Kathy Gibson reports from SAPInsider in Vienna – Business transformation relies heavily for its success on human resources (HR), and HR departments are increasingly leaning on technology to help them deliver on their mandate.
A KPMG annual survey, which polled almost 1 000 companies in 37 countries, found that 40% of companies are looking to change their HR structure this year.
A massive 88% of companies plan to keep their HR technology spend the same, or spend more in the coming months.
Meanwhile, 30% of companies plan to replace their core HR systems – an all-time high number.
Two-thirds of organisations (66%) plan to provide an HR portal; and 40% will replace their existing, on-premise HR systems with a software as a service (SaaS) solution.
A large proportion of companies (61%) are using or planning to use mobile technology, up from 46% in the previous year.
KPMG’s Tim Richard points out that the second most popular HR initiative in 2016 is to improve line manager effectiveness.
He points out that HR has two effective roles: as an operator and as a project leader. As an operator, it’s about HR technology, operational effectiveness; structure and responsibility.
As a project leader it’s about satisfying initiatives and managing success drivers.
Among the new technology that HR is rolling out is portals and mobile.
The keys to success of portals are mobile, content and searchability – and 69% of the time, HR portals meet or exceed expectations. Mobile apps are effective 85% of the time, the survey finds.
Technology has proved effective for operations, but many companies still use their old paper-based systems:
* 74% of those using technology for performance management say the technology is effective, but 28% still use paper;
* 79% of those using technology and got global grading for job levelling say the technology is effective – but 42% still use paper; and
* 79% of those using technology for core compensation say the technology is effective, but 47% still use paper.
So it seems that technology is more effective in providing services back to the employees, Richard says. “Automating these processes has improved satisfaction – less cumbersome, easier to use, more secure”
HR shared services are meeting or exceeding expectations at 85%. And almost nine out of 10 questions or inquiries are solved by self-service and HR shared services.
Three-quarters of companies use a single payroll inside their headquarters, while 78% of companies have multiple payroll systems or vendors outside of their home countries.
Where organisations have successfully transformed their HR, 62% focused on involving HR professionals in the design and implementation of the change; and 54% ensured leadership ownership in the implementation of the change.
But the major success factor, at 96%, came from integrating changes to HR processes and roles when implementing the technology.
Meanwhile, 65% of organisations that failed at their transformation did not identify measures for success.
The best way to make line managers successful appears to have been achieved though manager self-service and shared services.
Measures for success when introducing new types of collaboration tools for HR services include achieving target ROI, creating a business case, identifying measures for success, and changing HR processes – and companies that achieved these measures report satisfaction with the projects.
When implementing a new HR portal, companies reported satisfaction when they achieved target ROI and identified measures for success.
Companies satisfied with re-engineering key HR processes achieved target ROI and identified measures for success.
Satisfaction for implementing a new core HR system came from achieving target ROI, creating a business case and changing HR processes.
There hasn’t been a lot of satisfaction with HR analytics, with only 44% creating a business case, and only 22% achieving their target ROI. “The results haven’t shown that analytics improves HR much,” Richard says.
HR shared services is slowly growing, mostly among global organisations, allowing companies to handle more employees per HR staff member – up to 885 people in large organisations.
Among the reasons that companies set up HRSS include eliminating the distraction of administrative and transactive HR so staff can focus on strategic work; ongoing, longer term operational cost savings; standardising HR process throughout the business; substantial improvements in HR service quality; changing the behaviours of HR; improving productivity; driving globalisation of HR service delivery; improving timeliness, accuracy and meaningfulness of workforce information; facilitating future growth; and as part of a broader business shared services function.
The services provided by an HRSS include a transaction centre, HR plan/policy/question support; contact/call centre; payroll processing and administration; onboarding/new hire administration; HR reporting and analytics; and HRMS programming.
Companies that have implemented HRSS feel they could have improved it with better technology; clarified roles of other HR functions; further enhanced self service capabilities; increased or expanded change management efforts; had better focus on governance; implementing stages rather than all at once; include more services during initial implementation; explore the option to outsource some or more of the services; explore the option to bring more services into the HRSS that were previously outsourced; include fewer services in the initial implementation.
Among the technologies used in HRSS are case management; knowledge-based tools document imaging and management; quality monitoring; e-forms; VoIP; voice response; call transferring collaborative browsing; web chat; computer telephony integration; online audio or video; enterprise 2.0 tools; and crowdsourcing.
