Article: How automation is transforming workforce management

Technology

How automation is transforming workforce management

In an exclusive interaction with People Matters, Sumit Sabharwal, Head of HR, Fujitsu Consulting India talks about how automation in HR plays a very significant role to improve productivity, efficiency and minimize any biases around it.
How automation is transforming workforce management

Q1) Is HR automation software a necessity in today’s age?

HR automation plays a very significant role for the success of businesses, especially for an organization of our size. Automation adds a collateral value when we are scaling up operations that include parameters such as adding up the number of people or introducing the number of defects, which are otherwise difficult to manually look for. Keeping that in mind, it plays a very significant role to improve productivity, efficiency and minimize any biases around it. 

Q2) What has been the change in the recruitment process from pre-automation to post-automation?

Recruitment has been the biggest beneficiary as operations are getting automated in human resources functions. A lot of manual work is taken care in functions such as recruitment. Up until recently, information was filled up on a sheet or a form with photographs attached that later got processed and scanned. Today, we have moved to setups where all this is just a click away. Information is sent on a digital format that automatically gets captured and translates into the system. This has resulted in better joining percentages, the right kind and a bigger pool of candidates. 

Fujitsu believes in delivering an exceptional experience, whilst the employer is recruited in an organization. Thus, automation from a pre-setup of manual to the revamped automation now, has resulted into hiring being watched over from anywhere to anytime. 

Q3) How is automation impacting new-age workforce management and employee engagement?

From where we stand in the digital age, everything is just a click away. For instance, what if I’m sitting in Delhi and I need to take care of an employee engagement case or if we need to know what is the pulse of the organization in Pune? Now, this information can be accessed instantly, without any hassle. We, at Fujitsu use some of the most advanced tools, which provide data on the pulse of the organization through the feedback from our AI mechanism (one of these engagement-inquisitive tools is called Amber). Similarly, automation captures feedback and skills of people, wherever they are sitting, and it gets updated on real-time basis, which is put together logically and gives us an output. 

Truly, automation is transforming workforce management, not only in terms of how it is looked upon today, but also in how the engagement functions. Fujitsu is moving away from being an employee-centric organization to a more customer-centric organization, which enables us to start treating our employees not as workers but as customers, where we can together pave our way for co-creating innovation. 

Q4) What do you think will be the trends in the HR automation landscape in 2019?

As one of our paramount priorities, we need to start working on the systems with a customer-centric approach, as they need a fast, agile, personalised and customized way. For this to materialize, our systems need to deeply ingrain all these parameters. We have moved way ahead of the times, when one would probably focus on an automation, just related to a better and quicker work flow. Today, it is more importantly about the experience. What needs to get automated, must be based on an experience and not only on the convenience of process within departments. That’s the biggest challenge in 2019-20, which we need to work progressively towards. 

Q5) Has automation in HR changed the job prospects for millennials?

Yes, significantly. It has opened a lot of opportunities and a plethora of prospects for millennials to explore. Today, they are a lot more confident about the availability of jobs and are not at all risk-averse. This has materialized with the help of automation and information available, which allows them to take risks. Ultimately, these factors result into experimentation by chiliastic that brings out positive results through testing and in return, it helps the organizations in the longer run. 

Moreover, it helps the employees to take concrete decisions regarding their career path and change the course according to what best satisfies their acumen. Therefore, changes in HR through automation and the way that we are operating today are opening a lot of avenues and empowering employees to go and experiment, which is great for creating an inclusive work environment within an organization.

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Topics: Technology, #AutomationAndJobs

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