Building the Digital HRM Organization_Digital Transformation Skills - principles, processes and toolkits

1. BUILDING THE DIGITAL HR ORGANIZATION –
DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION SKILLS
CHARLES COTTER PhD, MBA, B.A (Hons), B.A
www.slideshare.net/CharlesCotter
WASHINGTON PLAZA HOTEL, WASHINGTON DC
12 NOVEMBER 2018

2. • Deloitte Human Capital Trends (2018) – #2: People data
• Formulation of 5 High Priority, Future-focused Strategic HRM
Objectives and related roles:
• The key roles of a Strategic Performance Advisor
• Diagnosis of current HRM practices against the 10 Strategic
Performance Advisor next practice criteria (Cotter, 2017)
• Business executives expectations of HR roles
• World Economic Forum Future of Jobs Survey (2018) – Top 10
Skills Requirements for the year 2022
PRESENTATION OVERVIEW

3. • The core competencies (intelligences) of HRM professionals
• Diagnosis: Future-fit, career-minded HRM consultants (Cotter,
2017)
• The building blocks of a Digital Organization
• The Digital Toolkit for future-fit HRM consultants
• The transformation roadmap to a Digital Organization
• The key roles of HRM in digital transformation
• Strategies to build and gain Digital Literacy (DQ)
PRESENTATION OVERVIEW

4. THE FUTURE OF WORK
“There are really three
themes that’ll shape the
future of talent - Artificial
Intelligence and
automation; the skills gap
and the rise of
independent work.”
(Jeff Weiner, CEO
LinkedIn)
AGREE OR DISAGREE?
WHY?

6. EVIDENCE-BASED HRM
• Evidence-based HR refers to a process in which the
organization evaluates any decision or process
against data, real experience, expert opinions,
and/or other types of information to ensure the
decision is likely to have the desired outcome.
• For this to work best, the “evidence” used should
be purposefully sought out.
• When data is taken from multiple sources, ensure
it’s applicable within your context.

8. 5 HIGH
PRIORITY
STRATEGIC
HRM
OBJECTIVES
AND RELATED
ROLES
• #1: Attract, acquire and select digitally talented and
skilled people and promote a competent and
competitive workforce i.e. quality of hire;
Role: Cognitive and Intelligent Talent Broker
• #2: Transform the HRM DNA to a digitally-enabled HRM
operating model and design an automated Knowledge
Management System;
Role: Strategic Performance Advisor (SPA)
• #3: Future-proof the organization, by developing
succession plans; a measurement culture and generating
real-time predictive business analytics and –intelligence;
Role: Digital Futurist and –Analyst
• #4: Develop an agile High Performance Organization
(HIPO) culture, digital workspaces and -ethos and
employee engagement;
Role: Behavioural Economist
• #5: Mainstream HRM into core business processes, by
offering business valued solutions to key organizational
problems.
Role: Innovative solutions architect

9. STRATEGIC HRM
“One of the mission-critical strategic HRM objectives
is to mainstream HRM into the core business
processes. HRM should be embedded in the business
strategy and their value proposition should be
ingrained in the organizational culture fabric. Key
business decisions should not be taken in the
absence of consulting with HRM.”
(Cotter, 2018)

10. STRATEGIC
PERFORMANCE
ADVISOR (SPA) –
3 PIVOTAL
POINTS
(COTTER, 2017)

11. STRATEGIC PERFORMANCE ADVISOR (SPA) –
3 PIVOTAL POINTS (COTTER, 2017)
• Strategy (e.g. embedding HR strategy into business
strategy; the use of strategy maps; adopting a strategic
mindset and applying strategic management principles
and processes);
• Business Intelligence (e.g. competitive predictive HR
metrics and analytics and trouble-shooting solutions
architects) and
• Governance (e.g. HR policies and procedures;
HR/people risk management, compliance with ethics
and King IV corporate governance principles and -
Human Capital reporting and HR Auditing)

12. CHANGE MESSAGE TO HR MANAGERS
(Cotter, 2018)
"HRM must be instrumental in and at the
forefront of the I-Q-C-A-P drivers of business
performance, namely: Innovation; Quality;
Compliance; Agility and Processes (to optimize
productivity), in their quest to transform and
actualize to become strategic performance
advisors."

14. DIAGNOSIS: 10 BEST PRACTICE
GUIDELINES FOR SPA
• https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/XB2M7F7
• #1 Embedding HRM strategy in business strategy and able to translate that
strategy into deliverable actions
• #2 Well-defined, implemented and reported HRM performance and ROI metrics
(creating credibility and accountability)
• #3 Generating business intelligence e.g. predictive and strategic analytics (that
shapes, informs, guides and ultimately, influences strategic business decisions)
• #4 Offering a professional, value-adding business proposition sensitive to and
supportive of business needs, interests and strategic priorities
• #5 Ongoing line management consultation, engagement, coaching and building
trusting, collegial and mutually beneficial business relationships

15. DIAGNOSIS: 10 BEST PRACTICE
GUIDELINES FOR SPA
• #6 HR Management and practitioners possess business and industry knowledge,
acumen and insight
• #7 HRM collaborates with line management to broker meaningful and impactful
business solutions
• #8 HRM processes, systems and practices are horizontally integrated (bundled),
agile, responsive and stream-lined (that enhance productivity and efficiency)
• #9 HRM is a transformational initiator, driver and implementer of business
change
• #10 HRM is technology-savvy innovator, enabling and leveraging best practices
(e.g. CoE; Shared Services and e-HRM)
• Review the research findings https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/reality-check-chief-
human-resources-officers-africa-hrm-cotter-phd/

16. STRATEGIC PERFORMANCE ADVISOR (SPA)
– WIDEST COMPLIANCE GAPS (N = 133)
Range Median Mean Standard Deviation
21-100% 57% 58% 15%
BEST PRACTICE CRITERIA RELATIVE
DIFFICULTY
RANKING
MEAN SCORE
Q3: Your organization's HRM function generates business
intelligence e.g. predictive and strategic analytics (that shapes,
informs, guides and ultimately, influences strategic business
decisions)
1 49%
Q2: Your organization's HRM function has well-defined,
implemented and reported HRM performance scorecards and ROI
metrics (creating credibility and accountability)
2 53%
Q8: Your organization's HRM processes, systems and practices are
horizontally integrated (bundled), agile, responsive and stream-
lined (that enhance productivity and efficiency)
3 57%

17. STRATEGIC PERFORMANCE ADVISOR (SPA)
– MOST COMPLIANT CRITERIA
BEST PRACTICE CRITERIA RELATIVE
DIFFICULTY
RANKING
MEAN SCORE
Q5: Your organization's HRM function
engages, consults and coaches line
management on an ongoing basis,
thereby building trusting, collegial and
mutually beneficial business relationships
10 68%

18. WHAT BUSINESS EXECUTIVES
ARE LOOKING FOR IN A SPA?
• Catalytic Driver of Change
• Pro-active Business Thinker
• Collaborative Consultant
• Purpose-directed Coach
• Delivery (results-oriented HR
practices)
• (Credible and Accountable)
Performance Advisor
• Strategic Facilitator

21. THE 3 CORE COMPETENCIES
(INTELLIGENCES) OF HRM
PROFESSIONALS
• Business
Literacy (BQ)
• Financial
Literacy (FQ)
• Digital
Literacy (DQ)

22. THE FUTURE-FIT CODE: 10
STRATEGIES TO FUTURE-
PROOF YOUR HRM
CAREER
• Diagnostic link:
https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/
HWJR5FW
• Future-fit, career-minded HRM
consultants will apply the following
strategies:
❑ #1: Relevance
❑ #2: Differentiation
❑ #3: Unique Value Proposition (UVP)
❑ #4: Specialization
❑ #5: Agility

23. THE FUTURE-FIT CODE: 10
STRATEGIES TO FUTURE-
PROOF YOUR HRM
CAREER
• Future-fit, career-minded HRM
consultants will apply the following
strategies:
❑ #6: Re-invention
❑ #7: Value Amplification
❑ #8: Next Dimension Thinking
❑ #9: Digital Literacy and -Citizenship
❑ #10: Hyperconnected Collaborator
• Article link:
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/future-
fit-code-10-strategies-future-proof-your-
career-charles-cotter/

24. FUTURE FITNESS LEVELS – WIDEST
COMPLIANCE GAPS (N = 82)
Range Median Mean Standard Deviation
42-100% 64% 65% 12%
BEST PRACTICE CRITERIA RELATIVE DIFFICULTY
RANKING
MEAN SCORE
Q2: My professional status and -brand equity is typified by a
high degree of differentiation, therefore I'm compensated at
a premium rate (top dollar).
1 55%
Q9: I'm a responsible and responsive digital citizen, who has
mastered the ability to navigate, curate, analyze and
communicate messages via digital media sources across an
array of sophisticated technological platforms.
2 58%
Q10: I'm a hyperconnected collaborator, with the analytical
ability to penetrate, mine and harvest the business
relationship potential and exploit mutually-beneficial
collaboration opportunities within the scope of my business
network and HRM/L&D community.
3 63%

25. FUTURE FITNESS LEVELS – MOST
COMPLIANT CRITERIA
BEST PRACTICE CRITERIA RELATIVE
DIFFICULTY
RANKING
MEAN SCORE
Q5: I constantly demonstrate a high
degree of resilience, flexibility and
stealth-like agility, especially during
turbulent times of change in the
workplace.
Review the research findings:
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/reality-
check-chief-human-resources-officers-
africa-hrm-cotter-phd/
10 74%

27. TRADITIONAL VS DIGITAL HRM

29. THE DIGITAL TOOLKIT FOR FUTURE-
FIT HRM CONSULTANTS
• Design thinking
• Analytics and Big
Data
• App-based functions
• Talent Acquisition
• Artificial Intelligence
(AI) with cognitive
processing

30. DELOITTE’S HCM TRENDS 2017 –
THE RISE OF THE COGNITIVE
RECRUITER
• Leveraging new technologies—from social to
cognitive
• Evolution toward cognitive capabilities that build
on mobile and cloud technologies, as well as
social networks e.g. LinkedIn.
• The more innovative ideas and solutions are
centered around cognitive technologies such as
artificial intelligence (AI), machine-to-machine
learning, robotic process automation, natural
language processing, predictive algorithms and
self-learning.
• Chatbots are becoming popular, including the
recently launched Olivia, which guides candidates
through an application process with sequenced
questions.

31. DELOITTE’S HCM TRENDS 2017
– THE RISE OF THE COGNITIVE
RECRUITER
• IBM’s AI pioneer, Watson, is now moving into the
space with three new technologies:
❑ A machine learning platform that ranks the
priority of open requisitions;
❑ Social listening for an organization’s and
competitors’ publicly available reviews on
Glassdoor, Twitter, and newsfeeds and
❑ A tool that matches candidates to jobs through a
“fit score” based on career experiences and
skills.
• These technologies take pre-existing social data and
information and then apply advanced cognitive
capabilities to deliver actionable analysis.

32. THE SCOPE AND IMPACT OF DIGITIZATION
IN HRM
• While focused until recently on topics like efficiency and direct access to HR data and
services for individual employees, a new and expanded HR transformation is underway, led
by employee experience, cloud capabilities including mobile and continuous upgrades, a
renewed focus on talent, as well as the availability of new digital technologies like machine
learning and artificial intelligence.
• These capabilities are enabling HR re-imagine new ways of delivering HR services and
strategies throughout the organization. For example:
❑ Use advanced prediction and optimization technologies to shift focus from time-consuming
candidate screening processes to innovative HR strategies and business models that
support growth
❑ Help employees with tailored career paths, push personalized learning recommendations,
suggest mentors and mentees based on skills and competencies
❑ Predict flight risk of employees and prescribe mitigation strategies for at-risk talent
❑ Leverage intelligent management of high-volume, rules-based events with predictions and
recommendations

33. RESEARCH-BASED READINESS OF HR TO
DIGITIZE
• 2018 Key Issues Research from The Hackett Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: HCKT).
But while most HR executives recognize the future potential of digital
technology to transform the enterprise as well as HR roles and operating
models, less than half feel their organizations have the resources and
capabilities in place to execute and support their company’s digital
transformation strategy.
• The research also found that urgent shortfalls exist in HR’s ability to
support critical goals, including developing executives who can lead in
volatile environments and enabling business strategy execution.
• In addition, there are significant internal gaps, with limited ability to
address some of the most critical development areas.
• On the upside, HR organizations are now targeting many of these same
areas for improvement initiatives in 2018.

34. THE 5-STEP TRANSFORMATION ROADMAP
TO A DIGITAL ORGANIZATION
• #1: Learn from the outside but stay true to your DNA. Companies need to
embrace innovation and learn from digital natives—but not at the expense
of their core strengths and cultures.
• #2: Follow the map, trust the terrain. Leaders must articulate a broad
strategic outline, but stay open to feedback from both within the
organization and outside it.
• #3: Place many bets. In light of the volatility and ambiguity of the market,
CEOs need more than one approach to digital transformation.
• #4: Digitize the organization. Leaders must rework the organizational
structures of their companies to make them fully agile and digital.
• #5: Build a talent pipeline. CEOs should hire new digital talent, but also
train current staff in digital capabilities.

35. TRANSFORMATION
ROADMAP TO A
DIGITAL ORGANIZATION
• You upgrade, we
change
• Do you have a plan?
• Build a digital HR
team
• Re-think and re-invent
• Innovate and
Implement
• Reskill and recruit
• Benchmark
• Embrace design
thinking

36. COGNITIVE (THINKING)
COMPETENCIES
REQUIRED BY HRM
• Design thinking
• Innovative thinking
• Strategic thinking
• Conceptual
thinking
• Systems thinking
• Analytical thinking
• Critical thinking

37. TRANSFORMATION OF THE KEY ROLES OF HRM
– APPLYING THE 3 A’s (MEISTER, 2018)

39. THE FUTURE OF HRM METRICS &
ANALYTICS?
“HRM will have to migrate from the
fundamentals of people science to the
complexities of data science.”
(Cotter, 2017)

40. THE KEY ROLES OF HRM IN DIGITAL
TRANSFORMATION
• A digitization is a process that requires the involvement
of the whole company.
• The HR function appears to be the right actor to
coordinate it:
❑As the driver of transformations
❑As the owner of employee day-to-day experiences
❑As the warrantor of the alignment between business
projects and the overall strategy
❑As a talent and corporate culture sponsor

41. THE KEY ROLES OF HRM IN DIGITAL
TRANSFORMATION
• Spread a digital culture to all generations of employees
• Give a sense to the digitization through: charters, tool trainings, teleworking
agreements, tutoring, reverse mentoring etc.
• Respond to the constant needs regarding new skills and professions
• Promote collaborative work inside the company
• Support employees in their new roles/jobs
• Increase employees’ participation in the digital transformation
• Promote new functions and skills development
• Push the employees to use new technologies and respond to the new HR
challenges

42. STRATEGIES TO BUILD AND GAIN DIGITAL
LITERACY (DQ)
• Companies should respond to this challenge by building new pools of skilled
digital employees.
• To do so, they must understand who these potential employees are, where they
can be found, and how they can be attracted and retained.
• Companies also need to know what kinds of talent can be nurtured within the
existing employee base; digital talent must come not only from the acquisition of
new personnel for specific jobs but also from the development of digital skills in
existing roles.
• Companies must bring the entire organization along on the journey, creating a
true digital culture and inculcating in their employees a deep understanding of
the company’s digital imperatives and a mastery of select skills across all
functions.
• If the growth in digital talent outpaces the ability of the rest of the workforce to
keep up, the company as a whole will be left behind.

43. STRATEGIES TO BUILD AND GAIN DIGITAL
LITERACY (DQ)
• To build and retain a strong pool of digital talent, companies must answer
four important questions:
❑ They need to understand who is available on the market and who makes up
the core of digital talent already in place across the business, and they need
to identify the new digital job profiles and the number of digital employees
required in the near future.
❑ They must next understand where to find the required employees over the
medium and long term
❑ How to recruit and retain them.
❑ They need to understand what digital skills need to be nurtured and
developed among their existing workers. Without skilled staff, there can be
no digital transformation.

45. DIAGNOSTIC TOOLKIT
• Role/Job Analysis https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/732GHMP
• Strategic Performance Advisor https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/XB2M7F7
• Future Fit HR Consultant https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/HWJR5FW
• Strategic HR Planning https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/JMXSR2T
• HRM Metrics and Analytics https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/XBSFY53
• Strategic Total Rewards Management (STORM)
https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/PQWGNJJ and
https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/PHKFGQL
• Succession Planning https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/Y7VCY2P
• HRM Auditing https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/FQD27Q7

46. LIST OF
SOURCES
• https://www.bcg.com/en-za/capabilities/people-
organization/digital-organization.aspx
• https://www.bcg.com/en-za/publications/2017/people-
organization-technology-how-gain-develop-digital-talent-
skills.aspx
• Deloitte Consulting LLP. 2017. Global human capital trends
report for South Africa 2018. Oakland, CA: Deloitte
University.
• Deloitte Consulting LLP. 2018. Global human capital trends
report for South Africa 2018. Oakland, CA: Deloitte
University.
• https://www.digitalistmag.com/future-of-
work/2018/05/16/hr-in-age-of-digital-transformation-
06167140
• The Hackett Group. 2018. HR Key Issues research, Enabling
Enterprise Digital Transformation Takes Center Stage But
Gaps in Critical Capabilities Persist. NASDAQ: HCKT.
• https://hrdailyadvisor.blr.com/2017/09/29/evidence-based-
hr/

47. LIST OF
SOURCES
• https://www.hrexchangenetwork.com/hr-tech/news/hr-
news-beat-hr-focused-on-digital-transformation
• http://www.irh-partner.com/en/hr-digital/
• https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/future-fit-code-10-
strategies-future-proof-your-career-charles-cotter/
• https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/reality-check-chief-human-
resources-officers-africa-hrm-cotter-phd/
• https://www.peoplematters.in/article/hr-industry/digitally-
yours-the-digital-hr-transformation-case-
18263?utm_source=peoplematters&utm_medium=interstiti
al&utm_campaign=learnings-of-the-
day&utm_source=peoplematters&utm_medium=interst
itial&utm_campaign=learnings-of-the-day
• https://www.slideshare.net/CharlesCotter/10-ways-in-
which-artificial-intelligence-ai-is-revolutionizing-talent-
acquisition-practices
• https://www.slideshare.net/CharlesCotter/measurement-of-
the-strategic-maturity-of-hrm-and-ld-practices-africa

48. CONCLUSION
• Key points
• Summary
• Questions

49. CONTACT DETAILS
• Dr Charles Cotter
• (+27) 84 562 9446
• charlescot@polka.co.za
• LinkedIn
• Twitter: @Charles_Cotter
• https://www.facebook.com/CharlesACotter/
• http://www.slideshare.net/CharlesCotter