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Despite the fact that most employees are becoming highly tech savvy and comfortable with mobile and cloud-based tools in their private capacities, local companies are slow to bring digital tools and platforms into the working environment. This reluctance is being acutely felt in the realm of human resources (HR) and people management, as companies stubbornly cling on to old methods in a new and rapidly evolving digital world.
According to Deloitte’s 2017 Global Human Capital Trends report, Rewriting the Rules for the Digital Age, HR is failing to keep up with technology innovation and development. The study revealed that only 35% of global HR professionals rated their digital capabilities as “good” or “excellent” – and in South Africa, this figure sits at 31%.
Globally, the report shows that 40% of companies still have HR systems that are based on enterprise resource planning (ERP), with few digital applications. In addition, a paltry 15% have fully digital HR systems in place and only 18% have fully redesigned HR to support digital operations. The key issue, notes Deloitte, is that HR systems are not the highest priority within technology budgets – especially if legacy ERP systems are in place.
“The South African problem is much the same as the rest of the world – in that legacy systems have been implemented at significant cost and SA companies are very reluctant, or unable to spend money on new technologies,” explains Trevor Page, director of human capital at Deloitte Consulting. “Local leaders need to align their business, people and technology strategies very closely in future to ensure they are choosing the appropriate digital solutions to enhance the productivity of their people at work.”
He also points out that business productivity is clearly not increasing in line with digital innovation and development.
Indeed, most productivity reports paint a grim picture. In addition to a working environment characterised by cost-cutting, ever-tightening margins and general austerity, the furious pace of everyday working life is adding to stress, burnout and absenteeism. In June 2016, Productivity SA reported that “the stress-related expenses in SA include: absenteeism; decreased productivity; staff turnover; workers compensation; burnout and medical insurances”, costing the economy billions a year.
Deloitte’s Human Capital Trends report echoes this sentiment, noting that “employees and organisations are more overwhelmed than ever”.
“The real problem of the overwhelmed employee is that they have to engage each day with multiple technologies and communication platforms to do their work,” adds Page. “So the work processes and flows (along with the multiple systems) are complicated, confusing and overwhelming.”
In his view, organisations need to “redesign” work for the future – which is, according to Deloitte, more networked and mobile with simplified processes and fewer, better systems.
“Technology is not the simple answer to the overwhelmed employee though,” cautions Page. “Many other aspects will have to be taken into account when trying to reduce this problem – including redesigning jobs, conducting organisational network analysis to understand communication flows and more effectively aligning teams and jobs to actual workflows.”
Hands-on innovation
More than just installing oversized headphones and building a health-food joint for employees, some HR experts argue that the inevitable digital transformation of the workplace requires a well-thought-out and deeply embedded culture shift. Lacking hands-on leadership and guidance, most employees will simply not be able to maximise and leverage the new tools entering the workplace – which may end up hurting, not helping, the burnout phenomenon.
“One of the greatest challenges that companies face as they progress along their digital transformation journey is user adoption – coupled with a cultural mindset that must shift in order to make room for innovation,” says Lionel Moyal, Microsoft SA’s Office Business Group Lead. “In order to deal with this challenge, some organisations form innovation teams to understand and test new technologies and develop new solutions or services that the rest of the business can benefit from.”
Moyal emphasises the importance of training, stating that it is critical in order to ensure that employees can utilise the tools they need to make them more productive at work.
“It is also important to recognise that people and organisations are not homogeneous,” he adds. “It is not necessary to wait until an entire organisation is ready for change to start the change process. Change is evolutionary and it is important for leaders to realise that different teams and users work differently.”
He argues that it is through allowing “such diversity of behaviour and working habits” that deep transformation can gain traction. In most cases, notes Moyal, it is sufficient for just 15% of the workforce to embrace new technologies and working habits for a critical mass to set in across the organisation.
As South African businesses and employees hurtle into another year fraught with both political and economic volatility, we clearly need to address the productivity question – and move quickly to get that 15% on course.
This article originally appeared in the 23 March edition of finweek. Buy and download the magazine here.
