Empowering our management teams is another important area for continuous improvement, and self-service plays a big part in that. Five years ago, that meant ensuring HR managers had access to basic employee information like salary and tenure, but that doesn’t cut it anymore. With Workday Recruiting, which we deployed in July 2015, we’ve evolved to where our managers have a clear picture of what’s required for talent acquisition and development. Where once only certain managers had access to that information, now all hiring managers receive the same level of insight, helping us improve recruiting efforts across the board.
Finally, we’re continuously improving how we attract and engage our employees. A big focus for us this year is making sure our employees are proactive about their career development. With Workday they can upload their job experience from LinkedIn, search for open positions, and apply for a new job directly. This level of transparency encourages personal growth and enables management to locate specific skills, such as an employee who speaks Mandarin, and recommend them for new opportunities on a global scale.
How has your role in HR evolved with the changing workforce over the past five years?
Five years ago, we were moving out of the global financial crisis. Our focus during that time was more about how to survive and reducing costs. Fast forward to present day and the types of activities we are doing now are markedly different because of the way the workforce has changed. Today our team is tasked with questions like, “How do we continue attracting top talent?” and “What kind of survey should we run to get the pulse on employee engagement and happiness?” We believe that long-term investments in people promote a better culture all around, and with Workday helping make what were manual HR tasks more efficient, we have the time to focus on that.