The HR Technologist: Developing the Full-Stack Skillset
Remote and hybrid work will continue to define how many work well after the pandemic is over. These business models have put an increasing pressure on human resources to up their technology chops.
“In every list of future trends for business in general, and HR in particular, technology is a dominant agenda,” said Dave Ulrich, professor at the University of Michigan, co-founder and principal at the RBL Group, and the author of more than 30 books.
At the simplest level, technology innovations (be it the internet of things, machine learning, artificial intelligence, etc.) provide digital information to make better decisions, said Ulrich. “HR clearly contributes to a strategic digital agenda for their organization, but HR should also deploy technology for better digital information and practice in human capability through four phases.” Those phases include:
Image courtesy of Dave Ulrich
- HR efficiency: Building technology platforms to efficiently manage HR processes.
- HR innovation: Using HR technology to upgrade practices in people, performance management, communication and work.
- Information: Using HR technology to access, analyze and act on structured and unstructured information.
- Connection: Deploying HR to increase employee wellbeing and experience.
The Role of the HR Technologist
It's been said that the function of human resources was on the way to becoming obsolete before the pandemic. But the global virus, which forced many businesses to move workforces online or shut down completely, changed things.
Ulrich said the pandemic had a big impact on physical and mental wellbeing, and as such, people and organization agendas have become top of mind for all stakeholders. “With this attention, HR professionals need to focus more than ever on outcomes more than activities,” he said.
Many of the HR changes spurred by the pandemic were positive, said Maryanne Spatola, founder and CEO of C3 Talent Strategies, professor and author of “The Office Is Dead, Now What?”
“It pushed us forward out of necessity,” she said. “At the end of the day, what it did force a lot of HR leaders to realize is we're all in technology, whether we think we are or not. It's a part of what we do. And for HR, it took a bigger front seat to how we deliver value to the business.”
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Building the HR Technologist’s Full-Stack Skillset
You’ve heard it: It’s all about delivering value. But how HR delivers that value comes down to the skills of the HR technologist.
HR technologist skills needed to succeed, according to experts, include:
Work Process Understanding
“One of the things that very much is overlooked is an understanding of the nature of the work that people do,” said Vince Conte, professor at New York University and Hofstra University, and an HR manager and consultant for more than 30 years.
“We've really spent a lot of the last 20 years focusing on how technology is changing work,” he said. “But the actual changes in work processes and procedures, how data is stored, how reports are generated, who gets to see what — the basic blocking and tackling of managing information is more important now than ever.”
According to Conte, we get stuck focusing on other stuff, like getting technology up and running, making it accessible, training people, answering questions. His recommendation is to take a better look into business processes before making decisions.
This also aligns with one of Ulrich’s areas of HR competence — simplifying complexity — where HR’s goal is to create simple actions out of complex options (not complicate the process with more tools and tech) and improve ease of use for employees. Competence in this area (along with four other areas) has a direct impact on employee outcomes, Ulrich said, including retention, productivity and overall employee experience.
Business Acceleration
Another area of competence offered by Ulrich is business acceleration, meaning HR’s discussions and decisions shouldn’t center on HR alone. They need to focus on the business as a whole.
Spatola agrees: HR technologists — and the HR profession in general — need to understand how they help the business be successful, she said.
“I think HR technologists really need to understand that, so that they aren't implementing things just for the sake of HR but really for the betterment of an exceptional employee experience or to drive those analytics to make better business decisions or to use an analytics function to identify a potential problem,” she explained.
At the end of the day, HR teams need to drive business success. “If the business isn’t successful, nobody’s gonna have a job, right? We all need to be on the same page about that,” Spatola said.
Tech and Data Security
Security is a big issue right now. HR leaders need to know how to secure HR technology, including points of transition, and ensure the people who use technologies are mindful and careful about security.
“There’s so much data on people's laptops these days,” said Conte. “There used to be banks of corporate computers and offices. Now, that's all on somebody's kitchen table.”
Someone needs to establish the rules for what you’re allowed to keep on your own person, Conte said. “It’s no longer as easy to control what people have in their possession, what they share.”
An HR technologist needs to be aware of the what habits employees have and what that implies for security. And that knowledge needs to apply to an array of platforms and tools, like cloud applications, corporate intranets and login-shared platforms.
Information Mobility
The third area of HR competency, according to Ulrich, is information mobility — i.e., using information to inform strategy.
Today’s HR technologists don’t just need to know how to collect data and manage it, said Marc Miller, president and founder of Marc S. Miller Associates, professor at New York University and author of “The Death of HR.” They need to become information craftsmen, “generating actionable insights from looking at past history in the system and using algorithms and analytics and professional analysis to see trend lines” and inform future strategy.
He points to the nine-box model as an example of how HR teams can take data and progress it forward. Using a nine-box grid (three columns and three rows), HR professionals can look at organizational behavior — specifically, performance vs. potential.
“You could be low-low, low potential low performance, or you could be in the upper right, high-high, high potential high performance. And anywhere in the middle,” Miller said.
Learning Opportunities
This information gives HR teams valuable information about which employees might be worth investing in, promoting or paying closer attention to.
Another tool HR technologists can use to inform strategy is sentiment analysis, which analyzes the language employees use in memos, emails and more to determine their emotional state and if they’re potentially a flight risk, Miller said. If HR sees a high-potential, high-performance employee whose sentiment analysis points to them being unhappy, they may decide to intervene.
Related Article: The Next Big Trend in HR Tech: Improving the Flow of Work
Human Capability Advancement
Another HR competency mentioned by Ulrich is human capability advancement. It’s HR’s ability to deliver insights on human (or employee) capability.
Some of those insights might dive into areas like talent, leadership or the organization as a whole to help HR understand the state of the organization’s human capability and identify areas where they might need to build talent, such as in emerging technologies, implement leadership training or establish mentorships, for instance.
HR also has the ability to optimize its organizational design to enhance human capability. This might mean restructuring teams, adjusting reporting relationships or redesigning work processes to promote collaboration and innovation.
By understanding the organization's strengths and weaknesses and working to enhance human capability, HR can play a critical role in delivering value.
Collaboration Fostering
The last HR competency Ulrich mentions is collaboration fostering, where HR models positive relationships — not just with other HR team members but also within all departments and business settings.
“In our research on creating an effective HR department,” Ulrich said, “we found that a positive relationship within HR and between HR and all stakeholders (employees, leaders, customers, investors) had more impact on stakeholder outcomes than the design of the HR department.”
Some ways HR can tap into collaboration fostering is by:
- Leading by example: HR leaders should model the behavior they want to see in others.
- Promote teamwork: Facilitate cross-functional teamwork and recognize the contributions of all team members.
- Build trust: HR can help build trust, the foundation for positive relationships, by fostering transparency and promoting fairness and consistency.
- Encourage diversity, inclusion: By promoting diversity and inclusion, HR can create a positive work environment where employees feel valued and respected.
Change Leadership
“Everything we do in HR is about change,” said Spatola. And it’s beyond change management, which tends to be project-oriented.
“It’s about change leadership,” she explained, “which is much more about leading the way, having the vision, getting people engaged in the change process and getting people to want to follow along with the change from a commitment standpoint, not just compliance.”
And that’s where a lot of HR technologists fail, she said. Particularly when introducing HCM (human capital management) software for the first time and asking managers to do self-service.
“They're not always willing partners,” Spatola said. “And unless you're able to lead an influence on the change side to get people to come along on the journey, you can have a lot of project plans you want, you're still going to fail.”
Related Article: What Comes Next in the Evolution of HR?
Building the Full-Stack HR Technologist Skillset
People in HR — or personnel, as it was originally called — weren’t historically popular, said Miller.
He pointed to the movie “Dirty Harry” as an example. In the film, Clint Eastwood plays Harry Callahan, a rogue cop. When threatened with a transfer to personnel due to his no-holds-barred ways, he claims the personnel department is for “assholes” — a term that censors allowed at the time (1971) without getting bleeped or changed.
“Because that’s what people thought about personnel in the ‘70s and ‘80s,” said Miller.
But that’s changed. Today, people can use HR technology to gain and maintain clout — influence and power — in the HR realm, said Miller. They can leverage technology to generate value-added insights that inform business decisions and empower the global workforce.
The HR technologist can bring significant value to companies — if they have the right skills to back them up.
About the Author
Michelle Hawley is an experienced journalist who specializes in reporting on the impact of technology on society. As a senior editor at Simpler Media Group and a reporter for CMSWire and Reworked, she provides in-depth coverage of a range of important topics including employee experience, leadership, customer experience, marketing and more. With an MFA in creative writing and background in inbound marketing, she offers unique insights on the topics of leadership, customer experience, marketing and employee experience. Michelle previously contributed to publications like The Press Enterprise and The Ladders. She currently resides in Pennsylvania with her two dogs.
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