Digital transformation- we all need to embrace it

The digital transformation is not only changing entire corporations but it is totally reshaping them. It is restructuring the whole business model of a company. It is a common belief that if you want to digitize your business you just need to hire someone to oversee different digital initiatives. However, this doesn’t cut it. For a business to truly be digital, the digitization needs to be infiltrated in every aspect of the business, this includes HR. Those who are not willing or able to do this, will suffer. 

According to Gartner 25 % of companies will lose their market position because of the inability to incorporate digital business, and not understanding how employees want to work. This human aspect of the digitization is one of the major trials for today’s businesses.

It is a challenge for HR departments to recognize services that are designed to meet the needs and wants of the employee, rather than just the HR department itself.

Studies show that employees want to communicate and collaborate at the workplace in a similar way as they do in their personal lives. Still, HR has a history of being very skeptical of social technologies. This is based on a belief that there is a negative correlation between social interaction and employee productivity. However, this is a misconception. HR should stop looking at social technologies as something that kill productivity, and start looking at it as a means for effectiveness and as a platform for collaboration across the entire company.

The real value of social technology and social collaboration at work, lies in its potential to break down traditional barriers that exists within an organization today. It can easily create buzz about new initiatives, transfer information either internally in a team, or across departments in real time. While at the same time creating a company culture. It makes transparency a reality for organizations. Moreover, those businesses that can embrace this, will soon look at the time-consuming exchange of emails as an ancient concept of the past.

Unfortunately, you can draw a parallel between how HR looks at technology and how a lot of employees look at technology. From the employee’s perspective, they are afraid that artificial intelligence will replace them. This is also a misconception. The incorporation of artificial intelligence will simply let robots do repetitive and mechanical tasks. Thus, leaving the employee with time to do more fulfilling work.

When both HR and the employee understand that the digital transformation is not a threat, but a new way of working that allows all parties to become more efficient and effective, everybody wins.