The digital revolution has changed the way in which we communicate, with some of that change for the better, and some of it for the worse. Through the digitalisation of personal information ranging from performance to communication patterns we can use AI to reveal insights that can supercharge business success. However, our increasingly remote and algorithm managed workforce can also hide under the digital blanket, free from human oversight, authentic relationships and management intuition. With this in mind, what is the role of HR in supporting the ‘people of the cloud’ in this global age of automation?
Reinforce a Unique and Engaging Culture
It’s been said that culture eats everything else for breakfast. Facebook, Amazon, Netflix and Google are successful for many reasons, including their culture. With magnetic founders, a rags to riches story, and a clearly communicated culture, they are able to motivate and guide a distributed, educated, knowledge workforce. Consider how to digitise and disseminate a founder’s mindset. When employees can visualise an admirable founder and feel like they are part of a Cinderella story, they can better act in the interest of the organisation.
Communicate a Clear and Compelling Strategy
In a virtual organisation where people are more digitally connected than personally connected, clarity of purpose is paramount. Especially in this VUCA age where knowledge workers must operate with agility, people need to know what truly matters. If they don’t know where they are going, how are they going to get there? The vision, mission and values of the organisation need to be readily available and frequently reinforced. Employees at all levels of the organisation should have an ‘elevator pitch’ at hand if asked what the company does.
Collect Useful Data
The volume, variety, and velocity of data is only accelerating, hence the love affair with ‘Big Data’. However, an additional ‘v’ to keep in mind is veracity. How accurate and useful is the workforce data? After all, what gets measured gets managed.
Besides too little data, there may also be an issue of too much data. It’s increasingly popular to plough through massive troves of data in search of the golden insights. However, just because something is easy to see and understand, doesn’t mean it matters. Truly knowing the individual differences of a workforce in this digital age is more possible than ever, yet rarely done well. Good people analytics that drive strategic growth require high quality people data that is both ‘reliable’ and ‘valid’. These are terms that every HR professional needs to know.
Create an Accessible Data Lake
Siloed data leads to feeble insights. Clear measurements are like fresh ingredients for a delicious meal, but a kitchen, recipe, and cook are all needed to serve up something memorable. One advantage of the cloud is the ability to create a common repository for data that is easily accessible by anyone with permission from any internet connected location. However, for all the advances in statistics and data capture, data management is still struggling to keep up. It’s important to think about and manage how data flows and is captured within an organisation. To what extent is financial data, people data, operational data and customer data accessible in a common location with the potential for combination? What level of expertise is needed to access this data and visualise it? Automation and a clear cloud-based data strategy that includes all aspects of the business can help and HR needs to have a voice in this.
Promote Authentic Relationships
Humanity cannot be automated. People have an innate desire to connect with other people, to feel valued and to feel understood. Digitising a workforce can lead to people becoming ghosts for the company and investing their true selves into side endeavors. Creating opportunities for social interaction, serendipitous conversations and cross-organisational friendships can yield dividends in terms of loyalty and innovation. Community events, social committees, internal social platforms for sharing and budget allocated to face to face trainings and conferences are all opportunities to inject humanity back into the digital enterprise.
Be Transparent and Trustworthy
Just as recruiters can scour the web for intimate details of applicants, applicants can peruse glassdoor or other sources to learn the truth about an organisation. The skeletons in the closet are now dancing in the streets and it’s incumbent upon leadership to promote open, honest two-way communication. As the locker room cultures of wunderkind companies lead to headlines and changes, and as the push for Inclusiveness and Diversity accelerates, HR must ensure leadership understands the importance of matching words to actions. If leaders expect loyalty and honest work, they should show loyalty and honesty in their dealings. One role of HR is to advocate for this mindset, not out of compassion but out of necessity. Of any area of the organization, HR should most understand the pitfalls of eroding trust within the workforce.
Provide Automated Coaches and Micro-learnings
The days of an apprentice shadowing their master may be fading but coaching and training are as important as ever. Kevin Kelly, the founder of Wired magazine, points out in his insightful book The Inevitable, that we are entering an age of constant learning. The cloud mentality is one of constant upgrades and steady change. Employees can no longer be expected to know all they need to know, but they can be expected to know how to quickly learn. The job of HR and the organisation is to make that learning readily available and quickly consumable.
Give Internal Stretch Opportunities
In our age of ultimate flexibility, the gig economy thrives. It is increasingly common for employees to have ‘side hustles’ as they seek to maximise earnings, grow, and give back to the community. HR can help provide workers with stretch opportunities, optional side projects and ways to give back internally. If employees are motivated to go ‘above and beyond’, then it’s important that organisations channel that enthusiasm. Create internal job boards, optional committees and volunteer projects for people. Track the activity, recognise the efforts and consider the full range of performance when evaluating people.
Infuse Personality Throughout the Automation
Warren Bennis said ‘the factory of the future will have only two employees, a man and a dog. The man will be there to feed the dog. The dog will be there to keep the man from touching the equipment.’ Automation is inevitable, but it needn’t be dull. HR should consider how to infuse the culture, personality and brand of the organisation into all human facing automations.
Understand and Respect Privacy
Finally, although there is great promise in the 21st century cloud-based organisation, there are also privacy concerns that are only growing. HR professionals need to continue to stay abreast of employee regulations and ensure compliance. However, beyond compliance, organizations should consider the ‘psychological contracts’ of employees. This is the unwritten contract that describes the understandings, beliefs and commitments that exist between an employee and employer. Understanding what the employee expects and communicating in a way to maintain that mutual understanding will go a long way towards minimising litigation and maximising motivation.
