80% of business transformations fail to deliver on promised benefits amounting to $900bn in wasted investment every year (Gartner: Jan 2022). As organizations address fast-changing work environments, transformation is inevitable. The cycle of change continues to shorten and demands increasing agility for organizations to react. But, when 65% of HR leaders reported executing business transformation as a top priority for the business (Forrester Consulting study), how do you expand the odds for success?

Organizational design is fundamental to delivering transformation. Getting the right people with the right skills and competencies doing the right work at the right time and at the right cost. To be successful in this space HR leaders need to align their fast-changing work environments with talent, leadership goals, leverage data, analysis for confident decision making, and operate with solid program governance. This is not an easy task.

Global HR Challenges:

The workplace landscape has changed dramatically over the last 2 years, and the role of the people leader has never been more challenging, or more important. With most businesses now having a remote or hybrid workforce, the role of HR and the people leader has evolved, and now you need to take a more data-driven approach when it comes to making key decisions for your organization, especially as you continue to grow and scale.

With the great resignation still in full swing, HR teams need to focus on the employee experience and provide opportunities for growth to attract and retain top talent, and ensure people are happy and productive in their organizations. Here at GDS Group, we host dozens of conversations every week with senior executives, like yourself, from across the globe. Together we discuss challenges and solutions to digital transformation. Here are a few key takeaways from conversations with Human Resource leaders on transformation and how a data-driven approach is helping them achieve their 2022 goals.

Recruit the Best Talent:

The great resignation and the need to fill open roles requires HR leaders to work fast. Through big data, HR managers can filter through thousands of resumes and narrow down their search to the most promising prospects. Without the use of big data, recruiting top talent would be a far more inefficient and time-consuming process. Taking advantage of big data can also reveal which recruitment channels are delivering the best results.

Organizational Culture:

Understanding the culture of your organization is hard to pinpoint when in the office and even harder now in a remote, hybrid work environment. Organizational analytics are key to better understanding the culture at your workplace. When you know what the culture of your organization is, you can then evaluate and keep track of the changes. Analytics can help you understand the early signs if the culture is getting toxic.

Improve Employee Experience and Performance:

If there is one thing digital transformation has given HR professionals, it’s the ability to get accurate data and insights about the state of their employees. With an analytics dashboard you can understand how your employees are feeling about, remedy problems, and bring positive changes to your organization. HR analytics will help you monitor and improve employee engagement, retention, wellness, productivity, experience, and culture. Automated processes will also help alleviate manual tasks, giving you time back to focus on the projects that matter.

The Right Tools for Transformation:

Cutting-edge HR technologies are an invaluable solution to accelerate busines processes, minimize risk, and reduce manual efforts. From applicant tracking software to payroll as well as learning and performance management. These tools allow you to access detailed reports and data analytics for staff output levels.

Digital transformation is not easy. That’s why it will take all of us to collaborate on what’s working and what is not, so you can deliver more value, better outcomes, increase productivity and transform HR.