Digitisation gives businesses access to critical information that was once hidden among reams of paperwork and spreadsheets.

Search processes are simplified, the risk of error reduced and document loss all but eradicated.

Human Resources (HR) is an area that is perfectly suited to digitisation. With such vast amounts of employee data now available, the ability to find precise details quickly makes the lives of those working within the profession far easier.

But how do you digitise HR, exactly?

Start with a digital-first strategy

If your business is in the early stages of digitisation or is yet to begin, the first thing is to do is start building a digital-first strategy.

Digital HR is a revolutionary leap forward for most business - not an incremental step, but the following four areas of focus should be your starting point while working on that strategy:

1. Be agile. To integrate people, processes and technology, you’ll need to think like a modern software development team that relies on constant iteration and the ability to break large projects down into smaller chunks.
2. Learn from early adopters within the business. It’s possible that other teams within the organisation are already a few steps ahead with digital transformation. If that’s your marketing team, for instance, learn from their experiences.
3. Think real-time. Traditional HR practices are often retrospective, but if you can start thinking about HR and the employee experience in real-time, you can begin taking advantage of the constant stream of data that will soon be making its way to your team.
4. Use business intelligence. The earlier you can integrate analytics and reporting into HR, the sooner it will transform into a fully digital operation.

Bid farewell to paper records

Chances are, you’ll have countless filing cabinets chock-full of employee documentation.

An unenviable task of digitisation is that of moving such records into the digital realm, but it’s one you’ll only have to undertake once. And, if you invest in a HR system that will force you to maintain all future documents electronically, you’ll completely remove your reliance on paper without any future fuss.

It should be noted, however, that this element of digital HR is the bare minimum requirement.

Recruitment and onboarding

Two of the most time-consuming elements of HR are arguably recruitment and the onboarding process for new staff.

By digitising the processes required for these vital elements of business, you’ll be able to significantly reduce the amount of time required to welcome new people into the operation and make it a more enjoyable, productive experience for everyone.

Tools such as eForms that automatically match required information and digital learning platforms will help considerably, but if you’re concerned about losing the human element during digital transformation in HR:

• harness social media services such as LinkedIn for recruitment;
• adopt a more natural form of language in email and social media communication when dealing with potential hires and new staff; and
• use video and images to promote your company culture during the recruitment process.

By democratising data at all levels of the organisation, you’ll be able to take advantage of HR processes and applications that will link insight to action and enable you to tempt the best talent to work for your business.