What HR Must Do to Meet Growing Business Challenges

Adapt or die, isn’t that the old adage? While it may sound dramatic, it’s the new reality HR practitioners face in an uncertain business climate. They can no longer spend their days focused on routine administrative tasks now that we have the technology to manage and automate these processes. However, when one door closes another opens, and there are plenty of opportunities for HR to be more strategic.

HR is in a unique position to leverage insights from employee data to guide not only business leaders but their own workforce as well. This will no doubt require a significant shift for HR leaders, who must refocus their efforts from process management toemployee enablementand measurable outcomes—all in order to more closely align with the business.

While we all understand the significance of HR data as it currently exists, it has the potential to be much more powerful when it’s unified with data from other parts of the business. In most organizations today, people are the largest expense yet the greatest revenue driver. To be successful, HR needs to understand how the depth and breadth of finance and people information can be tapped to provide valuable insights to business leaders, as well as a personal and engaging experience to every person in the organization.

HR professionals need to be less focused on domain-specific systems and lean more on systems that use unified data to drive a meaningful, more personalized experience for every worker. Luckily, technology has evolved to the point where workforce and financial data now live in one system, positioning HR at the forefront of the business where we can strategize on budgeting, planning, and forecasting for major events like M&A, divestiture, reorganization, expansion, and more.

From a granular workforce perspective, the transactional data that is captured each time a change is made such as a new hire, job move, or compensation adjustment rolls up into a holistic picture of the business and the individual employee. That information can drive a unique and personal experience for each employee, much like how Netflix makes recommendations based on what you’ve previously watched. We know that engaged workers drive business results, so we need tobetter engage themby providing a delightful employee experience where technology is an enabler, not a hindrance.

At a high level, HR data that is unified with financials in one system can drive smarter growth strategies. As CEOs consider expanding their businesses, their teams must determine the labor, office space, travel, and infrastructure costs required, and then do a cost comparison against other options. Drilling down into specific data such as open job requisitions, and budgeting for office space, travel between locations, or location-specific employee benefits, puts HR at the helm of deciding if a company opens a location in Minneapolis rather than Sacramento.

In the end, the most important thing for HR leaders operating in today’s business climate—where disruption is only an app away—is ensuring that their practitioners have the right skill set and tools to adapt. Can they analyze data, not just collect it? Can they provide the business with data-driven recommendations that improve the bottom line, not just enforce policies?

If you cannot adapt to modern technology today, thenin five years你很快就会回来l face an even bigger capabilities deficit as artificial intelligence and machine learning increase the ability to cut out inefficiencies and drive business value. By building the right infrastructure, skills, and engagement framework, companies can be ready for the uncertainty ahead.

This blog originally appeared atHuman Resource Executive Online.