Article: Big impact of technology on HR consulting

Technology

Big impact of technology on HR consulting

Jayesh Pandey, Lead, Human, Capital and Organization Effectiveness-India, Accenture on CHROs will have very specific demands from HR consultants
Big impact of technology on HR consulting

A host of firms in India are looking very intently at technology options such as cloud, HR modules, or ERP to bring efficiencies to core HR processes such as L&D and performance management. It is not difficult to imagine that technology has great potential to enable several human capital efficiencies such as better talent segmentation, more focused performance action and more accurate designing of talent roles. The impact of technology, therefore, to enable these efficiencies is impacting the HR consulting space in a big way. In all ways, HR organizations in India are demanding HR consulting services to facilitate outcomes which are much more actionable and precise.

An example of a focused outcome can be an organization that wants to hire for a particular business unit in a foreign location. While employing a consulting service, the demand can be in the form of hiring particularly a specific segment of the workforce and the key strategy to target attraction and retention of this workforce segment. Another example of increasing more targeted specification of a request can be in the form of an organization providing the consultant with the organizational competencies and demanding an intervention to get from point A to point B. In fact, the Indian market is witnessing a great deal of demand where organizations are asking about specific enhancements of competencies through nurturing and development of talent. As technology continues to proliferate through human capital management, organizations will start to harvest the information generated from these technology systems to employ more specific and outcome-focused objectives from HR consulting organizations.

Several other trends such as e-learning and collaborative platforms for decision making are rapidly featuring in an organization’s human capital plans. There is a difference in maturity between segments of the buyer markets in India. Global organizations, IT-based service organizations and captive outfits are more HR mature than traditional industries such as manufacturing. The changes in the political scenario in the coming months can also drive the demand up or down depending on what kind of market sentiments they drive. HR consulting organizations in the future have to stop thinking of themselves as HR consultants and start thinking as business consultants. In the coming months, CHROs will start expecting a consultant to tie their success to business KPIs. By the end of next year, HR consulting service providers in India will see a characteristic evolution of demand.

As told to People Matters

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Topics: Technology, Strategic HR, #HRIndustry

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