3 ways to achieve operational excellence in HR
Request –> Result
If you’re anything like us, you really look forward to those rare evenings when you have absolutely nothing to do. But, more often than not, when you get home you realise there’s laundry to fold away. Pots and pans to wash up. And, as you climb wearily into bed, you wonder where all that time went.
The point we’re making? When it comes to sticking to a plan, the little distractions can really add up. The same applies to your HR team. Whether they’re processing holiday, pulling paperwork, or logging review outcomes, there’s always a task waiting to be done.
McKinsey found that the typical HR department spends close to 60% of its time and resources on transactional and operational HR [1]. That’s a vast proportion of the working week taken up by administration.
The truth is, when your team gets involved in operational issues, they can’t focus on achieving more strategic goals. Like finding your next hot hire. Paving the way for better working relationships. Or simply thinking about the bigger picture. Imagine a world where your team can respond to events in real-time. Or one where they can anticipate and solve employee needs, before they become issues.
That’s the power of digital transformation. Here, we explore three ways that digital technology can boost HR efficiency.
1. Improve your processes
The workforce is evolving and your processes will need to evolve in line with employee needs. Research shows that today’s employees want things to be as simple as possible. And, as far as we see it, there are four steps to delivering this vision: getting your house in order, keeping your documentation up to date, harnessing the power of mobile and migrating to a total, cloud-based solution. The good news is, optimising your processes won’t just benefit your employees. It will improve your efficiency too, enabling you to work smarter.
2. Get ahead with next-gen automation
As Vinay Couto at PwC said: “The first thing HR should do is figure out how to reduce administration. Put it in a box and automate the heck out of it.” [2] And we agree. But what does automation mean, in the context of HR? Well, these kinds of processes could make it a whole lot easier for you to:
- Schedule interview slots without manually checking diaries
- Send tests, surveys or questionnaires to candidates
- Assign tasks to relevant team members
Once you automate steps like these, you can raise service levels. And you can free up time for your team to focus on the strategic side of things, giving them more time to identify talent gaps, ensure compliancy, and develop leaders. All big benefits for the business, if you ask us.
It’s possible for you to use data to inform your people processes. By this, we mean capturing and analysing information from the likes of email, search, and social media. And then using what you find to improve recruitment, onboarding, engagement…the list goes on. Trust us. Basing your decisions on real data can boost your efficiency, cut costs, and help you identify areas of improvement.
3. Improve services with better UX
Outside of work, today’s employees use websites, apps, and devices that offer seamless user experiences (UX). So why should they lower their standards when it comes to the workplace? Historically, HR apps, portals, and websites have not been designed with great UX in mind. Many are visually unappealing and hard to navigate. Which can lead to frustration and incomplete actions. So, to improve the employee experience, and to make sure actions can be completed as easily as possible, updating your UX could be key.
As Tony Lasocki, Talent Acquisition lead for Microsoft UK says, “[People] are looking to companies that don’t just offer them the best salary but those who have got the most compelling culture… and perhaps give them the best experience throughout that employee lifecycle.”
Imagine a HR experience that’s completely seamless, from request to result. Now make it a reality.
Visit our website to learn how Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Talent can help you reach new levels of operational excellence.
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