Beyond the tools, digital technology is profoundly transforming the company’s culture and the daily practices of its employees.
At the heart of this transformation, The HR function must have a pioneering role.
Because it is aimed at the company’s other employees, it must set an example in the evolution of its own business practices. Thus, it will be more able to initiate change among the company’s other departments, by taking as an example its new acquired practices.
How are companies engaging in the transformation of the HR profession?
We asked a few questions to Andréa Rajaobélison, Head of Digital HR Project at Renault, whose primary mission is to help HR employees rethink their roles.
What is your role as Digital HR Project Manager at Renault?
There are an important culture of customer relations within the Renault Group and also within HR. The employee is truly considered a client. In fact, the goal of human resources is to make Our maximum goal is to offer a real Employee experience.
To succeed in improving the experience offered to employees, HR must adopt new working methods: be more open, collaborative, and adopt more transparent methods. The key is the circulation of information.
If it is communicated more easily, if it circulates better among the members of the HR community, it will actually reach employees faster. And we will provide them with better service!
I think that beyond the new skills and professional practices to be adopted, there is mainly a key moment to have in terms of mindsetAdaptation and open-minded working are key to adopting a new attitude if we want to succeed in changing our practices later on.
What actions are you taking to raise awareness among HR employees about new practices?
It is both of support and tools. For example, we are working on taking control of new collaborative tools.
But the most difficult part is the process of change.. Succeeding in adopting new habits, such as asking the HR community a question on YAMMER (an internal social network offered by Microsoft), rather than sending an email. This is not yet automatic. Using and modifying documents online, creating online communities – all of this is possible and accessible, but it’s not quite in the habit yet.
What is being explained is that collaborative tools are not an additional layer; on the contrary, they allow us to free ourselves from many tasks and simplify our lives.
The team is also working on redesigning our HR intranet, to make it more user-friendly. a real collaborative space. This is a key project to fundamentally change the way things are done. Today, the intranet operates in a very “top down” way: one person imports the documents, the others read them. The goal is to create a horizontal space where employees can primarily exchange ideas with one another.
This is a project that we want to co-build with the HR community. It is up to us to set the example: by working with our users, we will directly identify their needs and ultimately ensure a better use of this new space.
How do HR employees react to the various awareness-raising initiatives carried out by your department?
There is a lot of will! Overall, the employees are eager to get started. They understand that it is necessary and that there will be benefits to getting involved. The results will be seen in time, but we can already sense that most of the employees want to change their practices.
This goes beyond the mere HR function: with the arrival of electric, connected and autonomous cars, digital technology is disrupting all of Renault’s services. As HR, we have a pioneering role; we must set an example if we want to lead the rest of the company along with us.
Thank you Andréa!