While Singapore may have retained the number two spot in the annual Global Talent Competitiveness Index (GTCI) for the fourth straight year, there will always be room for improvement. There is a war for top talent in Singapore and other developed cities across the globe. For top brands to differentiate themselves, human resources managers are required to constantly be in search of ways to best retain and develop their employees.
One clear trend emerging today is, the digital workplace plays an ever-increasing role in an organisation’s ability to engage and retain talent. As the industry keeps evolving, Singapore workers want to feel involved, engaged and be enthusiastic about their work.
Singaporeans know that the modern workplace is about working efficiently everywhere, and we expect our work experience to bear this on mind. When employees are not engaged or understood, i it impacts a company’s ability to remain competitive.
According to Gallup, organisations with engaged employees are said to outperform those without by 202 percent. Hence, companies are soon realising that better employee experience should be the motivational factor driving digital business across all areas of the organisation.
Companies looking to improve upon the employee experience should concentrate on two key areas: a) using insights to drive meaningful engagement that will engage and retain top talent, and b) building a digital workplace to enhance employee collaboration and productivity, and support new working styles.
Integrating Big Data and HR to Enhance the Digital Workplace
Many companies are now data rich, but insights poor. Predictive analytics is one of the most critical business functions of a digital enterprise, and a key to improving the employee experiences.
By looking at information across multiple departments, enterprises can identify internal trends and shifts that impact current and future organisational needs. Considering the ability of predictive analytics to predict when a top sales person might leave or identify the skill sets of employees who are driving the company forward – this helps HR managers to engage better with these employees and influence their growth trajectory to be highly valuable. Insight combined with forecasting capability, allows managers to impact outcomes and to deeply engage with important team members.
See: CEOs Need to Drive and Not Delegate Digital Workplace Strategy
Leveraging automation processes further makes it possible for data from different sources to be seamlessly fed into one central location, without labour-intensive manual integration work. In the same way, automation processes stitch together applications and tools needed to process and manage that data for analytics.
From this point, companies can take educated action. Insights spur new conversations with employees and give organisations the opportunity to directly impact the outcomes related to a positive work experience.
The introduction of centres dedicated to innovative digital solutions in Singapore on the likes of General Electric, Procter & Gamble and more indicate the value of predictive analytics and the role it will play in the future.
Using Digital to Enhance Employee Collaboration and Productivity
While the employee previously had to adapt to company-standardised technology tools, the digital workplace flips this approach. More companies in Singapore are now offering flexi-work arrangements for employees, which speaks volumes of the employers’ focus on employees and how they can support new styles of working. Companies should give employees fast access to the information, connections, and resources needed to excel in their job roles. This includes functionalities ranging from intelligent search and personalised action items, to social collaboration and self-service tools.
Take self-service help desk as an example. Previously when employees had a problem, they had to contact a service desk or submit a ticket and wait for someone to take action. In the digital workplace, people want immediate solutions to continue with their task.
There are products that allow employees to quickly get an answer through shared knowledge base, ask their co-workers through an enterprise social feed or get an issue resolved through the service desk. These capabilities provide employees with greater flexibility. This disruptive way of thinking about where workers are located can also have a dramatic impact on achieving access for a more diverse talent pool.
In conclusion
The digital workplace is dramatically reshaping the employee experience. The big data shift to business units such as human resources coupled with predictive analytics can give organizations a competitive winning advantage, however only if companies can make sense of their information.
Routine tasks can be automated and completed faster with tools that provide contextual information to help employees make better decisions. The ability to work anytime anywhere has now beome a reality. Teams can collaborate and share best practices to feel more engaged and be a part of the bigger picture. This leaves employees feeling more satisfied. Overall, a successful digital workplace will better equip companies to win the war for talent.
Author credit:
Darric Hor, ASEAN Regional Director at BMC Software. Hor is responsible for managing and growing BMC’s business portfolio across the Southeast Asian region. He brings along almost two decades of experience in the technology industry and over ten years of experience in the senior management roles across Southeast Asia.
Prior to joining BMC, Hor held several leadership positions including Regional Director, South East Asia at Check Point Software Technologies and Country Director, Indonesia and Philippines at Symantec.
Feature image credit: freedigitalphotos.net
