By Jen Stroud, HR
evangelist, ServiceNow
If you’ve been in HR for very long, you may have noticed
that your typical work week focuses less on meaningful human interactions than
you probably expected when you entered the profession. You likely became part of
the industry to be involved with developing people and helping your
organization thrive, but perhaps time that could be spent on strategic projects
is getting swallowed up in high-touch, low-value tasks—responding to
routine questions, checking and rechecking email, and the like.
In a day and age in which a pizza can be ordered using a slick iPhone app, you can’t help but wonder why basic HR requests can’t be
processed in the same automated fashion.
If you feel this way, you’re not alone. Recent research
backs you up, and the numbers are telling. In an HR
study conducted by Engage ESM and ServiceNow, respondents said that they focus just 31 percent of their
time on strategic activities. That means that more than two-thirds of a typical
work week consists of just trying to keep things moving.
The
majority of the respondent workweek consisted of using labor intensive methods—drafting detailed emails, updating complex documents and making phone calls—to
complete routine assignments like onboarding new employees, processing requests
and fielding employee inquiries.
These high touch, low value assignments use
time that could be spent one on one with employees in a far more meaningful
way.
More
than 90 percent of the HR managers in the study believed that they could make a
greater contribution to high-touch and high-value initiatives such as career
development if they could break free from these manual administrative tasks.
Many routine
processes are complicated and done manually, which provides minimal visibility to
those involved. Just think of the administrative steps required to prepare for
an employee’s first day in the office. The overwhelmingly manual nature of
these steps in most organizations today as well as the possibility for delay
and human error increases with each touchpoint needed to complete the on
boarding process—from facilities and security to finance and IT. The result is an overwhelmed HR department, a
frustrated hiring manager and a puzzled and discouraged new employee.
While
most companies have invested heavily in HR technology, there continues to be
gaps that lead to challenging outcomes. HR is still far too tactical, and employees lack a modern employee
experience—an HR portal that allows them to manage all HR needs. Perhaps
because of this, the study also found that a substantial 74 percent of HR
departments plan to restructure within the next year. The next 12 months will
be a time of progress for HR as more organizations explore how technology and
service management can help transform the employee experience and how work gets
done and is tracked in HR. Consider
these results:
·
- The study found that streamlining technology is a priority for 63
percent of respondents
- Eighty-three percent believe that their department could add more value to
their organization by employing a higher level of technology
- Ninety-one percent said that technology is the key to improving HR responsiveness, which keeps business moving and employees satisfied
What would you do with the time you could save by putting the
right technology to work for you? The survey’s respondents unanimously agreed
that they could make strategic contributions to their organizations. A well-run
HR department is absolutely critical to the success of any organization and HR budgets
are increasing year over year, a trend that is expected to continue.
As organizations continue to increase HR budgets and HR
budgets continue to make technology a priority, these investments will help HR
shed unnecessarily manual tasks and focus on projects that are high value.
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