From advanced HRIS to LMS, many HR processes are digitized to enhance people productivity. Today, HR Technology is about how employee-centric and employee-friendly the process or tool is. Tech-driven talent management has the potential to create a great competitive advantage. Merely institutionalizing technology will no longer work.  HR systems must be centred on the fulcrum of an organization- its people. 

For this, only a deep dive into employees’ needs, wants and aspirations can create employee-friendly tools and systems. Design thinking can help bring change by offering methodologies to reinvent work. Here’ how:

• Enhance the employee experience by creating user-friendly IT systems and digital tools that empower the employee.
• Create a culture of innovation by building intuitive and interactive HR systems.
• Encourage collaboration and open communication through modern digital tools such as an integrated HRMS, mobile modules, multi-device etc. 
• Create a flexible and agile work environment through anytime-anywhere systems and policies. 
• Inspire creativity by building a culture of failing fast. 
• Help HR transform internally in capability and outlook, from a traditional process-oriented model to a futuristic people-oriented model. 

Design-thinking led HR technology:

• Data-driven hiring decisions: Design thinking can enable recruiters with data on the ideal candidate. And how he/she evaluates and compares companies and opportunities. The employer value proposition can then be fine-tuned based on these insights, to become an “employer of choice” for top talent. 
• Experiential learning programs: Self-learning is the way ahead for which L&D experts must better understand learners’ styles, preferences, motivations and challenges, and design learning experiences that help employees excel. This means AI-assisted learner recommendations, coaching, mentoring, crowd-sharing, knowledge-sharing.
• Real-time, open communication and collaboration: Work in today’s day and age is enabled in a 24x7 environment. HR Systems must support this future reality of work by granting employees easy tech access. Chatbots, messenger and chat apps, mobile modules are the way to go to foster seamless communication. 
• Workplace design: Employee productivity is influenced immensely by the immediate work environment – physical and environment-wise. Different employees may value different elements in the physical workplace design such as open spaces, ergonomic arrangements etc. 

Artificial Intelligence can provide useful insights, while design thinking can help translate those insights to solutions.

• PMS: Continuous performance management tools are fast replacing annual appraisals. HR must design the PMS to encourage open dialogue (in-person and virtual), ongoing feedback conversations, periodic check-ins, three sixty degree feedback from multiple stakeholder.
• R&R: HR systems must include peer-to-peer and instant recognition, customizable compensation and benefits, and single-view for employees to stay informed on their pay and perks. 

Design thinking can help fine-tune each of these HR systems, yet, the ultimate synergy can be achieved only when all HR functionalities are tightly integrated into a single, holistic talent management solution. Moreover, this HRIS must loop into the business systems, to ensure strategic business alignment. 

Creating the ultimate talent experience

HR leaders must proactively work towards curating the ultimate “Employee Experience Design”, by reinventing the fundamentals of how work happens. While technological and digital transformation in HR is a must, sustained change is possible only when a cultural change prevails.

Along every stage of the HR Technology project, HR practitioners must factor in any inputs from the end-users, i.e. the employees whose jobs and work processes will be impacted. For this, HR itself must embrace the design-thinking paradigm – Empathize-Define-Ideate-Prototype-Test. If HR leaders show willingness to embed Design Thinking into HR tech design, teams will be inspired to build talent solutions which are relevant to the real world. 

This article was first published in People Matters.