All businesses today rely on multiple forms of technology or another, the buzz word of the moment 'digital' is being used as the panacea to all business growth challenges, especially when its used in the context of 'transformation'.

But is this really true, does tech (digital or otherwise) on its own really transform a business, or is it just a myth peddled by hardware tech and software vendors whose cold calling selling process is now outdated, and still aimed at the C-Suite, that they (the C-Suite) rely more on what a potential vendor tells them about the super wizzy tech that can drive down cost, increase sales, and bypass the workforce they are willingly buying into anything that might turn the slowing tanker around, than that which they (and their competitors) can evidence in the market for free, along with being able to benchmark, up-skill, and support what the capabilities of the employee workforce is to be able to adopt, adapt, and change at pace.

Over the years I have seen many of these type of companies sat with the tech and tools on the balance sheet, gathering dust because no-one really took the time to engage the employees, give them the skill set to meet changing skill set demand, and don't forget the impact on the customer, it seems to me that many businesses are buying into 'Digital Transformation' on the basis of FOMO? 

Stating the obvious, every company needs people with 'hard skills' and 'soft skills', even with the advent of AI and Bots taking the place of certain roles, AI's USP is human input, as a result a lot of time, effort, and investment is put into this recruitment process by HR teams, and the C-suite rely very heavily on the HR department to be the company 'shop window' to entice new recruits.

But should most of the internal and external early stage evaluation and selection process rely solely on HR to evaluate the people who are going to be internally charged with either keeping the legacy lights turned on, or bringing on board those that can can fill the current gap because "for some reason our churn rate for people is quite high"?

What about true transformation, how does a business deliver on that, how does it measure it, how does it benchmark vendors, and people, and the most important HR question is how do we help potential employees evaluate our company?

How do we innovate the selection process for both sets of people, those inside the business, and those thinking about joining a business, and those with the 'hard skills' with high churn rates in what is a highly competitive industry, along with those people we all need with much sought after 'softer skills'?

Just how do you make sure that your company is the one that stands out to people looking to make that next move as the company of choice, how do you make your brand, company, and employees stand out and become front of mind when people you haven't yet met are thinking about moving on from their current role, or considering joining you?

What does 'Glassdoor' say about your business, whats your social reputation, what would you like people to say about who you are, what you stand for, and answer the 'why' people should come and work for you?

As 'Tim Hughes' CEO Founder of DLA Ingite says;

"Digital transformation is talked about being about "tools", like a new HR system, or a system to management talent or a system to manage recruitment.  Tools change nothing.  They might computerise a process, but the process is pretty much the process"

Here at Digital Leadership Associates (DLA) www.dlaignite.com we have completely rethought Human Resources for the Digital age, using social media.

It's not a tool or a piece of software, it's a process.

It was our idea when we started DLA that social media will change the world and it has.  We re-imagined sales and now we are moving onto Human Resources.