amazing!
Call me an optimist, but I believe
that this is an exciting opportunity
for the world of work to reconnect
with our true potential as humans.
For years, we have been designing
(and resourcing) jobs without
necessarily considering what people
are best at. Any job was good
enough so long as it could keep
someone sufficiently busy,
“productive” and earning an income
so the economy could continue to
turn. And as it goes, we have been
too busy matchmaking people with
work, favouring market dynamics
over human unique abilities and
preferences.
The proof that we have missed the
plot is that, as shown by most
Employee Engagement global
indicators, nine out of ten people do
not like their jobs today. Considering
that we spend about a third of our
lives working, this is rather
significant. Over the recent years,
we have developed alternative ways
to “engage” our workforces by using
a combination of pay, perks and
promises – perhaps trying to
compensate for those jobs where
people were not adding their unique
value. We have confused
engagement with attachment,
agreeing amongst ourselves that
this is not actually a big problem, so
long as it is everyone’s problem.
Digital transformation is now giving
us the opportunity to create a new
generation of jobs where humans
can finally do what they are best at.
HR professionals can now be very
creative and design jobs based on
what makes us different and special.
Strategic commentary
DOI 10.1108/SHR-02-2017-0011 VOL. 16 NO. 2 2017, pp. 91-92, © Emerald Publishing Limited, ISSN 1475-4398 STRATEGIC HR REVIEW PAGE 91

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