Personnel recruitment: how to deal with it thanks to digitization

The world of work today is experiencing, especially in Italy, considerable discord. While the problem of unemployment plagues many areas of the country, companies are also experiencing a period of  considerable skill shortage, unable to identify people with the right skills. Together, digitization and HR can help solve this problem, working on several different fronts. For example, digital can also be an enabler for skill enhancement, as well as for more direct activities such as recruitment, which, however, has little to do with business change.

Digitization and human resources, a winning combination

In fact, digitization can be supportive of personnel management, particularly with regard to shortage management, by following at least three main courses of action: that of the greater efficiency, that of the active research and those practices of Employer branding, which is increasingly important for companies that want to attract talent in a market that demands it more insistently. Let’s look at some of these points together, leaving out the job search aspects, since they do not so directly involve changes that can be made in the company, but simply the use of third-party tools.

Automation is an ally for companies and workers

In the world of work, one of the main sources of frustration for staff, particularly highly skilled staff, is having to engage in repetitive, low-value-added operations. With this in mind,automation is a very valuable support. Not only with regard to the  floor shop of manufacturing realities, where the use of increasingly advanced machinery is enfranchising people from less exciting operations, but also regarding the Practice management or enterprise digital assets.

Workflow optimization

Another arch-enemy of staff and employee satisfaction is the internal bureaucracy. If a vendor has to circulate his order through three different offices to have it approved, with a template that can only be filled in through fixed masks, perhaps made several years earlier, he will be disincentivized from using the system, burdening the offices or, worse, looking for more agile realities. The same applies, for example, to work order approval flows.

It is no mystery that IT infrastructure, in this case with particular reference to ERP, can help automate processes, relieving staff of bureaucratic steps. In the second instance, moreover, the data collected will enable the following  identify bottlenecks and redundancies, helping over time to build leaner procedures and to eliminate steps that are no longer needed.
Again, in addition to the benefit in terms of quality of work and attractiveness, there will also be a direct benefit: the streamlining of procedures will also make administrative and management staff more efficient, reducing the need for new ones.

Working conditions improve thanks to digital

This theme is particularly broad because it potentially encompasses everything from simple convenience, for example, having unified access for all business systems and services, to actual workplace safety, for example, equipping handling machinery with collision avoidance sensors, identifying more efficient routes for transportation and people, planning safer travel based on time series, and so on.

In short, digital can support and improve all aspects of work. In particular, including, as we have seen, the  actual security. Adopting a system of  more efficient and effective maintenance for example, can have an extremely positive impact on both the stress levels of operators, who will no longer have to fear breakdowns from one moment to the next, Both on the risk of accidents resulting from failures and breakdowns.

Remote, smart or goal-oriented work

The quality of the work and work environment today is a major decision-making driver, in addition to the evergreen economic issue, for people seeking new employment. We mentioned how employer branding, i.e., employees “and contractors” perceptions of a company, is an increasingly important issue.

And while there are already many “traditional” tools for improving it, such as benefits and rewards, without a doubt Digital can offer the gateway to one of the most sought-after features of today’s potential employees and workers: the ability to Access to agile or remote forms of work. In this case, rather than requiring a technical solution  per se (potentially, tools for remote working have existed for at least fifteen years) it is an operation of change management, what is perhaps the most challenging for companies.

Change to improve

As we can see, all the contexts in which digital can help companies cope with staff shortages have one common feature: are first and foremost tools for improvement, which in this case take on the value of dual benefits. In fact, in addition to being attractive, or conservative, for staff, they offer concrete benefits that, over time, will become real business assets.

When there is a systemic shortage of staff in a company, there are two strategies that companies can deploy, ideally in a parallel fashion: on the one hand, optimize and streamline processes so as to reduce the burden on existing employees, and on the other hand, make the company more attractive to the necessary workforce. In each case, digital is a valuable support.

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