When It Comes to Digital Transformation, Why Do We Keep Forgetting About HR?

By now, most of us are familiar with the stat that 3 out of 4 digital transformations fail (McKinsey’s latest report shows the success rate at just 31%). When you dig deeper into why these initiatives fail, it’s clear that the technology itself is rarely the problem. Rather, these large-scale transformations are often derailed by the lack of a compelling vision, poor internal communications, sub-optimal team composition, missing skillsets, lack of role and responsibility clarity, ineffective organizational change management, and fear of failure.

What do all of those things have in common? They’re all about the PEOPLE! And that begs the question: why do we keep forgetting about HR? So many of the organizations I’ve worked with “get it” when it comes to involving “operations” or “the field” in big IT initiatives, but for some reason, that bridge-building often doesn’t extend to HR. Instead, HR is treated as an after-thought or just a stakeholder instead of an active thought partner and collaborator.

And that makes zero sense. HR professionals live and breathe the “people side” of the business every day. From talent acquisition and development to org design and change management, their areas of expertise are precisely what many of these transformations are missing. Put another way, CHROs and their teams can and should play a critical role alongside CIOs and other executives in visioning, planning, and executing large-scale change.

So what do we do about it?

If you’re a CIO: go initiate a conversation with your HR counterpart about what you’re doing. Here are five topics you should talk about and seek their input on:

1. Vision: What You’re Doing & Why
2. Plan: How You’re Going to Do It
3. Team: Who’s Engaged & Who Owns What
4. Stakeholders: Who It Will Impact & How Supportive (or Not) They Are
5. Change Impacts: What It Means for Impacted Teams & Employees

If you’re an HR Leader: start asking your CIO questions! Here are five I’d start with:

1. “What are some new skills and areas of expertise we’ll need on [X] team and how are we developing/acquiring them?”
2. “How will [X] role change once the new technology / process is implemented?”
3. “Are we missing any key skills or competencies? Do we need to be hiring to augment our current team?”
4. “How will these changes affect our Employee Experience? What changes are needed to support our employees?”
5. “Where do we need to invest in internal training & development to prepare our employees for new ways of working?”

And if you’re a CEO: make sure your CIO and CHRO are collaborating…A LOT! If you sense the old "silo" thing happening between these two critical functions, it's worth intervening, especially if you're starting or in the middle of a major transformation.

If you’d like to talk more about your digital transformation journey and other ways to increase and improve collaboration between your organization's HR and Technology functions, please reach out. I’d love to chat.