In a context of digital transformation, new technologies are real catalysts for innovation and change in practices enabling the agile implementation of IT Services. Human Resources are placed at the heart of Information Systems organizations and must acquire new technical and methodological skills, but also understand a new model of IT Service delivery, based on Agile, DevOps & Cloud uses.
The accelerating adoption of DevOps and BigData, coupled with hacking threats, is changing the IT industry. Indeed, CIGREF has published its 2018 nomenclature with no less than 50 profiles, revealing new business lines, particularly related to agility, data management, security and supplier relationship management. In addition, legal constraints bring, with the new General Rules for the Protection of Personal Data (RGPD), a close relationship between security and data management aspects. Finally, let's not forget the eco-responsible movement around Green IT, which is still relevant today and is influencing the change in the consumption of IT services.
The evolution of mentalities and level of maturity
The first driver of evolution is the motivation to embrace change. To do this, it is necessary to have a good understanding of the target or at least the trajectory that tends towards it. Individuals are tested in their mentalities, while the organizations they make up are more or less mature to deal with significant changes impacting on individual careers. There are therefore three essential axes for leading a transformation:
- An axis of individual coaching allowing to expose the trends, the evolutions and especially to remove the reticence sufficiently in advance. This new transformation is only one phase in the history of digitalization to which we are all contributing.
- A collective preparation axis at the level of a group or a team allowing to qualify the impacts in a human dimension in order to identify the strengths and weaknesses of the existing group.
- An axis of identification of synergies between the 2 previous points in order to unbridle Human Resources individually in a homogeneous increase in maturity of the collective.
The aim is to prepare Human Resources for the changes but above all to give visibility on their future and the resources that will be deployed to support the group. We must not hesitate to communicate widely about the project, the entities involved and the key players, highlighting the value that this will bring to the Company's core business.
Change management
New technologies make it possible to accelerate the availability of new services and uses. There is also talk of the phenomenon of uberization, which is disrupting the historical markets. As a result, companies with a well-established base can quickly lose market share to new innovative players. This leads to a context of intense competitiveness in which knowing how to manage change is an essential asset.
- Company strategy: it is very difficult for a sized company to carry out a short term strategic plan as a Startup would do. The strategic choices are generally implemented on a 3 to 5 year plan integrating the different key factors: the alignment of its organization and the implementation of its new business processes, in order to reach its objectives. On paper, change is an adjustment or even a real strategic reorientation aimed at achieving specific results. In an HR approach, a company's employees react with their perception of change by measuring the impact at the level of their entities and individuals.
- The sociological sphere of the group: a distinction must be made between the understanding of the company's strategic choices, which are generally well communicated, and the consequences in the organisation, which are very often poorly understood. At the group level, the understanding of change is the stage on which we need to focus in order for the inking to be robust. The corporate culture is a major pillar on which to build since it represents a natural lever for cohesion. Communication is essential to succeed in uniting its entire workforce without omitting its strategic partners.
- The individual psychological sphere: in a transtheoretical approach to change, introduced by Prochaska and DiClemente in the late 1970s, there are 6 stages in such a process: pre-intention, intention, preparation, action, maintenance and resolution. Based on this approach, it is necessary to develop one's listening skills in order to pay particular attention to the elements and clues that make it possible to identify the stage in which the employee is at. It is essential to pace and accompany the employee through this cycle in order to reach the resolution stage within a timeframe consistent with the company's strategy.
Training and self-training
The first work on the iterative and incremental production cycle dates back to the 1930s, which gave rise in particular to the Deming Wheel (Plan-Do-Check-Act) as part of the fundamentals of the Quality approach. Many people are unaware of it, but agility is part of our most traditional methods, which have evolved over time to give real collections of widely implemented good practices.
New technologies make it possible to automate all or part of an IT process, thus eliminating complex manual actions initially performed by experts. The added value of IT expertise shifts according to the spread of new technologies in information systems. Moreover, Open Source solutions are making a real breakthrough to the detriment of editors even if they do not offer the same guarantees of maintenance, support and training.
Training is a strong axis to be developed to accompany an employee towards a new expertise. Traditional training with approved organisations is a learning lever that allows access to qualifications that validate the level of knowledge. To go further, it is possible to opt for a complementary approach based on a peer-to-peer learning pedagogy implemented, for example, within the framework of a Cloud Learning, the aim of which is to provide learning environments and tutorials enriched by our communities of experts. This approach must be based on technological choices that are aligned with our offerings while keeping a watchful eye on future needs.
Grouping in community
Expertise in new technologies is rare and this is even more true in the IT sector. Indeed, mastering a new technology can take a long time (2 years on average) in view of the immediate operational expectations of companies.
One of the ways to facilitate the development of employees' skills is to organize communities of experts where the most experienced members can share with the other members their feedback, the difficulties they have encountered, the risks they have identified and the solutions they have implemented. This principle of community support can be deployed within an IT department, but it is richer in the IT Services company that provide services to many CIOs.
Businesses have always evolved with the help of new tools that industrialize activities. This is even more true in the IT sector, where the basic principle is to use new technologies to automate or even digitize all or part of the business processes. In our business sector, Human Resources have to deal with a permanent evolution of practices while keeping in mind that obsolete technologies (which nevertheless persist over time) are gradually being replaced by others that bring value in the current context.
The human being is thus at the heart of the digital transformation with a renewal of technologies requiring new specializations and a faster learning curve.
