Equipoise The Technology And HR - Soumyasanto Sen [Interview]

Soumya is a digital HR and People Analytics Leader who is also a Future Of Work Evangelist. His current interests includeAI driven analytics, Cultural Analytics, GIG economy, and the Future of Work. He is the founder of People Conscience, an organization that helps organizations transform for the Future of Work. A well-known keynote speaker and blogger in matters of Human Resources, he was also voted one of the most influential HR executives by a multitude of world-renowned organizations.

Before we begin, just a quick intro of PeopleHum - peopleHum is an end-to-end, one-view, integrated human capital management automation platform, the winner of the 2019 global Codie Award for HCM that is specifically built for crafted employee experiences and the future of work. We run the peopleHum blog and video channel which receives upwards of 200,000 visitors a year and publish around 2 interviews with well-known names globally, every month.

Aishwarya

Welcome Soumya, we are thrilled to have you.

Soumya

It’s a pleasure to join this conversation.

Aishwarya

Thank you for your time, Soumya. And if we could begin and a little bit, you know, talk about People Conscience, what was your vision when he came up with this organization?

Soumya

Yeah, sure. So actually, I've been in the HR tech space for more than 17 years. So starting with implementing the HR solutions, on-premise solution, on cloud solutions, in most of the organizations mid-size or big organizations.

So for the last 5 years, also part of Digitization of HR, which is also at the big impact of the whole, all organizations around the world. Right? So they are always, most of the organizations going to their transformation phases and on the other hand, We also see as they struggle also because this is a very uncertain thing. And this is not a known thing for most of the organization's leaders.

The challenge, there are a lot of things are changing very fast so this is a huge thing which is also not easy for leaders and that’s how the People Conscience, comes to the fact that People Conscience all about impact, influence and inspire leaders with all different learnings. Where can they help the leaders on their transmission journey? But that's the purpose, actually, to start People Conscience.

It's more like involvement in the community, right? So the community where we can build a community, we can learn, we can share, we can help and we can work together and engage as a team and all over in the community to drive this transformation journey in most of these organizations, So people share each other’s thoughts, and yeah, they are learning together.

So that's the purpose behind this. That’s how we engage with most of the leaders of the community, do mentorship to others, so involved in startups, HR tech startups. So and all this conference, conference part of another, that’s how I started with People Conscience and trying to drive this whole digital HR field.

Aishwarya

That’s great, I am sure a lot of people are really being helped by this because, when there's a community, everybody understands each other's issues and they can come up with mutual solutions because of each other's expertise. I think that’s a very helpful purpose that you have.

So you know you've been into human resources for a long time now, And do you believe that in your experience in the past Human Resources was not given a lot of attention as such in an organization? Right? And now it is gaining some impetus and is gaining some spotlight but it still needs to reinvent itself?

Soumya

So I believe HR is already in the process of reinventing. So maybe some organizations are a little faster. Some are on the way. Some are still catching behind. But it still is under the way of reinventing because this is very much needed.

Today's world, as I mentioned like the changes are huge. Uncertainty is very awful today. See about this situation now with the COVID-19, a lot of things are changing in terms of what used to work yesterday and today.

So all these uncertain things, all these changes, the technology-driven things, so they're all changes and related to the technology, what is happening? So that's definitely also pushing Human Resource to also change from what they used to work.

And yes, if you see from the other business functions. So human resources little, maybe one of the black goats compared to other business functions but it's for the last few years have seen huge progress made, like many of the organizations are doing the HR team and that's a very good involvement, I would say.

And the most important thing here is to start with a new mindset because the old way of working of the HR team on the process and the compliance and involvement with transaction-level things is not much like today we need it because many other things can be done by technology itself less reinventing part.

But they are a lot of other things for the HR team that can involve it like top leadership with the business leaders. So as a partner for business leaders, the involvement of the business decision because a lot of decisions today on the business are really impacting the workforce leadership.

So all those things can be driven by human resources so they can really drive all the strings, many other things, and we are doing it, a lot of HR teams. That's a positive thing, and these changes are also happening a little bit slowly, but this is part of the change and it can take some time.

So here it’s significantly going very well, I would say, but yes, raise a lot of opportunities now where we have to think in a mind and that's why I said, like...

"Mindset is very important, we have to think from a different perspective for human resources".

So I would say the human resource is no more just a cost center, It can be also given into a profit center if you can think in a way also like it drives business to help add value by impacting the workforce under the leadership and other areas. So that's the main point.

Aishwarya

Absolutely, I think people are actually giving a lot of attention to HR and they are reinventing themselves and organizations asking themselves questions, whether the HR is really adding value to it or not, and I think technology, also to an extent is helping. And that's where my next question comes to you Soumya.

Do you think that technology holds a really important role in the workplace of the future and you know, when you need to craft, employ experiences, Do you think HR tech will really really help in such cases?

Soumya

Absolutely. So if you see from the technology and talking about HR technology because we are talking about the HR workforce, it’s that technology. It is no longer just a way to support a business function like also, so far we have seen if you see past.

So I also realized, like my role used to be to work 10-15 years back is more like a supporting part of the team to a business function like HR, this is no more that case. So it has to be changed and that changes are needed like it has to be integrated together, the business function and IT together.

That’s why you call it HR IT or HR Tech or Workforce Tech services together so we cannot do it separately as we can think like a support function rather than do it together, we drive It together. That's how digital things came into places So we say Digital is not like IT supporting digital stuff. Rather, HR is a part and driving the digital initiative.

We have to think about these changes. So when we see our technology, yes, technology is not in front. Technology is in back and technology enablers and tried to leverage all this opportunity which is coming but is not driving.

Driving is the work of people, like the leaders of the HR workforce. So those are the key elements, which we have to think about when we think about technology in front. So when we see the advantage in terms of employees, experience, and others, we have to think about what is Employee Experience in behind, It's not just giving benefits to the employees, It's also in a bigger perspective, is very wider. like how the employee is going to impact having positive or negative comments.

So you see from the Employee Experience perspective. It can be bigger, like, if you see, like it started with the candidate when the employees, before joining that company, joining as a candidate and after leaving the company as an alumnus.

So all these experiences matter. If I am an employee and I am joining, So all these phases of their employee's life cycle matters, and that’s why like every and single aspect. We can help this building, this experience with, whether it is candidate experience, whether it’s alumni experience, whether it is employee life cycle experience that includes hiring till termination.

And also you can have to think like the experience like with the job, experience with the culture of the company, experience with technology. So, like if you see, like the current situation, so a lot of the people are working now virtual meetings.

But we have really challenged a lot of companies, is challenging to arrange this virtual meeting because we don't have an IT infrastructure. And we have challenges with the Internet, network and all those things. So soon as the struggle is there. So this experience matters, all these experience matters.

When we see and to build. And that's why I like it is a huge opportunity now to build up. Let's see, like how we can emphasize on building those experiences to the workforce and sure like the digital initiative can be a great way moving forward. I can see that and it’s a huge opportunity now.

Aishwarya

Absolutely and it's true, you know, it starts with the mindset change, and I think when we talk about employee experience, It starts from right when the candidate joins the organization and how the culture comes into the picture and how leaders and managers themselves, How are they portray employee experience and how supportive they are actually using technology as an enabler.

Soon there will be a lot of HR technologies out there in the market, right, and I'm sure you're aware we have the legacy systems and we have some newer ones that are coming out.

So how are organizations supposed to decide on these HR Tech, What are some criteria that they should probably look at in terms of analytics or in terms of each set of features?

Soumya

So one thing is when we define HR Tech and find out what is beneficial for the organization, it is also deepened on what organizations are looking forward, so it’s very important, like just investing on technology randomly is not going to work because it will cost and then I mean even you don't get any return in oneself and we're investing those cost as definitely a question raised by business, right, So is very important. Like you set up this, This answer can be set up only when you start from the top.

So you have to really understand where your business needs? What is value it’s going to create with investing in those types of technologies on the HR front like, for example, like you have to understand what is the challenge currently?

If you have a challenge with mostly the top priority is with your hiring, your recruitment, then you can definitely think on the investing on like it's the best solution to invest on their equipment or, if you're thinking, don't have any, cannot drive anything decision point that the difference it could be a right option for you? So there are different ways you have to understand.

Like how this technology can help. I've also seen that AI is very hyped up. Currently, at this moment, Artificial Intelligence in organizations, let’s see, how we can use AI-driven solutions. Frankly speaking, If you don't need this, there is no need for this, it can only add value if you really make sense, it can impact your business in any positive way.

This is very important. That's why, like many of the organization's thinking, like investing in technology is a way to move digital, which I think it's totally wrong because you can only drive digital in the right way if you start with your business needs.

And you will also find your strategy going forward like why do you need it? What does your business need? Where is the challenge? and usually ask questions on different aspects. Starting with your business, to your HR, to your workforce.

We have to identify the right option. Analytics, today, is one of the second most popular friends if you see from technology point, semantics or genetics is also in the HR world. I think most of the organizations are using some sort of analytics like analytics.

It's very basic. Even people use some reports and dashboards. They think like they're using analytics which is not very much, which is very, very fundamental. Things to start with are good. That is not bad.

"But analytics can be like a huge opportunity also for HR and the business because actual analytics start when you really know the business problem and when you know the business problem and then you know analytics change that or your data can help you to solve that to make a better decision"

And then you have to find out how it can also help your workforce in terms of like analytics drive. Also, good employees, experience, employee engagement so the sake of things is needed for analytics building analytics. You also need good data right and that's also challenged, to have a higher data quality. You have to build up a team that can also work on this data.

So there are several aspects. You need governance. You need a better aspiration of how the analytics were. A roadmap for analytics. So today, a lot of things are yet to plan, it’s not just buying a solution, buying a solution will only give you some aspects. Good visualization. Good picture. Good dashboard. some good alignment to start with but actually will not add value.

If you really don't think from your background, you need and then you really build a strategy, unless you build the right strategy, I think just buying a solution will not do anything.

Aishwarya

Really. I agree with you. So you know, just giving a dashboard and software will not help the organization and what you are saying is that it has to be customized. It has to be on a case by case basis and really depends on what the company is looking for, what their primary driver analytics and according to that, they need to strategize and develop data. Is that correct?

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