As a human resources professional, you’ll be responsible for upholding company values and ensuring all operational and professional guidelines are being met by all employees. For this reason, HR staff have a massive role to play in constructing a positive corporate culture. And in the digital age, HR staff are also integral for the smooth facilitation of digital transformation initiatives. If you want to encourage the rest of your teammates to adopt digital ways of working, it’s essential to lead by example.

Thankfully, there are countless ways that HR professionals can adopt high-tech tools in order to cultivate a digitally-advanced HR department. These range from adopting online communication tools to using AI-powered application tracking systems to screen potential candidates.

If you’re an HR professional looking to digitise your department, you’ve come to the right place. In this piece, we’ll go over some ways to do just that and improve communication efficiency not just in HR, but around the company. 

Use Digital Tools to Create HR Collateral 

As an HR professional, you’ll need a good understanding of graphic design tools to create collateral like event posters, visuals for recruitment drives and infographics explaining your company’s policy. It’s essential to have software that lets you remove photo backgrounds to maintain company headshots in .png format. HR professionals can also benefit from engaging with basic file sharing and perhaps even photo editing skill sets – just to ensure that they can do enough design work to send out internal communications or support initiatives with top managers and department heads.

While acquiring all the tools you need might seem like an expensive proposition, there are plenty of ways to get what you need even if you’re working with a tight budget. For instance, you can make use of the plethora of free tools available online. You can also make use of the free trials that many paid services offer to use specialised tools at no cost for a short period of time.

There are plenty of benefits to creating crisp, aesthetic visuals. First, you’ll be showing the other employees in the company that you value your people and put effort into the materials you create for them. Besides this, demonstrating professionalism through the visuals you put out can also make your business more attractive to potential hires. 

Implement AI in Recruitment 

There’s little doubt that AI is on the rise. Artificial intelligence is being used in all areas of business, and HR is no exception. Among the most prominent benefits of AI in a human resources context is that it allows you to be more precise and efficient when sifting through job candidates.

As a recruiter, using an AI-powered applicant tracking system (ATS) can help you pick out the best candidates out of hundreds of CVs and cover letters. These tools pick resumes in large part based on certain keywords that are relevant to the job listing. This helps take the bias out of human recruiters manually going through applications and also saves plenty of time.

Today’s job market is incredibly crowded. For each listing you post online, you can expect to receive dozens, if not hundreds, of applicants. Manually reading each application will likely leave you very little time for anything else. By using AI hiring tools, you can significantly reduce the time it takes to find your dream candidates and boost the precision of your recruitment process. 

Master Digital Communication

As an HR professional, you have a big say in how communication takes place in your company. By adopting digital means of communication, you can make sure that information gets around as quickly and accurately as possible.

First, master how to use email, which is the bedrock of most corporate communications. Set out a company-wide policy for email etiquette so that everyone is on the same page. Besides email, you should also make use of other digital communication tools, including Slack and Zoom.

You should also set up digital channels between you and the rest of the company. This might be as simple as letting everyone know how they can reach you via email. You can also have a Slack channel where you post HR-related announcements. By embracing digital communication, you can not only speed up information transfer in your business but also make sure there’s a record of all communications that people can refer back to. 

Collect Feedback Digitally

For a business to improve, those in charge of making decisions need to listen to the people working under them. The experience and opinions of those with their boots on the ground should be among the top factors that inform decisions made throughout the organisation.

It’s the responsibility of the HR department to be the liaison between the higher-ups and the rest of the business. Thankfully, digitisation has made it so much easier to collect employee feedback. One way to do this is to send out anonymous surveys through platforms like Google Forms and Qualtrics.

Another way to connect regular employees with managers is to set up a digital feedback channel where employees can come to you with questions, concerns or opinions at any time. We also highly recommend conducting one-on-one interviews with individual employees, which can be done through Zoom and other video conferencing tools if circumstances don’t allow for this to happen in person.

Among the best ways to achieve company-wide growth is through digital change. Make the process of collecting feedback from all corners of your business easier by using a variety of digital tools. 

Make Sure your HR Department is Digital-Ready

More and more aspects of business operations and development are shifting to digital — and enterprises that fail to adapt will likely get left behind. It’s up to top managers and HR departments to set the tone for the rest of the company by embracing high-tech communication tools and encouraging other departments to do the same.

In this article, we’ve gone over some ways to cultivate a digitally-advanced HR department. Implement these methods into your own practice as an HR professional today to improve communication around the organisation.