Trends and future challenges of HRM in global context

 

Digital HR Challenges in the 21^st Century

 

Digital HR Challenges

Almost every article regarding Digital HR Challenges includes the journal of Artificial Intelligence in HR by Ahmed (2018) discusses the challenges of Digital HR. Sometimes we all know Digital HR up to certain extent but, aside from being a fancy twenty-first-century term, what does it actually entail, and how does it affect HR? Therefore, this blog seek to give some insight on Digital HR Challenges. As per Manuti and De Palma (2018), Digital HR challenges occur with the transition of a business based on traditionally manual processes to a business that has technology as its core in HR Functions. As per Tizhoosh and Pantanowitz (2018), Digital HR refers to the use of social, mobile, analytics, and cloud technology to make HR more efficient, effective, and connected manner.

 

Digital HR should also combine culture, people, structure, and processes to balance efficiency and creativity, as well as to maintain a demonstrable influence on the wider firm as it grows.

 

According to Dave Ulrich digital HR journey in any company can be separated into four stages:

1.    HR efficiency - During this phase, companies invest in and build technology platforms that efficiently handle HR procedures, which is typically done through current HR technology suppliers.

2.    HR effectiveness - Technology is utilized to improve people management (hiring, training), performance management, communication, and work habits during this phase.

3. Information - Information is delivered in this phase with the purpose of having a business impact. Internal and external data are combined, and people analytics are used to provide business-relevant insights.
4. Connection/experience. At the end of the process, digital HR is used to bring individuals together. Technology creates a better sense of belonging via leveraging social networks, creating experiences amongst people, and leveraging social networks.

 

Human Resources are being transformed by digital HR.

Digital technology has transformed our daily lives, and it is now transforming HR. It gives advantages for HR Professionals and also challenges when HR Professionals fail to adopt with Digital HR.

1. Make use of data and analytics

HR is slowly but steadily gaining an understanding of the value data analytics may bring to the company. Employee involvement, learning and development, and pre-selection are some of them. There is HR technology that can track every aspect of an employee's lifespan. The question is whether there are enough HR professionals out there to make sense of this information.

2. Recruitment that is future-proof

A pleasant mobile application experience, a data-driven pre-selection process, and a personalized, Artificial Intelligence-based onboarding program are all important features. These are just a handful of the many ways that recruitment is becoming more digitalized (Lengnick-Hall, Neely and Stone, 2018).

HR professionals’ understanding how to design a digital HR strategy, lead the transformation process, and develop digital capabilities help to boost HR's influence.

3. Enhance employee satisfaction

The barriers between work and personal life have blurred for employees in the twenty-first century. During the week, they'll check their social media accounts, but on weekends, they'll check their work emails. As a result, they want to be treated like customers in the digital workplace, and they expect their company to provide a similar user experience. HR Professionals should understand how to use of social media channels to keep employee engagements.

4. Employees should have access to self-service tools.

This one is similar to the last one in terms of enhanced employee experience, but it concentrates on the HR side of things. Employees want the same amount of control over their HR information as they have over their work correspondence and workload.

5. In the talent war, HR Professionals must be competitive.

In the future workforce, Millennial and Generation Z, are addicted to their phones and constantly connected to social media (Kuhn, Meijerink and Keegan, 2021). Companies who use digital technologies for a variety of HR objectives, like as sourcing, pre-selection, and learning and development, have a significant competitive advantage when it comes to attracting this demanding generation of workers. In that case, HR professionals must know how Millennial and Generation Z behavior in the digital environment and initiate Digital HR Strategies to attract them in to the right job. 

 

References

Ahmed, O., 2018. Artificial intelligence in HR. International Journal of Research and Analytical Reviews, 5(4), pp.971-978.

Kuhn, K.M., Meijerink, J. and Keegan, A., 2021. Human resource management and the gig economy: challenges and opportunities at the intersection between organizational hr decision-makers and digital labor platforms. In Research in Personnel and Human Resources Management. Emerald Publishing Limited.

Lengnick-Hall, M.L., Neely, A.R. and Stone, C.B., 2018. Human resource management in the digital age: Big data, HR analytics and artificial intelligence. In Management and technological challenges in the digital age (pp. 1-30). CRC Press.

Manuti, A. and De Palma, P.D., 2018. Digital HR. London: Palgrave Macmillan, doi, 10, pp.978-3.

Tizhoosh, H.R. and Pantanowitz, L., 2018. Artificial intelligence and digital pathology: challenges and opportunities. Journal of pathology informatics, 9.

Ulrich D., 2019. The four phases of digital HR, [Online]. Available at: https://www.hrmonline.com.au/technology/dave-ulrich-four-phases-digital-hr/ [Accessed: 2 May 2022].