By ; Basel Khaled - Mohamed Shawky
PwC Middle East and SAP surveyed more than 600 executives and HR professionals from different industries and countries across the Middle East for the Digital HR Survey 2020. The purpose of the study was to better understand the steps organisations need to take to transform the role of HR into a more strategic, value-adding function. The study also included a series of in-depth interviews with public and private sector representatives from organisations across the Middle East.
The unprecedented measures taken by Middle East governments to suppress the spread of COVID-19 led to mass remote working facilitated by digital technology. Some 72% of survey participants said the pandemic has accelerated their organisation’s digital transformation.
CEOs were identified as key sponsors of digital transformation and were 4 to 10 times more likely to lead their organisation’s transformation efforts than any other C-level or senior executives.
That said leading from the top is not enough. Mohammad Almughrbi, General Manager of the Directorates Integration & Shared Services Establishment Program at Saudi Arabia’s National Water Company (NWC), believes that, in the context of digital transformation, HR teams must work to support the executive team of the organisation by having a financial objective as well as an operational improvement goal for their digital plans.
The survey results show HR departments have work to do to capture the full potential of digital transformation. Only 9% of participants reported that their organisations are innovating in HR with digital technologies and 55% see HR’s biggest contribution to the overall digital transformation of their organisation as digitalising HR processes. This indicates that most HR functions in the Middle East are at the stage of using technology for efficiency and automation rather than innovation.
48% of survey respondents believe that the HR function will be expected to support the digital transformation of the whole organisation by driving changes in company culture and mindset.
Furthermore, 33% think that the future focus of HR should be developing and coaching talent as well as acting as the change leader of the organisation (31%). Using digital tools to carry out repetitive administrative tasks will help shift the focus of HR in a more strategic direction and drive upskilling.
“HR is about improving the employee experience from hiring to retirement, enhancing decision-making through AI and moving from backward-looking analysis of talent data to more advanced applications such as predictive modelling,” states Andreas Binnmyr, HR Transformation & Technology Leader at Al-Futtaim.
