Tag: COVID exit strategy
The entire world is grappling with the scare of the COVID-19 pandemic. Given the uncertainty of the pandemic, Human Resources departments across the globe went into overdrive to map out all possibilities that employees would undergo. Previously, HR departments were concerned with compensation, compliance, and benefits. However, with changing times, their role as HR professionals evolved. Today they are supporting the greatest assets of their company: Employees!
Beyond hiring and growth, HR professionals are now seen as strategic partners for every department within an organization. The resilience of an organization and its people depends on the strength of the HR department. It plays a vital role in boosting the economy. HR professionals cushion the sudden shift in workplace culture and equip the team for the future of work.
The pandemic has suddenly brought in industrial shifts. Understanding these shifts is the key that helps in keeping pace with the rapid developments across the organization. That is why HR professionals are called the pulse of any organization. However, this is not easy as they face several challenges.
Read more: Why Develop a Custom Platform for Remote Employee Hiring and Onboarding?
HR Professionals Face Increasing Challenges
In a remote work setting, technology continues to have a direct impact on the day-to-day work of employees. So, HR leaders must plan their technology investments more carefully than ever before.
Additionally, HR professionals may face challenges from their employers and employees whom they serve. Hence, HR personnel must identify upcoming challenges. This will help them to use technology to facilitate more informed decisions faster. Here are a few challenges:
1. Recruiting and retaining employees
Employers must hire candidates with an appropriate degree, skills, and experience. Plus, these candidates must be a good fit with the organizational culture. Once a candidate is hired it is important to retain the best worker through a successful employee engagement approach.
2. Bridging the gap between the employer and the employee
It is important to ensure that a qualified candidate does not slip through the cracks. This job needs to be thorough, requiring HR professionals’ full attention. This is also time-sensitive because the talent could be easily snatched by a competition.
Hence HR professionals need technology that can streamline the process of job postings, interview scheduling, hiring workflows for more efficient results. It should also improve accuracy and save the time of HR and applicants alike.
3. Pressured for faster decision-making
Most companies rely on data to make key operational decisions. To make informed decisions they must identify areas of exposure to and devise effective solutions. The pandemic showed us all that the work environment can change suddenly without warning. Hence, HR professionals need to have new information at their fingertips to predict the effect of change on their organization and make needed changes quickly to ensure the survival of their company.
Read more: Top 5 Organizational Imperatives for Business Leaders to Become Winners in the New Normal
Must-Have Technology Trends for the Efficient Functioning of an HR Department
Some technologies have emerged as a response to the pandemic. Even so, these may continue to be long-term shifts in the current and future workplace. These new technologies may help an organization stay resilient and better equipped to adapt to future crises.
1. Cloud talent management
Nowadays, HR professionals depend on multiple solutions to automate hiring, onboarding, performance evaluation, and more. Cloud-based HR tools give all members of the team access to relevant workplace data at any given time.
Cloud talent management reduces the risk of human error while processing data. It promotes collaboration within the team and saves time and money. It is also more flexible and easier to update, unlike the dispersed toolkit.
2. Geared up for remote work
The organization must ensure their remote employees working from various locations and time zones have the same learning opportunities. The latest HR technologies have a variety of products that improve remote work.
3. Increased focus on data security
Increased reliance on cloud technologies will need increased measures to protect sensitive data. The latest HR technology trends focus on security and push organizations to implement new procedures.
4. Self-service tools for employees
HR professionals are overworked as they are the employees’ go-to for workplace updates and any other information. With these additional responsibilities, some of this data can be made available to the employee via self-service tools.
These tools can increase administrative efficiency and improve transparency. They can provide real-time updates for all employees. It boosts team morale while reducing burnout.
Read more: It’s Time To Transform Your Business For The New Digital Age – Rise With SAP
How Can Fingent Help Adapt Better To The Rising Changes And Prepare HR For The Future?
Fingent top software development company, can not only change the way your organization is built but the way it runs as well. We can help you change work behaviors for the better. Your HR professionals do not have to be overwhelmed by repetitive administrative tasks.
Fingent can help you adapt better to rising changes. We can help you cut through the complexity of HR technology. Fingent’s customized solutions can help you scale up your core business strategies and focus on your most valuable asset – your employees. That is why our Fingent mantra is ‘locate and lock right talent.’
We understand that your workforce is the backbone of your organization. We will use our in-depth expertise, robust data analysis, and customized solutions to help you align your people, performance, and business values. Fingent’s people development platform Skill Lake is specifically designed to “build a holistic learning culture that goes beyond functional skills, speed up onboarding, and facilitate the on-the-job application of learning concepts.”
Check out the most unique people development platform – Skill Lake!
MUSA is another of Fingent’s brilliant solutions to help streamline and optimize HR and Talent Management tasks. Here is a bit about it:
Why was MUSA required?
Fingent realized that the PeopleOps team was overworked with several mundane jobs. That led to the development of AI-powered virtual assistants. This automated FAQs and improved the efficiency of HR teams.
What was the result?
The virtual assistant improved the HR team’s response time by providing instant and accurate responses to common queries. Thus, it relieved the HR team by minimizing their workload helping them to give adequate attention to the most important asset of an organization, their workforce.
Keep Up With Transforming Behaviors
Last year or so has seen the world change rapidly. This change may seem temporary. But here is a word of caution! This will spark a behavior pattern that will permanently transform the future of work. HR professionals must adapt accordingly to meet these changes. Fingent is confident that these and more HR tech trends will empower the transformation of the future of HR and talent management. Call us today and allow us to help shape the future of your HR function.
How to plan a successful COVID-exit strategy and get your business on track?
If the 2008-09 global recession was due to financial meltdown and economic vulnerabilities, the 2020 economic crisis stemmed from the global pandemic and subsequent health emergency. Both incidents hold lessons that business owners and leaders should follow to fast-track their organizations’ recovery in 2021.
Read more: 11 Practices Followed by Leaders to Build Resilience and Ensure Rapid Business Recovery
Economic growth in 2021 is likely to improve compared to the growth rate in the second half of 2020. However, it will still be uneven. Additionally, the timing and growth will vary for different products and services and geographic markets.
Given the uncertain recovery of the economy, leaders and business owners need to plan a successful strategy to lead their teams and organizations over the year. The focus should be a forecast of their companies’ revenue potentially earned in every quarter of the year.
That said, the COVID-exit strategy is not straightforward. Leaders and business owners will have to make a few difficult choices.
- How much should my organization change, and how fast?
- How far should I go to change my current strategy and adopt faster and more agile approaches?
These are some of the questions that you’ll probably need to figure out. However, remember that if your organization does not move quickly, it will lose itself in the crowd.
One of the best ways to transform is to apply the “all-in” approach to transformation. It means to go ahead with full speed. Whether your organization’s transformation should be about portfolio moves or performance improvements misses the point. If you want to succeed, you must consider both and make your transformation go big. This approach will help your organization emerge stronger and sustain the competitive edge for a long time.
This article discusses how leaders can build a successful COVID-exit strategy and begin a holistic transformation.
Three fundamental steps that organizations can consider
If your organization is successfully managing portfolio and performance moves simultaneously in a transformation, you can invest in three foundational steps:
- Getting an honest view of the business’s full potential across both portfolio and performance moves.
- Understanding the impact of those moves.
- Creating a program with a proper structure and sequence to maximize value creation.
While understanding the full business potential, leaders must know the importance of setting a high aspiration. According to McKinsey & Company, companies that put their gross transformation targets at 75% of trailing earnings are more likely to create value sustainably.
Incrementalism may be risky for organizations trying to break out from the COVID-19 crisis. Management teams seek safety to confront the current situation and avoid the discomfort of going in for the big moves. In reality, leaders must use this time and opportunity to challenge assumptions and overcome social barriers that block bold moves.
Read more: Top 5 Organizational Imperatives for Business Leaders to Become Winners in the New Normal
Successful digital transformation requires leaders to answer these questions
- Which line(s) of business does my company no longer own naturally?
- Which trends accelerated by COVID-19 could transform my business?
- What are the new efficiencies and business models developed by my company to meet the COVID-19 necessities?
- How can my organization benefit from the advantages of those new efficiencies and business models in the next normal?
- How has my organization’s health changed, and what elements and capability building will be required to maximize the impact of the COVID-exit?
While you are trying to balance portfolio and performance moves, you will also need to consider the sequencing. Portfolio and performance initiatives must go hand-in-hand. You must consider each move by defining the magnitude, timing, and risk of impact.
Read more: Fingent Speaks: What it Takes to Build a Successful Digital Transformation Strategy
According to McKinsey & Co., stand-alone portfolio moves capture less than half of value creation, especially in areas such as deal premiums, performance upside, or growing new business. However, if your strategy is ill-conceived, even stand-alone performance moves can take time and maybe outweighed by acquiring the wrong business lines.
Two cases of “all-in transformation”
While you must consider both portfolio moves and performance improvements, which of these should you execute first? The answer depends on the organization and context.
How and when you implement your transformation elements must be guided by your organization’s various circumstances and potential at any given time.
We’re listing two cases of “all-in transformation” here. Both the examples highlight the significance of sequenced transformation in unlocking business value. In both cases, the organizations identified the required potentials, set high aspirations, and deliberately sequenced the portfolio and performance moves to achieve the results. However, the companies differed in how they advanced from there.
First case:
In the first case, the value creation and its sequencing were as follows:
- The company streamlined its cost structure, focused on resource allocation, and carved out a few of its competing lines after consolidating business units and simplifying the executive team. This reorganization enabled about 10% of total transformation value creation.
- Next, the company improved the effectiveness of its sales force which generated high revenue growth. It also implemented automation and simplifications to reduce overheads and adopted a strategic procurement approach to reduce external expenditure. These operational improvements enabled about 75% of transformation value creation.
- Lastly, the company invested in optimizing firms it had acquired and integrated a similar set of core capabilities.
Second case:
The second case, though an all-in transformation program, took a separate route.
- After a significant merger, the company re-evaluated its core business portfolio and divested non-core business. This approach enabled the organization to focus on financial flexibility by using the proceeds to buy back stock. Overall, this performance move allowed the company about 75% of value creation.
- By streamlining its operations, focusing on revenue growth and margin improvements, the company’s performance transformation enabled about 25% of value creation.
Read more: 7 Ways for Your Business to Overcome the COVID-19 Aftermath
From these examples, leaders need to understand that they cannot choose between a portfolio-first or performance-first approach while planning their exit strategy. The order is not important, but leaders will have to accept that they are going all in, set high aspirations right from the start, and let the realization of full potential determine what happens. Avoiding an ad hoc approach to value creation may have significant implications over the long-term. Research reveals that organizations that go for the “all-in” transformation approach are more likely to show lasting improvements and are nearly three times more likely to be ahead of their competitors.
The takeaway
After a year of uncertainties, CEOs and business leaders are aware that the COVID-exit path will not be easy. However, if companies adopt an all-in transformation approach, they can expect more dynamism and flexibility during the journey.
Read more: 10 Services Offered by Fingent to Prepare Your Business for the Future of Digital Innovation
At top software development company Fingent, we use cutting-edge digital solutions and rapid innovation to help businesses reinvent the future. We’re closely monitoring the situation and helping businesses return to work with our technology consulting and innovation capabilities. Feel free to get in touch with us to know how we can transform your business digitally.