Enabling Digital Transformation: 3 Steps to Total Workforce Alignment

Author: Shashank Saxena

With the continued expansion of the contingent workforce, many chief human resources officers (CHROs) are pursuing digital transformation in order to better manage not only full-time staff, but their entire workforce—from recruiting through offboarding. Generally, this type of transformation demands a fully integrated technology ecosystem that includes both a human capital management (HCM) solution and vendor management system (VMS).

However, accelerating digital transformation across your total workforce requires more than simply adopting an HCM and VMS. To enable transformation that creates actionable results, you need to digitize business processes and models. By building a scalable strategy that aligns your executive team, leverages the right technology, and connects workers across your organization, your company can enable total workforce digital transformation and influence future outcomes. 

To achieve true digital transformation, you need to create a strategy that aligns your executive team and scales with your total workforce growth.

Author: Shashank Saxena

Human Resources

Technology Innovation

Building Competitive Advantage through Digital Transformation for the Total Workforce

In a recent survey done by Deloitte, “Creating Value and Impact through the Alternative Workforce (PDF),” 45% of employers reported having difficulties filling open positions. To fill these gaps, many companies are turning to the contingent workforce, making technology for managing their total workforce a priority.

When done right, digital transformation for your total workforce can help your organization:

• Automate Manual Processes
  Managing your total workforce in a centralized hub removes data entry tasks and reduces the time spent validating the data. Beyond data tracking, native connections between HCM and VMS automate important onboarding and offboarding tasks.
  
• Increase Hiring Speed
  Identify hiring needs and post job openings faster, enabling you to hire top contingent talent before other companies have even created a listing. The ability to rapidly adjust to meet available resources offers management more flexibility when there’s a worker shortage or supply chain issues.
  
• Improve Resourcing and Spend Management
  Having centralized data allows your business to unlock new business models and insights, leading to better predictions, planning, and business outcomes.
  
• Enhance Vendor and SOW Oversight
  By tracking your workers, hiring process, spend, and vendors all in one location, your visibility into vendor performance and statement of work (SOW) spend increases and reporting becomes more accurate and useful.
  

But to enable true digital transformation, you need more than the right technology. Process modernization and business model digitization, along with moving to an agile management approach, are just as important. To achieve true digital transformation, you need to create a strategy that aligns your executive team and scales with your total workforce growth.

Aligning Your Executive Team before the Buying Process Starts

Enabling digital transformation in human resources (HR) requires buy-in from more than just the office of the CHRO. To see true impact, organizations need an aligned technology ecosystem, as well as alignment between the procurement, finance, IT, and legal teams from the very beginning.

Aligning the CHRO, chief procurement officer (CPO), chief financial officer (CFO), chief information officer (CIO), and your legal team is a necessary step to facilitate digital transformation in workforce management. Working together to understand your program strategy and the kind of technology your company will need is an essential first step to successfully transforming the way you manage your workforce.

To start, you should consider each team’s priorities, including your own, and ask how those needs can be supported. For example, many teams are concerned with questions such as “How do we ensure compliance in a global workforce?” or “How do we fill skills gaps on our team?” While these are fairly high-level concerns, they’re critical for understanding how to align your executive team and create a plan for managing your contingent workforce now and in the future. And ultimately, one team’s priorities will usually benefit others. For instance, HR’s ability to nimbly hire and attract top talent will benefit IT’s need to fill skill gaps.

Some companies are already moving toward this type of alignment. In Workday’s “Closing the Acceleration Gap” report, 45% of CIOs surveyed said that they are investing in technology to unify financial, people, and operational data. This aligns with 61% of CFOs saying this technology is one of their most pressing needs in the same report. Understanding the needs and priorities of each team allows the CHRO to earn the support of fellow executives in their quest to find a scalable, innovative technology solution to manage the workforce.