The Future of Work: How Technology & Analytics are Shaping the HR World

By: Dhanashree Thakkar, Head- Human Resources and Distribution Training, Bharti AXA Life Insurance

Dhanashree leads people, talent, and culture initiatives at Bharti AXA Life Insurance, focusing on capacity for growth and organizational performance. With nearly 20 years of experience across sectors including Automotive, Media, Retail, BFSI, and Consulting, she has driven major transformation projects at McDonald’s, Kotak Life Insurance, and Future Group. Dhanashree is also a mentor and leadership coach.

It is said that the one who never stops learning never stops growing. From time immemorial, our culture and heritage have always emphasized the importance of learning, education, and personal development. Learning doesn’t stop at any age - it is a lifelong process. With technology making its mark in every aspect of our lives in the 21st century, often beyond our imagination, humans are getting involved in a journey of continuous learning. Technology can identify loopholes, solve problems, suggest alternatives, optimize existing operations, and show possibilities.

In today`s digital age, technology is evolving in a way that both employees and organizations should immensely benefit from each other. With this mindset, here are some industry-wide insights that how HR practiceshave evolved.

Focus on developing ‘T-Thinking’ employees

Owing to competition, employees today play a versatile role having several cross-functional skills. We accentuate their efforts to understand what can be automated and complement the deep knowledge needed for their particular role. This is called a T-thinking employee: a person with deep expertise in one area as well as broad knowledge and skills.

We use our L&D efforts to cultivate employees who have uniquely human skills, in particular valuable soft skills. These are the “power” skills of the future that influence the success of people, teams, and businesses.

1. Chatbots

Chatbots are taking customer service and query resolution operations by storm. As per the report, it is estimated that in 2023, 75 % of HR inquiries will be initiated through conversational AI platforms. At Bharti AXA Life, chatbot Leena AI, a powerful conversational tool takes care of every single customer in the most personalized manner, holding conversations and answering questions related to policy matters, streamlining HR workflows, managing employee documents; thus, making administration and HR more efficient. 

This results in good customer service and also helps employees to better invest their time, headspace, ideas, and energy into strategic thinking that propels the organization forward through quality decision-making.

2. People Analytics

According to a report from Deloitte, over 70% of organizations make the most of people analytics to develop strategies and execute them. People analytics involves talking to employees and understanding their problems, expectations, satisfaction levels and performance incentives.

At Bharti AXA Life, we constantly engage with our employees through our platform Amber. Through this, we analyze the anonymous feedback shared by employees and periodically check the scope of improvement and corrective actions that can be undertaken. A total of 72% of employees have shared their feedback on Amber out of which 87% of employees have responded positively.

This to a great extent has helped improvethe productivity of our company`s front-line sales and critical talent base.

Now, analytics is not just limited to predictive analytics but also to prescriptive analytics which provide insights from the data and actions to be taken forward, which is being utilized for manpower planning. With the efficiency and usage of different tools, employees now have the power to expand their horizons and contribute more in their field.

3. Soft Skills and tools

At the core of all operations and communications are people. With changing times and technological advancements, how people communicate with one another is changing. From text messaging to email, from boardroom meetings to Zoom calls, there is now a range of channels for people to connect. A new addition to the list is social messaging apps which have made business very feasible and convenient for both organisations and customers. This calls for a constant learning curve when it comes to soft skills.

At Bharti AXA Life, we have developed a suite of mobile and web applications,

‘M-Smart’, for distribution workforce which enables our employees to digitally perform critical business functions, from pre-sales to customer onboarding and servicing. They can also manage complete seller lifecycle management with digital recruitment, learning management, and performance management. As a result, they can serve customers better by maintaining handy access to all their data.   

‘DigiServe’, a customer portal that enhances efficiencies in servicing customers through digitized processes

When an organization is ready to change and create an impact, there will be overall growth in customer success and internal growth!

With the pace of technological change and the evolving insurance landscape, there is a constant need to learn and adapt to stay ahead. By embracing technology, we can not only adapt to the future but also enhance the experience of our customers, employees and other stakeholders.