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Tip of the month: interview with a professional expert in digital solutions applied to the human resources sector

Today we interview a professional expert in digital solutions applied to the human resources sector. His experience will allow us to understand what is on the horizon in a sector that is constantly evolving.

Could you tell us about your profession and what your HR support consists of? 

For 25 years, I have been working with information systems for human resources management. Generally speaking, we can divide the field into two main areas: the administrative component, which mainly consists of processing payroll, attendance and absence, and expense reports, and the management component, which deals with the classic processes typical of the life of an employee, such as recruitment, termination, transfer, but also performance appraisal, definition of career plans, skills analysis, compensation, and personnel selection. The aim is to support Human Resources in the definition, management and evolution of their processes.

How has work-life balance management changed in large companies?

Work-life balance is something that everyone, employees and companies alike, have always tried to achieve. It is difficult to give a uniform assessment of the extent to which this goal has been achieved or is still in the process of being achieved, as much depends on the subjective view of each employee, the task performed in the company and the context in which they work. In general, however, companies are nowadays very attentive to the personal aspects of the employee’s sphere: attention to diversity, work-life balance, welfare, socialisation spaces, surveys to collect employees’ opinions and evaluations. And work-life balance is one of the most analysed and discussed topics today. Initiatives such as short-time workweeks or a defined smart-working regime, where possible, are signs that companies are paying more and more attention to employees’ private lives.

Do you notice a different perception of brands by the Millennials and Generation Z? What is important for them in terms of human relations? 

The brand has always been one of the main elements in people’s assessment when choosing a company. Today, the evolution and spread of social media allow companies to convey their message, their image, their philosophy of life and work in a very capillary way. Without forgetting the “analogue” side, however, through events at schools and universities, training programmes and school-to-work courses. The company pays a lot of attention to aspects that are important for the new generations: ecology, sustainability, attention to diversity, work-life balance, a welcoming environment, integrated teams. In addition to this, there is also smartworking, which has recently led to a revolution in business processes: after the end of the compulsory phase, we are looking for balanced solutions to make the tool structural and effective. 

Large companies are sometimes criticised for their very detached consideration of employees, as if they were numbers: whether, and in what way, digital technology can ‘shorten the distance’?  

Companies are devoting more and more resources and attention to their talent and resources in general. They seek to build employee loyalty by defining a corporate culture based on concrete and shared values, fostering a positive working environment and also supporting the employee’s private life. Technological developments have led to the widespread use of tools and systems that were previously limited to specialised structures. This makes it possible to define more objective processes that can be used by more and more people, that are simple and that involve the employee personally. 

What will be the three biggest challenges in human resources management in Italy in the next three years? 

The evolution and diffusion of technology, the development of social networks and the consequent analysis of data, the primary role that certain issues are taking on in the daily debate (ecology, climate change, respect for others, hybrid office-smartworking) inevitably also involve companies. Human resource management, in order to attract talent and young people, must evolve both in tools and processes. Analytics, i.e. the collection, organisation and analysis of data from resources, is now the challenge for the near future. Both management and business strategies will be increasingly based on the analysis of this information, which must be precise and accurate.  Hybrid and remote work is the most important topic, because it is played out in the short term, because it is new and impacts the entire life of the company and because it has immediate and direct effects on the choices of workers of all generations. And it is precisely the balance between the different generations, which today are so different from one another as never before, that will be one of the most complex elements that companies will have to deal with in the immediate future, as they search for solutions that are different in terms of interest and attractiveness, that can coexist with one another and that are at the same time fair for all”.

See you next month!