The way we work has fundamentally changed as a result of remote working(opens in new tab), Zoom(opens in new tab) calls, and the rise of ChatGPT-3. As the economy and businesses prepare for a challenging year, it is critical to understand and embrace these changes at all levels of the organization. Finding a way for HR(opens in new tab) to collaborate with leadership to maximize existing infrastructure while identifying major roadblocks to success is critical. Here are my top five suggestions for doing so:
1. Accept hybrid’s unknown and focus on agility
The initial shocks of hybrid working(opens in new tab) are long gone. Successful organizations today understand that allowing for flexibility in on-site attendance has a positive impact on both culture and productivity (opens in new tab). But who knows what form this working style will take as the workforce evolves with the times?
Effective leaders recognize that embracing this state of flux is central to future-proofing the business. Creating a 360-degree view of employees (opens in new tab) can assist leaders in constructively managing their individual needs and patterns, while also supporting effective management of the increasingly complex variables and changing employment conditions. It even assists businesses in navigating the new compliance requirements. Workplaces will continue to evolve, and a comprehensive understanding of what your employees require will take precedence in the toolbox you will use to deal with uncertainty and volatility.
2. Address the digital skills shortage
More people are needed to deploy, develop, and maintain technology as the world undergoes digital transformation. Despite the popularity of tech careers, there simply aren’t enough skilled people to meet the demand. This has recently been exacerbated by reduced budgets and workforce turnover as many companies face macroeconomic pressures. We may never have enough, according to some.
Because digital skills are in high demand, some businesses may struggle to fill all available positions. Meanwhile, those already on the payroll are suffering from severe burnout as a result of an extremely heavy workload. All of this is happening while customer(opens in new tab) expectations continue to rise and businesses require increased efficiencies and experience optimization with minimal disruption or downtime.
The only solution is to automate the processes that consume IT resources. Low-code tools enable teams to rapidly develop new products and services that help the business remain competitive and respond quickly to market changes – all without retooling existing systems, which can be resource intensive and time-consuming.
3. Link everyone to everything
Many businesses launch new applications and set up new cloud services with the best of intentions in order to move their businesses forward. Of course, this is an essential component of digital transformation, but it will inevitably fail unless the organization can properly integrate them. Boomi refers to this as a modernization bottleneck. IT resources such as applications, data, and devices must be linked so that people can access what they need for their jobs. IT connectivity is a much more important component than mere “plumbing” or a “nice to have” in a world where IT infrastructures are more widely distributed than ever before. Connectivity is an essential component of any IT strategy.
Closed ecosystems of app families and siloed enterprise systems should be avoided by IT teams. These can stymie data integration, and without the ability to connect fully, data breakdown occurs. If a remote employee cannot obtain the necessary data from Sources A and B, they will be less productive and more frustrated. This not only leads to inefficiencies, but it can also lead to some employees devising their own workarounds to get around it, posing serious security risks. It doesn’t take long for the pendulum to swing in the wrong direction, from useless or incomplete data to a potentially dangerous data leak.
4. Create a seamless omni-boarding experience.
One blunder that has plagued HR professionals for years is viewing onboarding and offboarding as two distinct and disconnected processes. In fact, in the age of digital transformation, we recognize that these stages are all part of a continuous process, which we refer to as Omni-boarding.
Pre-boarding (the set of actions involved in preparing the position and the future employee for maximum readiness to hit the ground running); onboarding (the training and enablement carried out by a company when settling a new employee in their role); re-boarding (the process of training and harmonizing the workforce when employees have changed roles due to career progression, merger or acquisition, or other reasons); and offboarding (the process of training and harmonizing the workforce when employees have changed roles due to career progression, merger or acquisition (which can include all the actions post-notice, such as exit interviews, access revocations, and reference issuances).
Sharing the right data with the right people, applications, and devices is the only way to align the entire Omni-boarding process. Integrating these disparate nodes will streamline the employee journey and provide full visibility into every critical instance for the business. Businesses can improve talent acquisition, management, and retention by implementing an optimized Omni-boarding process. Increasing a company’s innovative capabilities and achieving a competitive advantage that can only be achieved by efficient teams.
5. Process improvement
As businesses adapt to change, they implement new and improved processes, which present their own set of challenges. To fine-tune and mitigate inefficiencies, these new processes require automation, orchestration, monitoring, and tracking. Many involve HR, IT, ERP, CRM, and other technology stack customizations, all for the benefit of the department or company. However, these will necessitate time-consuming and costly workarounds, which most teams cannot afford.
Once again, low-code technologies are the most efficient way to reap the benefits of new processes. Employees with a much lower digital skill set (or ‘citizen developers’) can use low-code and no-code tools to create and maintain new processes without entrusting the entire operation to an already overworked IT team. Businesses that anticipate increased reliance on citizen developers should establish Data Communities of Practice, repositories of tools and best practices that citizen developers can use to approach tasks more effectively.
