LifeSparsh is a community (formed under the auspices of Xalence Human Capital Management Solutions Pvt. Ltd) focused on delivering learning on HR Technology concepts. The courses are designed for aspiring and young HR professionals and to the HR professionals in small and medium businesses. Through the courses offered by LifeSparsh, the goal is to prepare HR professionals so they may influence the successful adoption of HR Technology solutions in their organizations. Read on to know more about: 

• What led to the creation of this community?
• What does LifeSparsh intend to achieve?
• What are the HR Technology capabilities expected of future HR Professionals?
• Why is it important?

What led to the creation of the community?

An idea sometimes feels like there is a parallel process that keeps on ticking in the brain before it manifests itself. As is so often the case, we tend to think that an idea that occurs to us must have been addressed, or that this is an idea whose time has come and gone. Yet the idea stays in your conscious and cannot be ignored any further.

The establishment of the LifeSparsh community focused on HR Technology has been one such journey for me.

The Genesis

Technology proliferation in the HR domain has been increasing at a rapid pace over the past few decades. The market today, is replete with several choices and with every release the applications have become more flexible and robust. The value gained from the adoption of these solutions such as enhanced efficiency, scalability, employee experience etc are obvious, but the reality of their adoption is far from it. In fact, there are several articles that talk about the factors that lead to the failure of the adoption. 

My experiences over the past 25 years have also revealed the pattern that there are more failures than successes. Usually, these failures are attributed to the application’s inability to meet the need or that of poor implementation advice provided by implementation partners. While these situations do occur, it is unfair to apportion the blame on the product vendors and implementation partners. 

After all, the same applications and implementation partners were utilized by other organizations that have successfully deployed the application.

Some of the Failure Reasons

My experiences, and those that of other professionals that I have spoken to regarding this, shows that the causes are typically internal to the organizations adopting these solutions. 

Some of the internal factors that lead to failure are:

• Lack of clarity on success criteria to be met through HR Technology adoption
  

• Lack of an objective approach to evaluate potential solutions
• Lack of preparedness and planning for the effort
• Lack of resource availability for the initiative
• Replicating status quo in the new application without transformation
• Compromises made for short term financial gains
• Lack of coordination and collaboration between HR and IT teams
• Lack of understanding of how the application works
• Lack of participation from HR in design decision

The Current State of Technology Capabilities of HR Professionals

Most HR professionals today, are comfortable with the use of a specific HR Technology solution adopted by their organization to capture information. They function as mere users of the application and are highly proficient with navigating within the application.

Analysis shows that one significant contributor is the lack of technology capabilities of the HR professionals engaged in these initiatives.

What are the Technology Capabilities Required?

Does the need for technology capabilities mean that HR professionals should now become programmers? The simple answer is NO. 

Technology Capabilities needed of a HR professional are:

• Ability to identify areas where technology adoption can add value
• Ability to understand the role of HR in technology adoption
• Ability to actively participate in mapping the process to the selected application
• Ability to evaluate design options and their ramifications
• Ability to keep an open mind
• Ability to evaluate how the application influences employee experiences
• Ability to understand how the application captures and processes data
• Ability to leverage the information to support decision making
• Ability to look at Technology as a means to solve problems rather than using it as a transactional system

Achieving these capabilities requires the HR professional to gain an understanding of the concepts of HR Technology.

Why does this capability matter to HR Professionals of the future?

By being technologically savvy, HR Professionals can influence the selection, deployment, maintenance, and upgrade of these applications to enhance the workforce experience and meet the needs of the organization. Possessing these skills also implies reduced burden on the HR professionals and creates the ability to utilize their time to adding value to the people it intends to serve. Possessing these skills also allows HR professionals to propel their careers in the modern workplace.

Helping HR professionals develop these skills and keep pace with evolving technology is the mission of LifeSparsh.  I welcome you to join the community and explore the courses to help you develop your HR Technology capabilities.