To equip the workforce with the skills required to excel in the future, companies are reassessing the traditional talent management and incorporating evolved digital tools and technologies to strengthen the overall processes

“The advance of technology is based on making it fit in so that you don't really even notice it, so it's part of everyday life,” said Bill Gates. As conventional business rules are becoming less reliable, organizations are now focusing on their most vital asset to ride through the digital wave of disruption - their workforce. To equip the workforce with the skills required to excel in the future, companies are reassessing the traditional talent management and incorporating evolved digital tools and technologies to strengthen the overall processes. In the last couple of years, digitization has accelerated pre-existing trends in five main areas of talent management - hiring and onboarding, learning and development, performance management, employee engagement, and optimizing strategic workforce planning.

The advent of the pandemic has transformed how people work, enabling HR leaders to bet on AI and other new technologies and processes that support a more adaptive and fluid workforce. According to a recent study, a third of the HR leaders surveyed said that they are altering how they hire by building better candidate experiences for new joiners. While 24% of companies are currently using AI for recruitment, that number is expected to grow, with 56% reporting that they plan to adopt AI in the coming years.

There has been a notable shift from traditional recruitment and hiring channels to simplified onboarding processes, which are usually standardized, accessible, inclusive, and user-friendly. There is a strong focus on designing a smooth candidate experience using new-age tools and technology, ensuring that employees experience an immersive culture. As new technological innovations gain a stronghold in the modern workplace, HR teams are developing new frameworks, models, and collaborations that keep up with the pace of change.

Adoption of smart recruitment processes

Technologies like AI are playing a big role in assisting HR teams to find and hire top talent. Technology in talent management is helping organizations to be prepared for the constantly changing business environment. As per the recent study conducted by LinkedIn on talent trends, ~35% of the talent acquisition specialists mentioned that automation has a huge impact on the recruitment process. The movement towards HR digitization with the use of AI and ML, was already well underway before the start of the pandemic. During this phase, we observed rapid digitization in HR because it probably wasn’t happening at the same speed as it was in other departments of the organization. Advanced technological domains such as Data Science, AI, and ML are being deployed by organizations to plan, execute, monitor, measure, analyze business challenges and manage talent more effectively.

Moreover, these tech adoptions were due to the need for quick and simple solutions for all kinds of problems faced during virtual recruitment processes like slow internet or hours of video conferences for interviewing candidates. Organizations have developed tech-savvy HR software that uses AI to understand employee skillsets and cultural fit from video interviews. There is also the use of AI-based Chatbot RPA (Robotic Process Automation Tools) to streamline the screening processes, whether it is scheduling interviews or answering common questions. AI-powered résumé assessments, candidate ranking, recruitment bots to pre-screen and video-based interviews that use facial/emotion recognition streamline the recruitment process and help the recruiter understand just how well the candidate can fit the role.

Democratization of HR with the help of technology

AI & ML technological tools enable the HR fraternity to gauge and analyze the employee pulse on the ground, which further strengthens the overall employee engagement strategy. Organizations can design proactive solutions to boost employees’ morale and determination via interesting engagement initiatives that cover domains such as creating a learning culture, constant recognition of employees’ contributions, and more. HR has to find an alliance with the leaders in the organization to preserve the culture and achieve organizational excellence. It would require line managers to become advocates of the team externally, counsellors to maintain synchronization within, and enablers to push innovation while planning and maintaining trust in the team. The correct implementation of technological tools and proper training can help HR teams create this symbiotic environment that will result in democratization of HR across the firm.

Building resilience in the working environment

As we have been witnessing several changes in the economy, organizations have been looking to implement strategies to ensure the retention of existing talent and, at the same time, hiring talent to bridge the skill gap. The unforeseen situation made a lot of companies realize the need to have professionals with advanced and specific skillsets. Soft skills, such as communication, teamwork, relationship management and leadership, are becoming the differentiating aspects between good and great talent. Advanced technologies enable HR professionals to identify the exact skills required by individuals to successfully contribute to organizational performance and development. Such strategies not only allow the workplace to efficiently navigate the complexities of any crisis but also support organizations to emerge stronger as an entity.

Way forward towards a technologically diverse working environment

Many organizations are increasingly working towards implementing solution providers to build, acquire, and integrate relevant solutions in their platforms to offer end-to-end solutions. Companies have been using AI-based BOT for connecting with employees at different touchpoints of their lifecycle, checking on their well-being, enhancing the employee experience, and listening to them. Listening and being available are crucial focus areas that many employee-centric companies are emphasizing. In a world of fast-changing workplace innovations where traditional processes are becoming outdated, workforces need to be trained to become more agile, adaptive, and responsive to drive positive change in the work environment.

(The article has been penned down by Swayam Sen, Chief People Officer, Avanse Financial Services solely for BW People publication.)