Time for Government HR Offices to be disrupted and transformed
With the exponential changes driving digital government transformation, public sector executives are increasingly expecting their HR departments to adapt and embrace digital solutions to tackle workforce-management challenges. The augmentation of work and processes call for government agencies to rethink their overall human resource strategy. For example, with the use of advanced digital technologies such as algorithms intelligence and vast amounts of data, the diffusion of eGovernment requires government employees with digital technical skills and capacity to exploit the potentials of big data in delivering public services. It is not only the technical understanding requirement, but also a broad understanding of information management and the information society. However, many authors agree that the lack of skilled workforce in public administration is prevalent. The need for enhanced data management skills is even more pertinent given the evidence that preliminary data entered by humans already creates biased policy making. The UK, for example, already acknowledged this problem and in their 2017 Government Transformation Strategy focused on creating conditions for satisfactory data management.
But are the government HR offices on top of the changes brought about by these transformative trends? Governments from Toronto to Seoul are in the midst of digital transformation journey as they abandon analog operating models in favor of their digital counterparts. What separates digital leaders from the rest is a clear digital strategy combined with a culture and leadership poised to drive the transformation. This should not be surprising given that there are many real-life examples show how organisations focused too much on technologies without investing in the organisational capabilities that can ensure their impacts.
In Deloitte’s Global Digital Transformation 2015 survey, their interview findings found that there emerged five factors shaping digital transformation: strategy, leadership, workforce skills, digital culture and user focus. Though this survey was conducted five years ago, the author thinks these factors are still relevant and applicable in today’s even more competitive landscape. When ranked in terms of areas of digital transition that is most challenging to manage, respondents rated workforce skills as the most challenging dimension of digital change, followed by culture change. In other words, respondents recognize the level of change needed to ensure a digitally savvy workforce, but they understand that changing culture towards digital transformation is a uniquely difficult task.
To reinvent new ways of working and new talent solutions striving for the optimal combination of public sector talent and automation, these HR departments can no longer afford to be purely transactional. Traditional HR solutions are typically programs or processes to train people, assess performance, ensure compliance, or document a practice at work. Most were built around forms, process steps, formal training, or classroom events. While these strategies work to a degree, today’s employees are already overwhelmed with a flood of email, messages, meetings, and other workplace distractions. Like employees working in private sectors, todays employees in public sector are overwhelmed with technology, applications, and a constant flood of information. Employees in government expect the same professional benefits they hear about from the private sector such as, professional development, transparency, work-life balance, continuous education and clear opportunities to receive competitive rewards and recognition.
From the author’s own work with various government agencies, it is observed that many HR departments still lack the exposure and resources to make the transition from transactional to being transformational. In order to help agencies to achieve public sector HR management transformation, the International Public Management Association for Human Resources (IPMA-HR) conducted an in-depth study of public sector HR management. The Institute created a framework that starts with HR departments the need to have three critical lenses: business acumen, innovation and strategic orientation. Supporting the three lenses are five focus areas: leadership, culture, talent, communication and technology. By working on the five focus areas, agency human resources department will improve their business acumen, increase innovation and work more effectively with the agency’s strategic mission. These three lenses and five areas of focus areas can provide the path forward for agency HR leaders to transform their departments that can meet the strategic and tactical needs of their agency organizations.
How can HR departments work symbiotically with their stakeholders and redefine government ministries and agencies as a place to work and grow in the years going forward, will be critical to be addressed by the government leaders in order to break free from overly bureaucratic processes in the 21st century. As such, based on today’s digital transformation imperatives, there is an urgent and multifaceted call to action for the HR leaders of these public sector HR departments in:
But are the government HR offices on top of the changes brought about by these transformative trends? Governments from Toronto to Seoul are in the midst of digital transformation journey as they abandon analog operating models in favor of their digital counterparts. What separates digital leaders from the rest is a clear digital strategy combined with a culture and leadership poised to drive the transformation. This should not be surprising given that there are many real-life examples show how organisations focused too much on technologies without investing in the organisational capabilities that can ensure their impacts.
In Deloitte’s Global Digital Transformation 2015 survey, their interview findings found that there emerged five factors shaping digital transformation: strategy, leadership, workforce skills, digital culture and user focus. Though this survey was conducted five years ago, the author thinks these factors are still relevant and applicable in today’s even more competitive landscape. When ranked in terms of areas of digital transition that is most challenging to manage, respondents rated workforce skills as the most challenging dimension of digital change, followed by culture change. In other words, respondents recognize the level of change needed to ensure a digitally savvy workforce, but they understand that changing culture towards digital transformation is a uniquely difficult task.
To reinvent new ways of working and new talent solutions striving for the optimal combination of public sector talent and automation, these HR departments can no longer afford to be purely transactional. Traditional HR solutions are typically programs or processes to train people, assess performance, ensure compliance, or document a practice at work. Most were built around forms, process steps, formal training, or classroom events. While these strategies work to a degree, today’s employees are already overwhelmed with a flood of email, messages, meetings, and other workplace distractions. Like employees working in private sectors, todays employees in public sector are overwhelmed with technology, applications, and a constant flood of information. Employees in government expect the same professional benefits they hear about from the private sector such as, professional development, transparency, work-life balance, continuous education and clear opportunities to receive competitive rewards and recognition.
From the author’s own work with various government agencies, it is observed that many HR departments still lack the exposure and resources to make the transition from transactional to being transformational. In order to help agencies to achieve public sector HR management transformation, the International Public Management Association for Human Resources (IPMA-HR) conducted an in-depth study of public sector HR management. The Institute created a framework that starts with HR departments the need to have three critical lenses: business acumen, innovation and strategic orientation. Supporting the three lenses are five focus areas: leadership, culture, talent, communication and technology. By working on the five focus areas, agency human resources department will improve their business acumen, increase innovation and work more effectively with the agency’s strategic mission. These three lenses and five areas of focus areas can provide the path forward for agency HR leaders to transform their departments that can meet the strategic and tactical needs of their agency organizations.
How can HR departments work symbiotically with their stakeholders and redefine government ministries and agencies as a place to work and grow in the years going forward, will be critical to be addressed by the government leaders in order to break free from overly bureaucratic processes in the 21st century. As such, based on today’s digital transformation imperatives, there is an urgent and multifaceted call to action for the HR leaders of these public sector HR departments in:
- Enabling agility in the broader organization, where adopting design thinking can be helpful in figuring out improvement areas in people and organizational practices which puts employee experience in the centre
- Developing the digital business acumen to understand how technical skills fit into the workplace and how to make use of the public sector talent as government agencies and departments implement digital technologies to unlock greater organization value
- Embracing work reinvention as technology gives rise to new ways of working and new work options that may include automation
- Rethinking culture and leadership in order to lead people in non-hierarchical, fluid work environments and empower talent on the front lines to drive problem-solving and innovation
- Leveraging social media and new technologies to modernize HR service delivery and elevating the usage of data analytics to enable HR leaders to progress from anecdotal to evidence-based thinking
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