I started working in the HR sector over 25 years ago when we were just beginning to use information systems. Today my job has radically changed, made easier and faster by technology.
In my professional experience, gained at an international level working both as HR as well as consultant for start-ups, SMEs and multinationals, I have witnessed a growing development of the digital component.
The clients’ requests concern the management of human resources with a 360-degree perspective.
Employer Branding
Once the EVP (Employee Value Proposition) is set, I help clients to build and/or to optimize their company site, promoting it on the most appropriate social channels. The pandemic helped us understand how important distance communication is, conveying detailed and most of all truthful information about the professional context. Interviews issued from the employees, videos about the company’s reality and illustrating the selection process are extremely effective.
It is essential to include a “work with us” section in the corporate website, directly linked to a recruitment database (and not just to a mailbox, as it still happens in several working contexts).
Selection
By using an ATS (Applicant Tracking Systems) equipped with artificial intelligence, companies can speed up and optimize recruitment processes. Video interviews, soft skills and language tests are just some of the tools that I strongly recommend to simplify and improve selection activities.
Employment and Onboarding
As far as I am concerned, innovation can and must support companies and candidates even in the crucial induction phase.
How? Advanced information systems allow to:
– prepare automatic recruitment letters;
– collect all the new employee’s documentation in digital format (training certificates, work certificates, etc.);
– prepare a virtual agenda that can be shared between the new employee and the corporate contact people who will welcome him or her in order to facilitate the integration within the company.
Talent Management – Performance Management – Training
The digitalization plays a key role in the area of staff training, management and evaluation too. Including ad-hoc corporate objectives, performance evaluations and training courses within an automated and integrated system, company makes it easier to monitor the progress of each employee and allows any changes to be made in real time. Moreover, at the end of the year, it is possible to automatically detect any promotions, salary increases, new training courses, with the aim of encouraging personal growth.
Thanks to these ‘agile’ tools, it is possible to create ‘digital dashboards’ depicting company organisation charts to optimize the management of succession plans. Finally, innovative HR systems may also have an integrated salary processing module.
Internal Communication
A corporate intranet promotes communication by involving employees in the business life and strengthening their sense of belonging. Innovation makes it possible to share the organisation’s strategy and initiatives, report successful case histories, communicate new professional opportunities, participate in special projects and much more.
It is clear that having a modular ATS, capable of covering all areas of human resources, is now a must, with important and measurable positive returns, not only in terms of cost and time optimization, but also and above all in terms of brand awareness and employee engagement.
“Doing old things in a new way: that’s innovation” (quote Joseph Schumpeter)
