An increasing number of companies have realized the importance of DX and have raised their organizations to promote DX, but there are many examples of failure. According to McKinsey research , a whopping 70% of DX efforts fail.
The reason why DX fails is largely due to “the person who plans and implements”.
In July 2021, Persol Process & Technology Co., Ltd. (Persol P&T), a member of the Persol Group that provides comprehensive human resource services, will conduct a survey of “human resource development” in promoting corporate DX and support the development of digital human resources. Service started.
Takehito Naruse, General Manager of the Digital Human Resources Development Department at Persol P&T, shows that there are three DX initiatives that companies should work on based on the survey results . This time, we interviewed Mr. Naruse about three DX initiatives and future DX trends.
| Taketo Naruse: After being in charge of engineer dispatch sales and staff management at the Persol Group since 2006, engaged in multiple projects as a business consultant. After that, he launched a work style consulting service and helped several companies improve working hours and introduce telework. He is also responsible for planning and operating public projects such as the promotion of telework by the national and local governments. From April 2020, he was appointed as the head of the new business development department, and led the launch of the multi-business promotion service “Protea” for companies and the digital human resource development business. As a second job, he was commissioned by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications and started working as a telework manager and a certified facilitator of the Protian Career Association. His books include “His New Management in the Telework Era to Enhance Organizational Capabilities” and “Remote Communication Techniques for Autonomous Work that Boosts Results” (Nikkei BP). |
Table of Contents
- “Three DX” advocated by Persol P&T
- “Process DX” to change the way you work
- “Work Style DX” that changes the way you work
- “Business DX” to change the business model
- 3 DX change the relationship between organizations and individuals
- Barriers to promoting DX and skills required for DX human resources
- Many companies working on DX are stagnating in digitalization
- The No. 1 Barrier in Promoting DX
- Skills of human resources who can promote DX on site
- Cultivate DX human resources who are active in the field
- Future trends of DX
- Future prospects
- Lastly
“Three DX” advocated by Persol P&T
Persol P&T classifies the DX that companies should work on to change into “Process DX” to change the way they work, “Work Style DX” to change the way they work, and “Business DX” to change the business model .
“Process DX” to change the way you work
Process DX is to incorporate digital technology into the conventional work flow to improve work efficiency and improve work.
Examples of process DX initiatives include visualization of the current state of work, sharing of work knowledge, digitization of the work environment, automation of work, and sophistication of work.
“Work Style DX” that changes the way you work
Workstyle DX is the introduction of digital technology into the workplace to reduce restrictions on location and time, and to allow for diverse ways of working and playing an active role.
Examples of work style DX initiatives include telework promotion, ABW 1 office reform, management reform from management to support, diversity and inclusion, and promotion of autonomous career development outside the organization.
“Business DX” to change the business model
Business DX is to develop new businesses and transform existing business models in order to respond to changes in market needs and competition in the digital society.
Examples of business DX initiatives include transformation of existing business models, new business development, establishment of two lean development systems, training of business producers (design & digital talent), and DX organization and culture development.
3 DX change the relationship between organizations and individuals
ーーIn the future, how do you think work styles will change as these three DX advances?
The three DX areas are superficial, and I think the important thing is the “X (transformation)” part .
Over the past few decades, Japanese companies have been working to adapt to social changes by changing their business and working styles, such as globalization, IT, work style reform, COVID-19 response, and DX response. However, all of them said, “As the company changes, the employees will also change . ”
However, the relationship between the organization and its employees is gradually changing.
How can employees, who in a sense depended on the organization they belong to, establish their own careers by utilizing the company/organization as an individual working in society? A company is about to change its relationship from one to which one belongs to one that is used to demonstrate its value in society.
We see DX as a social trend that will change the relationship between organizations and individuals. When the number of individuals who do not depend on organizations increases, the way of working should change significantly from the conventional way as a result. The 2020s will likely be a decade that will be a turning point.
Domestic companies are starting to work on DX, but there are many obstacles in promoting it. What kind of barriers actually exist?
Barriers to promoting DX and skills required for DX human resources
Persol P&T investigated the actual situation of “human resource development” in corporate DX promotion.
Many companies working on DX are stagnating in digitalization
According to a survey by Persol P&T, 63.7% of companies are working on DX in some way.
82.9% of respondents are considering or implementing DX initiatives, and the most common response is “business digitization and efficiency improvement.” However, the essence of DX is “business model transformation and new business creation” Companies are in the situation of 55.3%.
DX requires the use of digital technology to transform business models, but the fact that only 55.3% of companies are working on it means that many companies are still at the stage of building a DX environment.
ーーWhat do you think about this point?
In order to organize our DX initiatives in an easy-to-understand manner, we have categorized them into “Process DX” to change the way we work, “Work Style DX” to change the way we work, and “Business DX” to change the business model .
Currently, many companies are prioritizing process DX for “digitalization and streamlining of operations” rather than business DX for business model transformation and new business creation. This is because prior to business DX, we are prioritizing productivity improvements in existing business areas that have continued since the era of work style reform.
In addition, due to the impact of the new coronavirus, it became necessary to rapidly change the foundation of work styles, so the priority of work style DX centered on remote work has increased. For many companies, before taking on the challenge of digital business, it is easier to create a return on investment in response to the new coronavirus and process DX in existing business areas that are the foundation, and it is also easier for on-site employees to work. There is a reason.
However, it is also true that there are still many companies that have not progressed to the point where DX is effective. A common issue among companies struggling with DX is that there are no human resources who can promote DX on site.
Each company has started to set up a specialized organization with the mission of promoting DX, but it is still a small number of elites, and of course, it is not possible to plan and implement all company-wide DX projects with that small number. Various approaches are being tried and tested, but the most realistic measure that is accelerating efforts is the development of human resources who can promote DX at each site.
The No. 1 Barrier in Promoting DX
When Persol P&T conducted a survey on the barriers to promoting DX, 21.1% of the votes were “cannot develop human resources with the skills for promotion”.
In addition, issues related to internal systems, such as security measures and environmental improvements, are becoming apparent.
- Concerned about security measures (19.9%)
- Inadequate organizational structure and environment for promotion (16.4%)
However, the issues caused by in-house human resources occupy the top positions, as shown below.
- Insufficient IT literacy within the company (19.3%)
- No one to take leadership (15.9%)
- Efforts do not spread easily within the company (15.5%)
In response to the above issues, the demand for human resources with skills to promote DX in the field is increasing, but what kind of skills are specifically required?
Skills of human resources who can promote DX on site
ーーWhat kind of skills do human resources who can promote DX at the company-wide and on-site levels have?
As a skill required for DX promotion human resources, “advanced IT technology knowledge” is also expected as a high expectation, but what is required more than that is “idea planning / conceptual ability” and “problem discovery ability”.
These are important capabilities in all three DX areas: process DX, work style DX, and business DX.
Transformation itself is a means, not an end. It is important to have the ability to discover problems in your own workplace, plan and conceive means to change the situation, and put them into action by asking this question, “Who will solve what problem, and how will you change it?” increase.
In promoting DX initiatives and new business digital, it is important to have the skills to set appropriate issues and formulate plans to solve them.
In addition, when grasping issues, we can grasp the needs of the market and customers, come up with business and service ideas, and develop effective concepts . “ Facilitation skills ” to promote activities are also required.
What kind of services does Persol P&T use to develop DX promotion human resources for organizations?
Cultivate DX human resources who are active in the field
Persol P&T provides ” Work Switch + Digital ” to support the development of digital human resources . We have developed an educational program based on the issues and required skills discovered from Persol P&T’s own research.
ーーWhat are the features of “Work Switch + Digital”, a service that trains in-house DX human resources, compared to existing services?
As a digital human resource development business of the Persol Group, we provide services that not only aim to provide cutting-edge IT technology knowledge, but also support the transformation of many people working in the field.
The goal of Work Switch + Digital’s digital human resource development is to “realize an autonomous DX promotion organization”. Our goal is to jointly create an organization and a culture where companies can promote DX on their own, without relying on external vendors, including us. In order to achieve this goal, there are three points to focus on in the service.
The first is that we are constantly developing “newly required skills” and providing them by forming alliances with various players. We can handle RPA human resource development as an independent specialty of our company, but the ability to promote DX required by each client company is changing day by day. We will keep an eye on this change and work with external partners as necessary to provide learning opportunities for newly required skills for each client company.
The second is that the main service is practical learning, which provides learning opportunities that are close to learners’ practical work. Even if you learn the knowledge and skills necessary for DX, it is meaningless if you can’t bring it back to the site and put it into practice. First of all, there is practical practice in the field, and we will design and provide learning opportunities individually to create concrete changes there.
The third point is to step into the career shift of learners. Here, as a commitment unique to PERSOL, learners think independently about their own careers in the process of learning, without training or learning, including changing their roles, work styles, and occupations themselves. provide value.
The new skills required for each company can be customized in a wide range, and individual guidance will help learners practice their practical work, ultimately leading to independent career shifts for those learners. These three points of value provision are the commitment of “Work Switch + Digital” and are the features of the service.
Future trends of DX
Based on the results of the survey, Persol P&T has defined the following three keywords as future DX trends.
- On-site DX
- Digital human resource development
- personalize
ーーWhat is the meaning of each keyword?
The reason why DX centered on the field is emphasized is that the process DX and work style DX initiatives are progressing, and the required transformation is being deployed from the corporate planning team to the field.
Therefore, I would like to leave the main role to the front line, but as mentioned above, there are no human resources who can promote DX at each front line, so “digital human resource development” is necessary . “I don’t understand it” is a big barrier to promotion.
For this reason, keywords such as “field-based DX,” “digital human resource development,” and “personalization” have become issues common to all companies.
ーーWhat do leaders who promote DX need to do in order for employees to “personalize” DX initiatives?
This “personalization” and awareness reform in the field is not a problem unique to DX, but has been an issue when companies are working on some kind of transformation.
Top-down leadership is important for raising awareness, but in the future, it will be important for each and every person in the workplace to change autonomously and adapt to changes.
“Make DX efforts your own” is actually an organization-dependent style of “making the measures told by the organization your own work” at that point.
Do we need to be aware of changes in society and organizations, and change ourselves in the midst of these changes? If so, what do you start working on? It is necessary to create opportunities to stimulate the ability of individuals to adapt to change.
Future prospects
ーーPlease tell us about your future prospects.
Currently, the main service provided is the development of process DX human resources centered on RPA.
However, as I told you this time, we are also focusing on developing services that lead to career shifts for everyone on the front lines of client companies.
First of all, we would like to jointly work on the development of DX human resources for as many companies as possible, so we will introduce various examples.
In addition, we would like to incorporate new learning technologies into our services and provide more valuable learning opportunities in order to incorporate the power of digital into the development of digital human resources.
Lastly
With an increasing number of companies working on DX with an eye on the future of the company, and some companies ending in failure, Mr. Naruse presented three DX.
By subdividing the difficult concept of DX into “process DX,” “work style DX,” and “business DX ,” we can simply recapture and practice DX. First of all, please consider the DX that you should work on at your company.
In addition, Mr. Naruse points out that the sense of ownership of on-site employees is the key to promoting DX . Regardless of DX, it is a term that you often hear when promoting a business, but how much doyou make your employees aware of it?
