Thanks to the Technology Convergence, Cloud Computing and related thrusts in B2C, end consumers have got spoilt for choices and continuously raise their expectations. Consumers are getting on-demand processed data and many-a-times data is being pushed to them, rather than they waiting to pull the data. As a consumer, we no longer have to be at the mercy of service provider personnel, be it a Bank or a Telecom or any Utility provider. One can know on a real-time basis the data that has been consumed out of a mobile data plan. The Consumer has been empowered with information to take informed decisions and appropriate time actions.

What about the consumers in the role of a corporate employee? Is their digital life changing in their work area? The answer is a welcome ‘Yes’. Though the pace of change is still behind as those in a B2C scenario, employees are reaping the benefits in their entire Employee Lifecycle, right from Hire-to-Retire.

Expectations and hence experiences in the corporate world is also undergoing a sea-change. Digitization has facilitated Business Process Management / Reengineering and has resulted into huge process efficiencies. Most of the manual checks and controls are being replaced with System Automated Controls (in fact with better controls and reduced risks). Predictive analysis has helped employees to take better decisions.

Just imagine, it was not long ago when employees had to spend considerable effort to dig out their old pay slips or their previous years’ tax statement. Gone are the days when employees had to struggle seeking information that were essential and many times officially their right. Basic data like salary, leave, claims, and appraisals are becoming easier to access without going through the formal people channels. Thanks to the technology and Business Process Management initiatives like Lean HR, employees increasingly are getting used to relevant information being pushed to them and being made available on their hand phones.

This has transcended not only in routine employee admin processes. Right from the time candidates apply for a job they get notified the interview schedules electronically. Interviews are now being handled through web conferencing tools, and candidates come to know the status of the selection process on a real-time basis.

With all this hype, let us be clear, Digitization is not mere
Automation. This has to start with the end customer in mind and
end there. And one needs to apply BPM and harness technological
possibilities to achieve the unthinkable.

Let me take a simple case study that deals with transactional process to cite this.

Case Study – Expense Claims Reimbursement:

One of our Customers wanted to ensure that their employees get expense claims reimbursed quickly. This was impacting the sales team’s performance, as the sales team, especially operating in remote locations cited delayed reimbursement as a demotivating factor in achieving sales targets.

Currently it was taking about 15-20 days as the physical claims had to travel quite a distance to the central processing unit and then it was followed by a rigorous validation and audit, post which it was sent to the functional managers for approval. The approved claim details were passed on to the Finance team to pay to the employee.

The question we posed to the management team was ‘What is that the employee would expect in terms of the time that they think is appropriate for clearing the claims?’ The answer, as if to put us in a tight corner, was jokingly said ‘ZERO days’. We said, let it be the command. We shall achieve it.

How was this achieved? A normal automation would have improved the efficiency of the process and cut down the process time from 15-20 days to say 4-5 days. What was ultimately designed was a classic case of process re-engineering which was made possible because of technology.

The hypothesis was made that all employees should be trusted unless proven otherwise. (I am sure that is a better HR paradigm!). With this assumption, as soon as the employee entered the claim on to the system, all eligibility validations and other logical controls were made online. As the claims were within the employee’s eligibility, a certain % of the claim amount, say 90% was immediately transferred to the employee’s Expense Card. Hence the process time became almost zero. The central processing unit subsequently validated the supporting vouchers and the balance 10% was credited post that. The caveat was that if any employee would have cheated by manipulating the amount of submitted forged vouchers, then that employee will be blacklisted and flagged off not to get such auto-approvals in the future. We went one step ahead. When the employee used the Expense Card to spend for their expenses, they appeared automatically in their claim form, thus even eliminating the employees to enter details in the system.

Thus a combination of Technology and Business Process
Reengineering enhanced the Employee Experience and helped
foster a better HR atmosphere, that of trust and transparency.

There are numerous such examples that have been now put to practice.

• Social Collaboration Tools have cut down communication times amongst internal teams. A sales team has been able to reduce its order closure time by 80% due to collaborative tools.
• Similar tools with real-time feedback mechanism have increased eLearning efficiencies by more than 50%.
• The Factory Shift Manager gets to know on his mobile the staff strength that has swiped their cards at the gate – within ten minutes of the shift start. This facilitates proper shift planning and save organizational resources.

To sum it up, in today’s digital age, Consumer is the King, be it a retail consumer or an employee.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Prasad Rajappan is an experienced Founder with a history of working in the information technology and services industry. Strong business development professional skilled in Business Process, Negotiation, Customer Relationship Management (CRM), Market Research, and Management. He is the Founder and Managing Director of Cnergyis and CEO of ZingHR.