BUSINESS TRANSFORMATION

A considerable challenge for the CHRO and CIO

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 INTRODUCTION
Do your employees, like at Microsoft and Talentsoft, wish to be more involved in decision
making? Would you like to offer them a cutting-edge digital HR experience? Do your
growth and globalization goals include getting rid of silos, transforming, and promoting
company culture? If you answered 'yes' to any of these questions, look no further.

READ OUR GUIDE!

INTRODUCTION 2
 Whether you work in a start-up teeming with Millennials or in a company with more
structured hierarchy, employees are always expressing new needs:
• Real-time & free access to tools, information, and data
• Security and confidentiality requirements
• Online data storage
• “Cool” tools that are similar to B2C tools
• Access to internal and external social networks
Companies today face new challenges:
• Placing clients and employees at the heart of the organization
• Placing innovation at the heart of its strategy
Companies are expected to adapt to these changes by modifying the way they function,
multiplying tools, and improving the way employees work. These changes can best be
handled by the CHRO (Chief Human Resources Officer), CIO and their cross-functional
teams, who are constantly in touch with employees.
This pair will have to collaborate and tackle the issue of aligning employee expectations
with the company’s challenges.

Using Microsoft’s and Talentsoft’s combined

experience, we have come up with five ways to
efficiently transform your business.

INTRODUCTION 3
 #1
ENGAGE MIDDLE AND TOP MANAGEMENT IN
BUSINESS TRANSFORMATION
Middle and top management should drive this transformation.
Top managers must embrace internal evolutions and lead the way, by using the latest available tools and practices
for example.
The CHRO and CIO must make sure that middle managers are not ignored in this transformation process, as they can
either quicken adoption rate or slow it down.

IN PRACTICE:

Microsoft France organises regular Q&A

sessions called YamJam, where the execu-
tive team answers employees’ questions for
an hour on Yammer, the company’s internal
social network.
Talentsoft co-founders go live on the
company’s enterprise social network to
share strategic advances, latest news,
and upcoming deadlines with employ-
ees. They also answer any questions
employees may have.

IDEA #1 4
 #2
INVOLVE EMPLOYEES PRIOR TO
THIS TRANSFORMATION
The more employees participate in this change, the less they will see this as something imposed on them by the
company. Make sure you identify and involve ambassadors as soon as possible. This will encourage employee
involvement, facilitate adoption of new work habits, and ensure meaningful results. In short: encourage the culture
of contributions by promoting interactions across functions and providing a collaborative experience.

IN PRACTICE:

The big move: Talentsoft changed its
headquarters’ location in October 2016.
How did the company design the work-
place to fit the culture of its 600 people
and please them? A total of 15 ambas-
sadors from different departments were
chosen and put in charge of collecting
employees proposals. We listened to
and examined everyone's requests.
At Microsoft, the deployment and suc-
cessful adoption of new applications is
encouraged by involving 'champions'
who relay important messages to their
teams, and provide a more focused sup-
port. It produces a positive viral effect
for employees and reduces adjuste-
ment period. IT and HR identify cham-
pions together, with the help of middle
management.

IDEA #2 5
 #3
CREATE HR AND IT PAIRS
FOR ALL CROSS-FUNCTIONAL PROJECTS
The HR-IT relationship, which may have been rough in the past, is turning out to be a leading force in business
transformation. It combines both the technical and organisational skills required to bring about change and plays a
crucial role in convincing the executive team of the advantages of transforming the employee experience. It is now
up to the two parties to overcome their misgivings to become the true agents of change for collaboration, well-being,
and performance.

IN PRACTICE:

Microsoft has added employees’

“degree of collaboration” in their
annual appraisals. This is a great
example of collaboration between
two depar tments, where CIO
improves the HR processes.
At Talentsoft, all projects must be car-
ried out by a cross-functional team, gen-
erate conversation, and involve meet-
ings and discussions. This is reflected
in one of the company’s values: “Team
conversation is our currency”.

IDEA #3 6
 #4
LEVERAGE AGILITY AND A REASSURING
FRAMEWORK FOR CHANGE
It's best to make change happen incrementally to advance step by step instead of doing a “big bang” approach. In
order to facilitate change, make it natural and invisible. Leaders of this transformation must minimize disruptions:
better to advance a little bit everyday and adjust as needed.

IN PRACTICE:

All the advantages of Agile methods are inherited from IT development.

This can also be applied to other types of changes. For example, the sup-
port provided by the enterprise social network is crucial. It is used for all
types of conversations, including group discussions on how to use new
solutions. This takes the weight off IT support and gives more responsibility
to employees, who play the role of ambassadors for change.

IDEA #4 7
 #5
CONVERT AGILITY INTO LEARNING METHODS

This agility must be converted into employee training. For this, you will have to switch to LaaS mode (Learning as a
Service), and provide your employees with a number of training courses to choose from. They should be able to follow
the courses as and when they please (i.e. outside of working hours, on their mobiles, from home, etc.). This means
that you need to understand their requirements in real-time, and then develop new ways to take them into account.

IN PRACTICE:
Microsoft uses the self-study approach within
applications, with gamification and game con-
tests sometimes. Moreover, they’ve imple-
mented a system to gather enhancement
requests for their platforms and applications;
they have a voting system to select the best
ideas which will get top priority.
Talentsoft has set up a “Talent Library”
programme for its employees. This is a
library with e-books on various topics
such as entrepreneurship, finance, busi-
ness strategies, or tutorials on internal
tools. Talentsoft has also started
Talentsoft Academy to train employees
with its own LMS platform.

IDEA #5 8
 About Talentsoft
Talentsoft is the European leader in Cloud-based talent management. The
Talentsoft solution allows users to efficiently manage employee recruitment,
training, performance, competencies, careers and compensation.
With over eight million users in 130 countries, the Talentsoft solution is per-
fectly adapted to European specificities and global HR challenges. Its functional
depth and unique flexibility enables it to meet the requirements of all types of
companies, whatever their activity sector or global presence.
Originally designed for the Cloud, Talentsoft is fully optimised for the Microsoft
Azure Cloud.

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 +33 (0)1 41 86 05 60 Microsoft France
contact-ts@talentsoft.com +33 (0)9 70 01 90 90
www.talentsoft.com www.microsoft.com/France

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