TECH IS NOT THE ANSWER

" In our post pandemic, disrupted, digital world, technology carries the weight of responsibility across our HR functions and businesses. But we cannot expect technology alone to resolve our challenges without taking a holistic view. Use these five simple concepts to unlock the true power of technology and deliver better business outcomes"

 

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In our post pandemic, disrupted, digital world, technology carries the weight of responsibility across our HR functions and businesses. So often we hope that the latest piece of tech will be the answer to our business problems. But we cannot expect technology alone to resolve our challenges without putting in the groundwork – we need to take a holistic view.

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To unlock the true power of technology we must have strong foundations. Lead with simplicity to remove complexity and streamline our processes, making them easy to navigate. Change our mindset to view everything through an inclusive, employee centric lens. 

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The question then becomes “how can technology help us?” It’s the enabler. When blended with a focus on business value, co-creation and organisational collaboration, technology helps to augment our solutions, to automate, and to personalize the experience – that’s when the real magic happens. Enabling us to deliver exceptional results and providing us with a competitive advantage for our organisations.

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So, if you’re looking to maximise your organisational impact and get your technology working hard for you, where should you start? Start here. These five simple yet impactful concepts and takeaway tips will help you unlock the true power of technology, shape the most effective solutions and deliver better business outcomes. 

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1.    The best technology solution is the one that gets used

 

“Get your people involved at the outset, design with them - not for them to shape intuitive, effective solutions, creating buy in from the very start”

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Regardless of the industry we operate within, our people are our number one asset – they are our business. To harness the power of our people we need an environment where they can not only survive, they can thrive. And it doesn’t matter how amazing a new piece of technology is, if it doesn’t land well and embed, and if your people don’t use it, it’s not a successful solution. It's likely to result in an expensive experiment or require work arounds to create the business outcomes you need.

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So often our traditional HR solutions have been shaped around what we need to get done as a function, and the focus has typically been on process. The endless list of what needs to get done, the box’s we need to tick, the legal and compliance requirements we must satisfy to keep our organisations and people safe. The problem is, focusing on process alone is counterproductive, slowing down performance and results.

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Products and services designed solely by HR and IT experts, without an employee lens drive waste. These solutions are not intuitive to our people, or easy to navigate. This typically results in poor experiences which impact engagement and productivity both for employees trying to navigate the processes, and for the teams managing them across HR, IT and beyond. Complexity, duplication, hand off’s between teams and process black holes – these all create delays and waste in the system. And if processes are particularly bad, our people lose faith in them and try to circumnavigate, or avoid them all together which creates more waste as our teams work to pick up the pieces.

We need to remember that the best digital solutions are those that add value, and therefore get used. The best way to realise this outcome is to bring our people into our world, to be part of the creation process. To help us understand the problems we are trying to solve from their perspective – the user. To design with them, not for them, and to co-create new value adding products and services across the entire employee journey. 

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This approach ensures the outcomes meet our collective needs – for our people, for HR, IT, and our business. Solutions which are compliant yet thoughtful and intuitive resulting in high digital adoption and better business outcomes. As humans we have a continual stream of new digital products both in our work and home lives. It’s up to us as an HR function to bridge the gap between our consumer and work digital experiences, and to make sure the solutions we create are solutions we would be happy to use ourselves. 

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Shifting mindset to focus on the experience helps create the most efficient and effective solutions which people can navigate with ease, freeing them up to focus on their day jobs and enabling HR, IT and other teams to focus on value add activities. All of which deliver productivity gains and better outcomes for our business. 

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Takeaway Tips for HR Leaders

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•       If a new piece of tech doesn’t land well and embed, it’s likely to be an expensive experiment or require work arounds to create the business outcomes you need

•       Shifting mindset to focus on the experience helps create the most efficient and effective solutions, delivering productivity gains for our businesses

 

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2. Technical debt accumulates

 

“Draw a line under the past – fix the root cause of issues and keep your eyes on the future”

 

In my experience successful transformation is as much about removing what you don’t need as creating what you do need. Leading through a lens of simplicity can be an incredibly powerful tool in shaping our products and services. The lens I like to view everything through is – if it’s not adding value for your people, business or customers, it’s got to go.

 

I’ve also found that we carry so much legacy and complexity within our individual organisations. We can often find ourselves weighed down by the impact of previous technical quick fixes, or processes, ways of working, rules and limiting beliefs which have been in place for years because we believe they need to be there – perhaps for legal, compliance, or policy purposes. This legacy holds us back. It can result in technical debt, with work arounds built on top of work arounds, which drive inefficiencies and impact our ability to evolve our technology solutions going forward. 

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I've found that if we take a fresh look at our solutions, take the time to review, to understand, often we find we are dealing with perception versus reality built up over time and there is a better way. Let’s free ourselves from everything that’s holding us back. Work in collaboration to understand with each policy, process or piece of technology how best to ensure compliance and the right outcomes, whilst shaping streamlined, effective solutions with the employee experience at the core. 

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Don’t let your past become your future. Identify all owners, stakeholders and users of a product or service and work in collaboration to fix the root cause of issues. Avoid complexity, quick fixes and waste. Consider the long term impact of every decision and keep your eyes on the future. Leading through this lens of simplicity helps us remove anything that’s not adding value, creating efficiencies and delivering maximum impact as a function. 

 

Takeaway Tips for HR Leaders

·       Identify the root cause of issues and work in collaboration to create successful, sustainable solutions

·       Remove what you don’t need and create what you do need – but only if it adds value

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3. Cross functional collaboration is critical

 

“We are all part of the same organisation with the same business strategy and goals - play on the same team to co-create exceptional business outcomes”

 

When we truly collaborate across our organisations, the results we can achieve magnify. We have so much to gain by remembering that we are greater than the sum of our parts, and regardless of our business area or function, we are all part of the same organization with the same business strategy and goals. Yet so often we find ourselves working independently and in functional silo’s.  This approach isn’t people-centric and it doesn’t maximise our organisational resources. Our people and customers often don’t know or care which team or function they are dealing with, or who owns a particular part of the process – nor should they. 

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Here, we have an opportunity to take a leading role. Harnessing the power of collaboration within our organisations is a game changer and true collaboration across HR, IT & beyond is a critical success factor. Bringing together business areas and functions to work as one, to “play on the same team” and co-create solutions enables us to blend amazing varieties of technical expertise and skillsets with diversity of thought and experience, helping us work together holistically to solve the real business problems and shape fresh, new solutions which we couldn’t have conceived in isolation. All of which delivers powerful, sustainable business results.  

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Forget what’s traditionally “yours” and “mine”, it’s all “ours”. Set teams up for success with inspirational, collaborative leadership - be the change you want to see. Our people, our customers and their experiences are key. Let’s create interactive, networked organisations, and work together cross functionally to co-create the exceptional.

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Takeaway Tips for HR Leaders

•       We are all part of the same organization with the same business strategy and goals

•       Build cross functional teams to work as one and create the best possible outcomes

 

 

4. Try before you buy

 

“Think big, but start small – test, learn, iterate”

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By planning out whole projects, changes or the introduction of new technologies in advance, then working towards and delivering these in isolation, by the time we launch we may find the result isn’t fit for purpose. Perhaps our solution doesn’t provide what our organisation needs, the tech isn’t quite right for our people or the world around us can have changed. 

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This can result in low adoption of our new technology solution, with the original business problem remaining unsolved, also impacting trust and our reputation as an HR function.

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There is a better way. Small pilots are an effective way of trialling new solutions and technology to determine effectiveness and organisational fit before committing, and to help minimise risk. Successes can be scaled and lessons learnt shared, delivering successful solutions and driving continuous improvement, creating learning organisations. 

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Think big but start small, and remember what works for another organisation won’t necessarily work for you. Understand the real business problems you’re looking to solve, collaborate cross functionally and with your people to co create solutions and don’t be shy - share your successes to help spread the word and get people on board. And finally, remember it doesn’t have to be perfect to add real value – test, learn, iterate.

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Takeaway Tips for HR Leaders

·       Think big, but start small - test, learn iterate 

·       Use the voice of your people - data and feedback, to continually review progress

 

 

5. Make data driven decisions

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“Data doesn’t lie, it makes the invisible – visible, and it helps us connect the dots”

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The power of data cannot be underestimated. Data doesn’t lie, it makes the invisible – visible, and it helps us connect the dots.

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Working on assumptions and perception, or going by “how we’ve always done things” isn’t productive. To have real impact, to deliver real business results and become the value adding function we aspire to be, we need to be data and insight driven. 

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It’s no longer enough for us to rely on our People Analytics Leaders and teams to deal with all things data, and to expect this approach to deliver the outcomes we require. As HR leaders, functions and practitioners we all need to be data savvy and data driven.

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We also need to talk to our people, talk to our customers and really listen. Find the truth, find the root cause of the issues we are looking to solve and use data to help shape our path forwards. Everything we need to know is there in the data, in the feedback and insights – providing we set ourselves up for success, build strong foundations with our data and feedback architecture and use this to shape our path forwards.

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Get your data working hard for you. Set up comprehensive data and feedback sources – both qualitative and quantitative for a continuous feed of data, giving you a clear picture of your starting position and a benchmark to constantly track back against. Use the insights to shape your plan, then continually review and refine your progress as your HR function, business, and the world around you evolves.

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Takeaway Tips for HR Leaders

•       Data doesn’t lie, it makes the invisible – visible, and helps us connect the dots

•       Set up comprehensive data and feedback sources to continually track back against your baseline

 

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Successfully navigating your HR teams through these five key concepts will help you unlock the true power of technology, delivering maximum value for your people, business and customers, providing a competitive advantage for your organisation.

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Are you ready to realise the power of your technology?

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