The workplace of the future is going to be very different to what it is now: there will be more freelance employees, and workers will be more in control of their professional lives.
“As the world changes, there are many opportunities for partners as well,” says Liesl van Rensburg from SuccessFactors at SAP Africa.
SuccessFactors is a cloud-based platform designed to engage employees – to give human resources an edge and ensuring its place at the boardroom table.
“If people are our biggest assets, we need to take HR seriously, and give them the tools to deliver as well.”
HR is not immune to the change going on in the organisation. “For instance, we have five generations in the workplace at the same time.”
This drives a challenge of how to ensure all employees are engaged and productive.
“The war for talent has been a top CIO priority for years,” Van Rensburg adds. “Meanwhile, the contingency workforce is getting bigger.”
The traditional way of regarding HR as a bolt-on is no longer good enough. “We are having completely different conversations with people in the organisations today.”
A platform like SuccessFactors helps HR professionals to address concerns and highlight areas of note.
It’s important for HR to be aligned to the company’s business strategy, and to align goals through the organisation.
Execution maps means HR can ensure people are striving for the correct goals and that they are engaged – and they can pick up when goals are not being met.
“We are looking at how technology can support businesses.”
Partners can become involved in the solution thus offered, Van Rensburg says, and they no longer have to contend with years-long implementation cycles.
This allows partners to offer a product that is very desirable, and they can easily relate the solution back to business value.