Why Adopting Digital HR is a Smart Strategy for Your Entire Organization

At the core of every organization is its people. That’s why, according to Deloitte’s Global Human Capital Trends report, as public agencies and private businesses move toward complete digital transformation, human resources (HR) teams are taking on a larger role in helping organizations be digital, not just do digital.

According to Deloitte, the challenge facing HR teams is two-fold: transforming HR operations and transforming the workforce and the way work is done.

Successful HR leaders focus on building organizations of the future. As employees become increasingly technically savvy, they expect integrated, digital experiences at work. That makes the HR department an obvious and effective place to set the pace and tone for overall digital transformation.

What is Digital HR?

Digital HR refers to the use of digital technologies to streamline and optimize HR processes, from recruitment and onboarding to employee engagement and performance management. It involves leveraging data and analytics to make more informed decisions, as well as using tools like chatbots, mobile apps, and online platforms to improve the employee experience. Ultimately, the goal of digital HR is to create a more efficient, agile, and responsive HR function that can support the organization's overall digital transformation.

3 Benefits of HR Digitization: Why Being Digital Powers HR and Entire Organizations

The digitization of HR processes is a key driver of efficiency and effectiveness in modern organizations. By leveraging digital tools and platforms, organizations can realize a range of benefits that not only improve HR operations, but also enhance the overall employee experience and drive better business outcomes. Let’s dive into the top three benefits. 

1. Better Employee Experiences

Digitizing HR processes improves the overall employee experience by increasing efficiency and accuracy. With cloud-based software and digitized HR documents, tasks that used to take days can now be completed in minutes. This not only improves the functionality of HR processes but also sets a digital-first culture that embraces change. Ultimately, digitization can enhance the speed and quality of employees' work, leading to increased job satisfaction and happiness, and resulting in a positive impact on the organization as a whole.

2. Improved Operational Efficiency

By leveraging digital tools and platforms, HR departments can streamline many time-consuming tasks, such as data entry, document management, and record-keeping. With digital process automation, HR staff can access information quickly and easily, reducing the need for manual intervention and minimizing errors. This, in turn, leads to faster turnaround times and improved accuracy in HR processes. Additionally, digital HR processes can help automate repetitive tasks, freeing up HR staff to focus on more strategic initiatives.

3. Better Decision-making

Automated and digitized HR processes can provide HR leaders with access to data and analytics that can help them make more informed decisions. By leveraging data on everything from employee performance to recruitment metrics, HR can identify trends and patterns that can inform strategic planning and improve outcomes. This can lead to more effective HR practices and better alignment with organizational goals.

Digitizing HR: Begin With These Two - Documents & Processes

1. Employee Records and Files

Digitizing the components of employee files and personnel records is a smart place to start digitizing HR. Operational inefficiencies, compliance concerns, audit readiness issues, and ill-defined retention policies result from decentralized, paper-based employee files. Storing employee documents on paper increases risk of information security breaches and slows efficiency. It’s also costly.

You can realize the benefits of digitization by scanning documents such as:

• Employment agreements
• Tax documents
• Termination notices
• Severance packages
• Benefit information, and
• Paystubs

2. HR Workflows and Processes

The next step is to move beyond content to transform paper-based HR workflows and processes. While digitizing your paper content is obvious—and necessary—gaining the full value of a digital transformation requires more than turning paper records into digital ones and calling it done.

When you identify where paper content is driving inefficient manual processes, digital content opens the door to significant workflow automation benefits. Workflow automation is the engine that fuels fully successful digital transformation.

Processes to digitally optimize include:

• Compliance
• Training
• Onboarding
• Payroll
• PTO requests
• Support
• Employee feedback

Examples of Digital HR at Work

Across industries, in both the government and private sectors, HR is transforming—and taking the entire organization with it. Here are examples of how some are getting digital right.

The Florida Department of Health’s Lightning-fast Service Improvements

The Florida Department of Health improved processing times from weeks to hours in its HR department by transforming paper-based files and workflows to digital files and automation. Prior to digitization, for example, a request for a copy of a performance evaluation for one of its 18,000 employees was painfully slow because its manual process was prone to loss and misfiling. Now digitized, DOH staff can search employee records by keywords, redact as necessary, and email files with a few clicks. Appointments are no longer necessary to fulfil records requests. Digital transformation has vastly improved efficiency and customer service. It has eliminated the file room to restore office space and freed up resources, resulting in reassignment of three full-time employees.

Unilever’s Elevated Approach to Recruitment

Consumer goods giant Unilever has moved from paper-driven resumes and campus recruiting to largely digital recruitment tools. The company now uses online assessment games, video interviews, and artificial intelligence to filter candidates. It says as a result of its digital-first recruitment program, hiring is faster and more accurate, with 80 percent of applicants who make it to the final round getting job offers.

A Cisco Hackathon that Led to Interactive Employee Onboarding

Leading HR groups are rethinking their solutions in the context of workflow-embedded apps. Automaker Ford and others now have digital design teams within the HR department. This means using the cloud as a platform and building on it for company-specific needs. A Cisco hackathon, for example, resulted in an HR app to help new hires and their managers during the onboarding period and another that uses a voice command app to give quick answers to HR questions on topics such as holiday policies and expense report procedures.

Royal Bank of Canada Fully Embracing a Digital-first Culture

Royal Bank of Canada is reinventing its employee experience through a complete digital focus. The company set up a digital HR development team, partnering with IT for infrastructure and security, to deploy a new pre-boarding application. A digital HR tool now helps employees learn about their new jobs, embrace the company culture, and meet their teams online. To build on the success, RBC plans to develop an end-to-end set of apps and tools that forms a digital solution for career development, job transition, and continuous learning.

When it Comes to Digital HR, Experience Matters

Digital transformation means working faster, more efficiently and with better results—internally and in service delivery to clients, customers and constituents. HR departments can pioneer digital change for public and private organizations with lasting and far-reaching results.

With cloud expertise and 25 years of experience, Image API’s intelligent content management technology and business services help organizations reduce the burden of paper to automate workflows and enable digital transformation. No matter where you are on your digital journey, we’re ready to help move your paper and processes to digital, fundamentally changing the way you work—for the better.  

If you’re ready to talk about how we can apply our experience to your digital transformation, simply reach out to us here! Also, download our Guide to Going Digital for insights on planning, prioritizing, and choosing a partner to get started. It includes a practical checklist and actionable steps to a successful digital transformation.

‍