What is Digital HR?

by Damien Peat, NGA Human Resources Strategic Accounts Director

Over the last decade there has been a huge change with how most employees in larger organisations interact with HR and people management systems for tracking productive time and leave management, benefits and learning systems.
What has facilitated this change is both a desire by employers to engage more fully and more often with their staff, a shift to cloud based systems and mobile broadband and a change to automating HR processes for routine procedures.

Let’s look employers wishing to engage more fully with their staff. During the same decade there is widespread evidence to support the view that Talent Management, or who you recruit and hope to retain, has become the number one issue for both HR Directors and their fellow management colleagues.

When you look at the considerable cost of bringing new people into your organisation and the extra shareholder or stakeholder value that key performers can contribute each year it’s not hard to understand the management interest in engaging more fully with employees. The way this happens now is mostly through people management systems linked to better HR processes which also reduces the cost of HR transactions.

Retailers have transformed their rostering of casual staff by being able to ‘group text’ a number of available part time employees and let these staff book their attendance by replying to a text message from their phone. First come, first served.

Similarly, I had a recent experience of booking a Bike to Work scheme bike without any interaction with HR. By simply opening up our employee portal I was able to securely log on to the Bike to Work scheme set up by my employer, upload a pdf bike quote from my phone and tick a box that I hadn’t availed of a scheme in the last 2 years. Done.

Three days later the bike shop phone me to ask if I wanted to collect my new bike or if they should deliver it. When I collected my new bike I found out that they had been paid that morning hence their phone call to me.
So as a happy camper I got to experience Modern HR first hand and have told many people about my positive experience.

I had a similar positive view after completing my 6 monthly review which is a rolling requirement. Out of this we identified some additional external training that would benefit both the company and I. I have since applied for a post grad course which again the company is paying for directly.

When you compare this current smooth and efficient Digital HR experience to one I had 10 years ago when I first began an MBA it was an entirely different and very paper centric kettle of fish.

Back then I had to request an education assistance form from HR and get this form signed by my manager which took a total of two weeks then put this signed form into the interoffice and post back to HR and wait a further week for them to call me to and say that I could apply for the course but that I would have to pay for it upfront and would be reimbursed if and when I passed the exam. Add to this a further two week wait until I get paid and can apply.

The total time of 5 weeks is a huge difference to just three days with the Digital HR optimised systems and processes. That’s positive progress which makes me as an employee feel more committed to my employer, so making their investment in new HR processes and systems seem like an even better idea.

Right now I am using our Flexible Benefits module to reduce my private health insurance from one of my adult sons and instead using this credit to up my pension contribution. I can model the effects on my take home pay in the portal without bothering anyone in either our Finance or HR Departments.

This is Digital HR.

About the author
Damien Peat is a veteran of the ICT industry with more than 30 years of experience helping leading organisations to use technology to empower their staff in delivering better customer experiences. His roles include senior management positions at Apple, Digital, Oracle and currently Strategic Accounts Director at NGA Human Resources.
Damien has served on two Irish eGovernment steering committees, one of which provided the basis for the Revenue On Line or ROS system now recognised as a leading European public sector project delivering eGovernment services to citizens.