‍Onboarding has always played a key role in helping employees make a successful transition to your organization. The COVID-19 pandemic raises concerns that many HR organizations have never dealt with before, whether it’s remotely onboarding newly hired employees or employees returning to the office after months of remote work.

A recent global survey on which I collaborated with Oracle suggests that HR is right up there with the most analytical functions in business — and even a bit ahead of a quantitatively-oriented function like Finance.

There are two realities for today’s human resources (HR) departments: In the first, HR is on the cusp of major change, adopting technologies that automate tedious systems and transform how employees are managed. In the second, HR is still mired in administrative tasks and paper applications, preventing HR professionals from becoming strategic and stalling the shift to modern HR.

Human Resource departments had a difficult job prior to the pandemic. In 2019, more than 50% of HR leaders struggled to ensure that employees had the skills necessary to navigate an increasingly digitized workplace. But, admittedly, this “future of work” had always seemed a safe distance ahead — far enough, at least, to thoughtfully prepare for.

To stay relevant and attract top talent, many companies have developed recruitment marketing programs to build their brand beyond the services and products they offer. Recruitment marketing is a combination of outbound reach out to marketing channels and inbound accessibility, both of which offer a view into how a company operates. Channel effectiveness depends on the industry, but as applicants become more technology-savvy, it also requires a combination of finesse and the right tools.

Forward-thinking organizations have leveraged digital transformation for decades with a single goal in mind: respond quickly and efficiently to change.

Enterprise resource planning (ERP) platforms are arguably the most important applications in a company’s data center. The core modules range from financial and order management systems to supply chain planning and human resource management. In short, if the ERP platform goes down, orders can’t be booked, invoices can’t be paid, and business grinds to a halt. This high-risk proposition helps explain why enterprises need a compelling reason and an airtight business case before upgrading their ERP system and incorporating the project in a digital transformation strategy.

Business transformation is a battle fought on many fronts, and one of the most important is the modernization of core business processes. By optimizing enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems, for example, enterprises can unlock new insights from business data for better decision making and to identify new market opportunities.