Those who take technology lightly are in for a rude awakening. Technology in this digital age is shaking up entire societies; it is disrupting the way Fortune 500 companies conduct business and hire people; it is changing the way people seek employment and how they get chosen for a position. To list every aspect of our life that is being affected by digital technology would require me to write a book – maybe several books. Even then, we would only be touching the surface.
One industry totally being reshaped by the digital age is Human Resources. Those who are not on top of the adoption and adaptation of digital technology in both the talent search and hiring of employees will find their job nearly impossible. Here are some things your department should consider adding to your arsenal.
HR Should Start Taking Control of Their Own Career Sites
A great careers site is an integral part of every company’s talent acquisition. The quality of an organization’s careers page plays a direct role in good candidates finding you appealing to work for. Not only that, but it sure does save a lot of money in the long run.
According to nextwavehire.com, 64 percent of job seekers go directly to the company’s career page in order to research the company. In the article, they make a very interesting point: “One thing that makes absolutely no sense whatsoever in the world of business is that HR almost never controls their own corporate careers page. You know, that page that’s usually under the domain www.company.com/careers.”
Most career sites are handled by the marketing team. This is where lies the problem – a huge problem actually. This is because the marketing team, though they care about whether or not the company succeeds, don’t feel that they own the careers site, thus they show little to no concern about whether or not it is good enough.
It is essential that HR managers have full control over the website design. HR managers should start thinking like marketers when it comes to their career site: The website should look sharp, showing off what they have to offer potential candidates, using high-quality photos, videos, and other things that make the company shine. HR should utilize analytics to see if their strategy is working or not.
HR Needs to Adopt Analytics, and Fast
The foundation of every successful business is its employees. According to a global IBM survey, 71 percent of company leaders say human capital is key to having a competitive advantage over the competition. Therefore, it only makes logical sense that managing HR-related data is a very important part of a business.
But, amazingly, a Harvard Business Review (HBR) showed that out of all the executives that responded, only 15 percent said they use predictive analytics based on HR data. Furthermore, according to a study from Tata Consultancy Services, only 5 percent of investments have been for Big Data analytics concerning HR.
That doesn’t mean there isn’t any interest. Of the same execs surveyed by HBR, 48 percent predicted they’d be using HR-driven analytics within two years.
With a recovering economy, an aging workforce and more companies paving the way for innovation, HR has a very good opportunity to become a powerful agent in data-driven strategic workforce planning. Recently, over 70 percent of CEOs said that availability of key skills is one of the top three issues their companies are dealing with.
HR can proactively address talent issues that are headed their way by effectively avoiding talent shortfalls through the use of data-driven workforce planning (supported by workforce analytics). This takes both an organization’s internal workforce dynamic and driver into account.
