“It takes time, so HR professionals should be patient. It took my team four to five years to build a digital strategy,” said Dr Jaclyn Lee, senior director, human resources and organisation development at Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD).
An advocate of using tech and analytics to enhance the way HR functions in an organisation, Lee gives HRD Asia insights into how her team at SUTD overcame challenges and effectively implemented a full suite of digital HR programs at the university.
HRD: How can technology transform the way HR contributes to the business as a whole?
JL: A HR tech strategy can drive organisation success and help employees align to the organisation’s culture and goals. It can also provide timely dashboards to business leaders, so that they can make decisions about people and allow employees to equip themselves with the necessary knowledge and skills.
In addition, tasks that are mundane, routine and take up a lot of time should be automated, so that HR professionals can do more value-added work, such as business partnering, talent management and resourcing strategies.
HRD: What criteria should HR professionals use to determine which tech systems to adopt?
JL: Your budget: Do you go for a full suite of programs that has all the functionalities – which is very expensive – and any changes or configurations (to the system) will cost money? Or do you buy different programs and integrate them to your system by using a business intelligence (BI) tool – which is much cheaper, but requires a technically-capable team?
The technical capability of your team: The technical capability (of your team) is more crucial than the machines you invest in. Being able to hire workers with the right skills to do configuration, programming, as well as to work with vendors is important – your team will help you align the digital strategy with the business.
Vendors will recommend all kinds of programs, but your team needs to have the capability to integrate them and execute your digital strategy.
Your workforce: Some employees may be more attuned to smartphone applications, while others may be more tech savvy and be able to use systems that are a lot more complex, such as cloud data.
The nature of the business: Before you implement a new system, you need to first find out your organisation’s strategy. Then, you figure out the end user’s needs. Only then can you decide which systems can help your organisation meet its needs.
For example in a university setting, our talent management system is critical. We also require capability systems that allow the faculty and heads of departments to access data, publication citations, as well as the background of faculty members.
HRD: How does your team overcome the challenges with deploying a new HR tech program?
JL: When I’m launching a new program, I use the agile methodology in software implementation called scrum.
[The methodology advocates adaptive planning, early delivery and continuous improvement of the software.]
For instance, when I’m launching a new performance or capability system for a faculty, I’ll come up with a low-level prototype first.
Then, I’ll let my end-users test the prototype and ask them questions like how they find the user interface, or whether it’s user-friendly. We do a lot of testing and rebuild the system with their feedback, and come up with another prototype. We usually do about two to three rounds of testing and tweaking.
You will get 100% acceptance from your employees when you deploy the new program as you’ve taken their feedback into consideration.
Dr Jaclyn Lee will be discussing a Case Study: Implementation Excellence at SUTD at the HR Tech Summit being held at the Hilton Singapore on 28 March 2018. Click here for more details and to register.
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