HR Magazine and BPP recently boarded flights to embark on an HR digital transformation roadshow—with events in both Hong Kong and Singapore to discuss how HR can best leverage digital technology in their service delivery. We share key advice from Florence Tsang, Global Head of Talent and Organisational Development CoE, Li & Fung; Muktha Arya, Head of HR, SE Asia, Société Générale; and Vicky Knight, Director of Programmes, BPP University on the best flight path for HR.
HR Magazine and BPP recently boarded flights to embark on an HR digital transformation roadshow—with events in both Hong Kong and Singapore to discuss how HR can best leverage digital technology in their service delivery. We share key advice from Florence Tsang, Global Head of Talent and Organisational Development CoE, Li & Fung; Muktha Arya, Head of HR, SE Asia, Société Générale; and Vicky Knight, Director of Programmes, BPP University on the best flight path for HR.
Appetite for change & time to digest
In an era of exponential change, the convergence of technologies has changed the way business is conducted. Data-driven insights allow for more accurate predictions and engaging, speedier interactions with both internal talent and customers. But while technology is changing at an unprecedented rate, internal productivity has often stagnated—creating a chasm between technology and the business. HR’s ability to tap into the true performance potential of their talent is, however, often hindered by the inertia of slow-moving internal processes, outdated siloed IT systems and the need to try and achieve all of this on a shoestring budget.
Helen Cole, Recruitment Manager, Citi summed up these sentiments, shared by many in HR, “There is definitely an appetite for digitalisation, but people need to be given sufficient time to eat and digest things. The pressure is always on to maintain profitability throughout digital transformations—so often this feels like trying to change a plane engine mid-flight.”
Vicky Knight, Director of Programmes, BPP University expounded, “HR now has a unique opportunity to help close the gaps between 
technology, talent, businesses, society and governments.” She added, “HR is centre stage— having the ability and resources to engage talent at all levels and leverage their functions to help deliver this transformation organisation-wide.”
Digital literacy to digital organisations
Digital literacy to digital organisations HR has come a long way since the days of being seen as simply a department for employee management. Traditionally focused on employee services and transactional management of HR data, the transformation of HR towards a strategic business role is well and truly underway. This new HR role requires honed analytical skills to garner data that is not only clean but also useful for planning and business purposes. HR must also have the ability to leverage digital champions—through motivation, rewards and new career paths. Knight highlighted, "This transformation is led by employee experience, cloud capabilities, a renewed focus on talent and specifically concerning the development and availability of new digital technologies like machine learning and Artificial Intelligence (AI). It’s about developing digital mindsets and enhancing digital literacy to create a digital workforce that ultimately drives a digital organisation to achieve its business goals.”
“HR must take care during digital transformations to clearly plan, communicate and lead the change in phases. Many organisations rush in to digitalise multiple processes, but fail to plan and phase this process properly which, in terms of HR structure, often means the roles and responsibilities of each member become very unclear.”
These technological capabilities are enabling those in HR to re-imagine new ways of delivering HR services and strategies throughout their organisations. Using advanced prediction and optimisation technologies allows a shift from time-consuming candidate screening processes to innovative HR strategies and business models that support growth. Employees are also empowered by technology to pursue more tailored career paths. A clear strategy during implementation is also critical to success. Maggie Choi, Associate Director, PWC cautioned, “HR must take care during digital transformations to clearly plan, communicate and lead the change in phases. Many organisations rush in to digitalise multiple processes, but fail to plan and phase this process properly which, in terms of HR structure, often means the roles and responsibilities of each member become very unclear.”
Multi-stakeholder drive
Technology and innovation are at the core of today’s business world. HR plays an indispensable role in leading the transformation of both the organisation and the business—a journey that requires collaborations between HR, IT and L&D functions. Technology and executive alignment, however, are not enough to drive a company’s digital transformation. At the heart of every organisation are its people—its most expensive and valuable asset. Keeping them engaged and motivated fosters an innovative culture that is essential for success. Knight explained, “Developing and installing your new software might actually be the easy part. Many in HR are discovering that, actually, their key challenge is changing employee mindsets—getting them to embrace new technology and adapt to a new way of working.”
Echoing this potential pain point was Jessica Chan, Senior Manager, HR Shared Services, Kerry Properties Limited who affirmed, “Numerous organisations have tried to digitalise and automate some processes, only to find that their frontline staff don’t use it. Frequently, there may also be significant resistance from middle management to such digital change.”
Getting 22,000 staff digitally savvy
In 2013, Florence Tsang, Global Head of Talent and Organisational Development CoE, Li & Fung found herself right in the middle of the organisation’s digital transformation. With over 22,000 employees in more than 250 offices worldwide, this was never going to be an easy ask for an organisation with a 110-year legacy. Tsang quipped, “It all began when the CEO came to me and said that he wanted all new hires to be digitally savvy… immediately. I accepted my challenge, although at the time I didn’t even know what ‘digitally savvy’ meant.”
The first step was to clarify what it meant to be ‘digitally savvy’. After a follow-up conversation with her CEO, Tsang realised that he was referring to the mindset of new recruits rather than them necessarily already having the technical skills. Tsang highlighted, “We can teach technical skills, but we cannot teach personality and we cannot force an innovative mindset upon people.” Tsang was initially unsure of how to identify potential high performers who would fit the organisation’s culture. She explained, “Almost every potential hire will express a willingness to innovate during their interviews, but whether this willingness would actually materialise, once hired, was very much unknown.”
To help assess the mindset of candidates, Tsang utilised innovative recruiting technology, Seedlink, which uses AI to help release in-house recruiters from the time-consuming procedure of screening CVs. This technology works on the concept that written language helps predict one’s behaviour, intelligence, personality, knowledge and experience. Tsang highlighted, “The AI solution was able to identify who would perform well at Li & Fung by analysing the way the candidate wrote and their choice of words rather than just looking at their CV.”
“There is a fear that AI will replace human talent but in fact, it is just a tool to enhance your existing processes. In utilising technology, we are able to maximise and leverage the strength of our talent by putting the right people in the right place at the right time.”
The AI programme was then used to look inward as a tool for talent management. By diagnosing individual capabilities, Tsang realised that they could build far more effective teams and identify potential leaders with greater predictive accuracy. Tsang highlighted, “There is a fear that AI will replace human talent but in fact, it is just a tool to enhance your existing processes. In utilising technology, we are able to maximise and leverage the strength of our talent by putting the right people in the right place at the right time.”
Avoiding fast caterpillars
Charles Darwin, English Naturalist and Biologist once said, “It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, it is the one that is the most adaptable to change.”
Likewise, in 2010, after the lessons learned from the Global Financial Crisis (GFC), the banks who had survived were the ones who had adapted to the new economy. Survivors had already begun to reinvent themselves and rethink their business models. Société Générale, with over 150,000 employees across 67 countries, was one organisation able to adapt. Muktha Arya, Head of HR, SE Asia, Société Générale explained the importance of HR in this adaptation, “HR was squarely at the centre of our organisation’s transformation, which was one of necessity. We had to create a cultural shift towards sustainability and to re-focus our mindset.”
“If the HR team did not believe in the necessity of the transformation and lacked conviction, it would have been impossible to convince other departments to follow us.”
After the turmoil of the GFC, and due to the business-driven necessity of the transformation, the HR team had the full backing of the C-suite at Société Générale. She also highlighted the importance of getting her own team on board as well, “If the HR team did not believe in the necessity of the transformation and lacked conviction, it would have been impossible to convince other departments to follow us.”
The implementation of technology across Société Générale started in 2010 and was phased across five key HR functions to help stagger its implementation and allow time for adaptation to new systems and processes. Arya discussed, “We began small by digitalising standard administration forms and processes to help with HR onboarding and by incorporating social media into our existing talent recruitment process. Step by step, we added new technologies to speed up and streamline onboarding and day-to-day operations. Then we introduced tools for performance management with in-built succession planning models. The next stage we augmented our LMS and added in digital education systems and mobile learning apps. More recently, we have adopted Tableau software to help with dedicated people analytics and reporting. HR now has access to a wide range of dashboards including turnover, career interviews and evaluations.”
A key challenge in the introduction of such systems and tools across organisations is that they are often developed in isolation and consequently may not interface very well on a global level. So HR must be mindful of finding a way to facilitate these separate systems talking to each other so they work in unison.
Arya concluded with advice on digitalisation from George Westerman, Principal Research Scientist, MIT who said, “When a digital transformation is done right, it’s like a caterpillar turning into a butterfly, but when done wrong, all you have is a really fast caterpillar.”
Human interfacing
Digital transformations are a daunting prospect for those in HR starting out on this journey and there are a range of routes to explore. No matter what technology is adopted and which implementation process is followed, one thing remains essential—HR must ensure that everyone in the organisation has the appetite for change. If talents are not engaged or lack senior-level support for the transformation then change will be extremely slow. It is up to HR to ensure there is buy-in at all levels. Ken Lai, Senior HR Transformation Manager, MTR reiterated this point by saying, “There needs to be a clear message from the top down and the benefits of the transformation must also be made clear to all employees.”
Harshit Anand, Head of HR strategy, Asia Pacific, QBE Insurance echoed this advice, “During the transformation, buy-in at all levels is important. To facilitate this, we have created ‘influencer’ groups at the middle management level who hear regularly from the C-suite and senior management. They are supported with the necessary resources to enable them to have conversations with their peers and their teams at the grassroots level.”
Digital disruption is challenging and organisations need to rethink their traditional models and foster new methods of selection, retention, training and development but the process of change required must begin with the centrality of their talent kept front-of-mind. While there are no perfect recipes, organisations must realise that they are only truly made unique by their people. A key challenge for HR departments, in the face of digital transformations, is to get to know their talent better—their motivations, their personalities, their adaptability, the value they place on their work and how they interact with various technologies. So while enhancing and implementing digital change and reallocating work foci for talents—as new technologies come into play—is critical, it is equally important for HR to remember that it will be the people and not the technology that will continue to grow the organisation.
Paul Arkwright
Publisher
