If your new program is hard to use or doesn't become popular quickly, you better go back to the drawing board.Ģ. We have to think about HR applications as "platforms" and not "systems or programs" - and we have to measure success by the rate of adoption, not through massive change management programs.
I will be writing much more on this topic in the year ahead, but let me simply say that Digital HR requires fluency with mobile apps, design thinking, video, behavioral economics and the use of embedded analytics. These are only two examples of brand new, totally different, digital HR experiences that have enormous impact on the workforce. A major retailer told me their new curated video learning system, which lets employees recommend content to others, has generated seven times as much activity as their traditional LMS in the first six months. I had one of the leading providers of digital employee communication solutions in my office this week and the company told me that their one-minute, fast, animated videos have become the most popular and viral way companies communicate new benefits programs, wellness programs and other employee benefits.
This new digital life (and workplace) is forcing us to rethink HR from top to bottom: how we design programs, the tools we use, and how we roll out and communicate solutions. We spend hours a day interacting with digital apps ( we check our phones 8 billion times a day), we are monitored closely by digital devices and we are influenced by suggestions, nudges and recommendations driven by analytics and behavioral economics. Unlike ever before in my career (I have been working since before the days of the PC), technology change is everywhere, driven by mobile devices, sensors, location awareness and soon wearables. The first topic to discuss is the brave new world we now call Digital HR.
Digital HR arrives, patterned after the digital world. All this technology will change the way we manage people, forcing HR to stay vigilant of new ways to get work done.ġ. The HR technology industry received more than $2 billion in investment capital in 2015 (according to CB Insights research), fueling a growing ecosystem of new tools for recruitment, performance management, learning, wellness, feedback and employee engagement. The result: the way we manage, lead, and organize ourselves is undergoing a radical change.Īdding to these changes are a tremendous number of innovative new technologies, tools and systems for HR.