People are among the most important strategic assets of an organization and there is no reason why decisions pertaining to such an important asset should not be based on data and analytics. Managing human resources is not the responsibility of a talent manager alone. Leaders need to have an equal stake in taking the most crucial human capital decisions of an organization. The right use of technology, especially analytics, enables leaders to take these decisions at a very strategic level. The importance of technology thus will only increase in the coming times.

Progressive organizations effectively use technology and data for human capital measures. At Intel, we have effectively used data to show us predictive indicators of several things. Among them include the health of organizations; how managers and leaders are faring; how the organization is doing on diversity; and the hiring priorities of the organization. We are still evolving in how systematically we use data available to us and not just on a needed basis but to build the ability to bring efficiencies in the way we approach HR. It enables us to take better decisions and faster. That said, one critical element about data and technology is that while dealing with people not everything can be captured in metrics.

Social media can have a very profound effect on how an organization engages and interacts with the workforce in the future. Social will completely change not only the speed at which an organization shares information within but also the amount shared outside. The advent of social platforms and social sharing is making organizations more transparent, much more participative not only at the higher but lower levels too. People have opinions and they voice it too. It has certainly shaken hierarchies (at least in the communication flow) and is forcing management (not just HR management) to be more participative in organizational matters.

As opposed to popular thinking that technology will reduce human intervention, the reverse is a more likely phenomenon. Social media is changing the onus of this intervention and putting it back where it should lie. It certainly is increasing human interaction. At Intel, we have internal blogging platforms where employees are free to discuss anything. There are several examples where concerns have been raised using these platforms and they have been addressed by top business leaders, thereby indicating that business leaders take social media voice seriously. An indicator of a mature talent management organization is the degree of seriousness it attributes to social voice. Organizations in the future will be equally vigilant about social voice both inside and outside the corporation.

There is a possibility that “average” talent managers will use technology as a means to shrug off responsibility and make decisions for themselves. The human element of talent management will therefore become minimal. Any organization that lets it happen will be foolish. People are the most important assets of an organization and we cannot let agents of data and technology manage a talent management function that requires a great deal of balance between data with intuition. While the elements of IQ can be captured using tools and processes, research has clearly established that EQ is a better measure of how successful an individual be in a role and this vital aspect is difficult to capture, measure using tools/software. A good talent manager will always be one with a higher EQ and relies heavily on intuition and judgement while utilising data and insights as a means to arrive at sound decisions.