In the turbulent context of Brexit, companies are planning and making provisions for every eventuality. Many organisations are investing in new technology in an attempt to streamline business operations and weather the Brexit storm – but investing in new technologies without considering the talent needed to implement them could be a recipe for disaster.
Organisations across a range of sectors are seeing a new phenomenon form: ‘talent scarcity’. As the skills we need to operate modern organisations stack up, with existing and potential employees fleeing in light of Brexit, this issue is here to stay. In this challenging context, HR operations must remain reactive and efficient, to upskill existing employees and continue improving performance.
Luckily, thanks to technological advancements, HR is undergoing a massive transformation. With the advent of analytics, HR leaders are now equipped with vast amounts of data about past, present and future employees – but the challenge ahead is figuring out how they can analyse and maximise this data and turn it into valuable insights that can turn an organisation around.
Upskilling with AI
Technological advancements present opportunities to create efficiencies throughout an organisation – and nowhere is this more apparent than in HR departments. Specifically, automation and AI are seen as the ringleaders of the rise of technology in businesses. However, the focus is often on how AI threatens jobs, rather than on how AI and automation will create opportunities to upskill existing employees to maintain, manage and implement such technologies. Before implementing AI technologies in an HR department, the whole business needs to see AI as a tool to assist employees – and in fact improve existing jobs – rather than as a threat. For example, AI helps HR professionals move from administrative tasks to focusing on the human and building the best teams possible. With more resources and time to invest in the training and support of current employees, HR departments are better equipped to face the challenges presented by talent scarcity. One of the key ways to reduce the impact of the ‘war on talent’ is to upskill existing employees, moving them into roles that are vital to the business but difficult to fill. By harnessing AI to reduce the time and labour taken to source candidates and monitor performance, HR professionals can drive upskilling, and reduce the impact that Brexit-induced talent scarcity could have on their organisations.
Predicting people
Currently, only about 34 per cent of companies are leveraging data to inform people decisions. Given that maximising data and turning it into actionable insight is increasingly commonplace across other areas of a business, this might come as a surprise. Predictive analytics holds the key to this change – by embracing new tools, HR teams can reduce their workload and increase the accuracy of their candidate profiling processes. Software that can scan applications, finding the perfect candidate, then ‘learn’ which characteristics successful candidates have is a valuable tool for improved performance. Capturing and understanding data can also help HR teams to better retain their staff. By increasing staff retention rates, HR departments can contribute to better business performance by reducing spend on training and recruiting new staff.
Intelligent recruitment
In a landscape of ‘talent scarcity’ and digital skills shortages, it is no longer enough to simply advertise available positions and wait for applicants to appear. AI technology can be used to proactively recruit the right candidates and even enhance the candidate experience. For example, recruitment bots can be deployed for early screening phases and to communicate information in a timely and efficient manner to potential recruits. This AI-driven process can also extend to self-service onboarding, which helps with retention as well as recruitment. f implemented correctly, AI can drive increased performance across many areas of HR, which ultimately drives business growth. AI’s role in HR isn’t just scanning CVs – while this is clearly a valuable efficiency gain, the potential of AI is far greater. hanks to developments in semantic understanding, AI can go beyond a candidate’s résumé to scan their online presence and use this information to more accurately assess suitability to the company culture. Trends in this data can then be ‘learnt’, stored and used to inform future recruitment decisions. AI can also be used to evaluate video interviews, assessing thousands of data points to determine cognitive ability, as well as profiling candidates by determining their suitability to different roles and functions within the business. Bsinesses need to move to a digital operating model to evaluate their skills and talent. Weighing up what talent there is today and what might be needed tomorrow, what role upskilling can play alongside recruitment – as well as assessing where automation fits in a team – is crucial. This tech-driven talent re-design needs to be an intrinsic part of any recruitment strategy to ensure organisations are always prepared for the worst case scenario, such as Brexit.
Tailoring employee experience through technology
Historically, performance management has been far from an exact science. It is often a time-consuming 6-monthly or annual review process, which creates issues for managers and line reports alike. With advancements in performance monitoring thanks to AI, data can now be continuously gathered and analysed on employees, meaning that performance against KPIs can be monitored – including indicating results of online training modules.This employee performance data can then be used to shape personalised KPIs for employees which will enhance development, help employee retention and drive growth for the business itself. This can create opportunities for HR departments to assess where upskilling is necessary and who might be a good fit to train in new roles, enabling them to respond directly to issues caused by talent scarcity. echnology can also be used to equip employees with the tools to self on-board, meaning they can hit the ground running, feel a part of the organisation faster, and in turn maximise productivity. Using technology to focus on employee experience will be an important tool – but employee advocacy needs to go beyond ‘employee satisfaction’. Businesses need to start view their employees as internal customers to promote loyalty and improve staff retention in turbulent times.
The way forward
It’s clear that technology can be used in many ways to improve performance in HR – from efficiency gains, to more accurate candidate profiling, to recruitment and performance measurement. AI is becoming increasingly necessary as HR departments work hard to maximise new technologies and increased volumes of data. his will only be further exacerbated as the impact of Brexit on talent rolls on. In the context of post-Brexit ‘talent scarcity’, HR professionals will need to harness the technologies that will enable them to be reactive to change, and able to continue delivering for their business. But it’s not all about the tech – looking outside the norm to find talent is an additional need for any business with Brexit looming. It’s time businesses looked outside of London for the talent they need, which will in turn boost diversity of people and of thinking. If we learn anything from Brexit, it should be to cast the net wider in the UK talent pool. After all, hiring and retaining the best people is what makes a business survive and thrive.
Interested in HR analytics? We recommend the Mission Critical HR Analytics Summit 2019.
Jonquil Hackenberg is Managing Partner and Head of C-Suite Advisory at Infosys Consulting, where she oversees business transformation for FTSE and Fortune 500 companies across Europe. She specialises in digital transformation in HR and supply chain operations, and also leads diversity, inclusion and leadership initiatives internally at Infosys in Europe.
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