Human resources departments typically engage with technology decisions only when initiatives directly affect HR-specific systems. Yet digital workplace effectiveness fundamentally depends on communication, collaboration, and information access—domains squarely within HR's purview. Employees generate organizational value, with technology serving as enabler rather than driver. HR possesses both capability and obligation to assume more assertive positions regarding technical capability deployment.
Knowledge constitutes business currency, and workforce roles increasingly demand cognitive capabilities regardless of organizational level. Emerging artificial intelligence applications aim to reduce mental burden while simplifying human interaction with technology and information systems. HR professionals navigating technology adoption should consider five essential elements.
Identifying Core Challenges Before Selecting Solutions
Despite apparent obviousness, abundant available technology and pressure to deploy AI create temptation to begin with tools and subsequently identify applicable problems. This reverses appropriate sequencing.
Start with primary business challenges, then identify enabling technical solutions. Specify requirements with maximum precision. Document processes and use cases within HR operations—understanding workflows proves essential before automating them. Inefficient processes require correction before technological implementation, not through it.
Employee onboarding and support involve which specific processes? Which activities admit automation to reduce administrative overhead? How might employees receive corporate information through automated or streamlined mechanisms? What capabilities enhance collaboration effectiveness in distributed work environments? Organizations evolve continuously. When documenting current processes and workflows, anticipate potential changes and incorporate necessary flexibility.
Targeting Initial High-Value Implementations
When employees require policy access or notifications about policy modifications, cognitive search engines understanding role-based context may provide solutions. This demands information architecture approaches ensuring proper organization and metadata tagging. Developing appropriate workflows enables proactive information delivery including personalized recommendations.
Intranets frequently fail because employees cannot locate required information or obtain relevant answers. Natural language processing interprets intent, improving result quality. Enhancing search intelligence to improve HR resource access offers another high-impact option with enterprise-wide benefits. Alternatively, if collaboration represents the primary need, prioritize that capability initially. Collaboration platforms vary significantly in user experience quality, warranting careful evaluation against specific employee requirements.
HR plays crucial roles in needs assessment determining employee priorities. HR must lead ensuring employee privacy compliance, establishing governance policies, and understanding technological support mechanisms.
Establishing Performance Measurement Frameworks
Success measurement proves essential for securing stakeholder support during implementation and decision-maker funding. Ensure stakeholders understand and trust baseline measurements while recognizing anticipated improvements. Without baseline confidence, improvement credibility suffers.
Intranet search provides relatively straightforward metrics. Combining objective measures like answer retrieval time with subjective measures such as user feedback creates balanced assessment. Common search engine feedback options include relevance ratings. Document engagement duration indicates utility. When self-service capabilities like conversational agents support HR applications, customer satisfaction measurement should accompany implementation. Employee ratings visible within applications provide additional feedback enabling application refinement.
New application deployment urgency frequently causes before-and-after metric neglect—avoid this pitfall.
Cultivating Vendor and IT Relationships
External vendor deployment requires thorough technology explanation. Define clear responsibility boundaries reflected in contractual documentation. When vendors promise out-of-box intelligent search, inquire about domain model development and data validation methodologies. Request product demonstrations using organizational data rather than vendor samples. Whether outsourcing deployment or managing internally, open communication channels significantly enhance problem resolution. Validate vendor commitments using organizational data or consulting similar customers addressing comparable challenges. Selecting vendors whose capabilities align with specific use cases critically influences initiative success.
Pursuing Continuous Learning and Knowledge Sharing
HR career paths rarely emphasize technology deployment opportunities. Yet technology assumed heightened importance following pandemic-driven remote work expansion, particularly supporting collaboration. Many organizations proved unprepared. Gartner research among chief HR officers revealed that although AI and automation represent primary organizational impact areas, only nine percent believed their organizations prepared for future work environments shaped by multiple factors beyond technology.
Employee productivity maintenance and improvement alongside job satisfaction and retention depend substantially on successful technology utilization. AI capabilities identify knowledge gaps and proactively deliver appropriate training. Understanding accomplishment mechanisms proves essential for future work environments. HR traditionally identifies training requirements and delivers resources—this responsibility continues expanding. Developing conversational fluency regarding chatbot functionality, self-service options, and document organization strategies for improved findability requires time investment, yet presents timely challenges worth accepting.
Every organizational department faces resource constraint pressures. HR can lead initiatives generating meaningful enterprise impact. Technology decisions warrant HR participation—ensure your voice contributes to these conversations.
This article by Seth Earley was originally published on Reworked on March 1, 2021.