Leaders See Need For HR To Digitalise Functions, Upskill Competencies For Stronger Business Outcomes

• A majority (83%) of HR leaders are open to
  the digitalisation of HR processes.
• However, HR leaders’ top concern when it
  comes to HR digitalisation is “not being able to adapt to new and complex
  skills” (50%).
• The most important function
  to digitalise is “compensation and benefits” (69%), followed by “onboarding and
  offboarding process” (58%), and “performance measurement and rewards” (53%).
• Experts say that adaptive
  competencies are instrumental to support a digital-enabled work-environment.

SINGAPORE
– Media OutReach – 7
September 2021 – As companies move into a COVID-19 endemic
world, Human Resources (HR) will play a strategic function to ensure a smooth
transition of the workforce and workplaces. For that
reason, 83% of HR leaders say that they are open to embracing digitalisation of
HR processes. However, HR leaders’ top concern when it comes to digitalisation
of HR processes is the fear of “not being able to adapt to new and complex
skills” (voted by 50%).

These
are some of the key findings uncovered in NTUC LearningHub (NTUC LHUB)’s recent
Industry Insights 2021 survey on Human Resources, conducted in August 2021 with
200 professionals who are HR leaders and managers with hiring responsibilities.

HR leaders
agree (89%) that their company recognises the need to digitalise HR processes
to achieve stronger business outcomes. According to them, the most important
function to digitalise is “compensation and benefits” (69%), followed by
“onboarding and offboarding process” (58%), and “performance measurement and
rewards” (53%). When asked about the benefits of digitalisation, HR leaders cite
“improve work efficiency” (67%), “allow time for more strategic high-value
tasks” (54%) and “fewer human errors” (53%), as top benefits of digitalising HR
processes.

However,
only 19% of HR leaders report that their company has implemented digitalisation
to a large extent, that is, more than 75% of HR processes. Despite the sluggish
adoption of HR digitalisation at the workplace, there are plans to do so in the
next two to three years. HR professionals reveal that their company intends to
invest in “robotic process automation” (42%), “cloud-based platforms” (38%),
and “artificial intelligence and machine learning capabilities” (38%).

In
addition, key challenges are the “lack of budget to invest in digital
transformation” (48%), “lack of in-house expertise” (48%)”, and “lack of
required skillsets to adapt” (38%). To enable the growth of digitalisation of
HR processes, companies are likely to “mix both training and hiring” (39%), “hire
HR professionals with relevant digitalisation skills” (36%), and “provide
skills training for existing HR employees” (16%). With that, most of the HR
leaders (98%) also agree that there is a greater need for HR practitioners with
a mix of traditional and digitalisation skills.

Theresa Soikkeli, Chief
Human Resources Officer at NTUC Enterprise, comments, “Today, HR’s role in any
organisation is increasingly crucial, to ensure business success, through the management
of the most valuable asset, that is, human capital. With the unpredictable
business climate, HR must be strategic and develop a workforce that is
resilient and agile. This is possible through reskilling and upskilling of the
existing workforce towards digitalisation, and hiring the right talent to
propel the business.”

NTUC
LHUB’s Director of Human Capital, Sean Lim, adds, “Taking the step to upskill HR
professionals is the start of inculcating a culture of continuous learning and utilising
adaptive skills to keep up with constant technological developments. As the HR
function will be at the forefront of digital transformation, HR professionals
must also possess complementary competencies in the sociological and
behavioural aspects to the function in order to harness the true power of data
and technology. These higher-value roles position HR as a more proactive and
strategic function. Thus, HR professionals will need to upskill and reskill
their adaptive competencies as well in order to support a digital-enabled
work-environment.”

Tham
Chien Ping, Master Facilitator and Representative, Southeast Asia, at Society
for Human Resource Management comments, “COVID-19 has shown us that many
digital tools can in fact facilitate a lot of our work. This equalises digital
skills and knowledge as it was something that the entire workforce had to
embrace, regardless of age or ‘digital background’. As companies transform, HR
will have to do the same as a partner to business and working closely together
to mitigate gaps through digitalisation. This allows HR practitioners to
transition into higher value roles such as consulting, counselling, and coaching,
which very much require people-centric skills.”

To
download the Industry Insights 2021 Report on Human Resources, visit https://www.ntuclearninghub.com/human-resources-2021.
Find out more about the courses, training and grants at https://www.ntuclearninghub.com/.