The human side of Digital HR

We asked him 7 questions on Digital HR and HR Analytics. He gave us 7 brutally honest answers. If you expect a peek inside his brain to get all the details on the technical and statistical side, you're in the wrong place. Bruce Fecheyr-Lippens (SVP, Global Head of Innovating Ways of Working, Digital HR, People Analytics at Solvay) speaks about his holistic approach, about the link with employee experience and the connection between digital and human.  

What makes you passionate about Digital HR and HR Analytics?

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​"My passion is to unleash the full potential of people and organizations in a sustainable way. Digital HR and HR Analytics are important pieces of the puzzle. So I would not say my passion is Digital HR and Analytics but they are a means to an end, and they can be very powerful. For example, if we know from the facts that the best managers ask and give more feedback, then this is a great thing to know and to communicate to foster a culture of feedback. So we emphasize the "human" aspect of HR..."
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What's the (missing) link with Employee Experience?

"It all starts with "why" and what employee experience means (purpose, fun, opportunities,...). Digital and Analytics help us to measure what is working, what is not working and how to improve. For example, if you design a new company vision/purpose, you can measure how people relate to this purpose through a monthly "pulse" (digital) and adapt where needed. The analytics help you to define focused actions and follow-up on them. For example, you may decide to do a townhall meeting in business unit x because they related less to the newly defined purpose."
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Digital HR is human. Do you agree?

​"I 100% agree. Digital helps, but the human perspective is always needed on people topics. For example, digital can help to match jobs to people and people to jobs. If you need to hire a person, an algorithm can propose 10 names of candidates that could match your job description. That is a first great step and may even increase diversity as it looks at all profiles in a more unbiased way. But then human assessment is needed to add insights on top of what an algorithm can do. The human should make the decision, with the help of digital."
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There's a huge amount of HR tech solutions out there. How to find out which one you need?

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​"Good luck :=)...
Start with 'why', then filter solutions.
Do a few demo's.
Select one to test.
​Stop quickly
​or continue to scale-up..."
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What's your key learning from developing an in-house HR platform at Solvay?

​"It's a real "employee (experience) platform" built by employees for employees. It is a key enabler for our cultural transformation and to re-imagine the future of HR (with all trends you can read in many articles). It is also a fun team experience for employees to do this in an agile way. Of course there is more work to maintain the solution and ensure it remains up to date... Nothing is perfect !" 
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What skills do HR professionals need to build the future of work?

"Build and learn to use digital skills to your advantage. Once you get a hang of it, Digital HR will help you to free up time that you can spend on getting closer to the business and on real 1on1 interactions with people: coaching, mentoring, ... Use Digital HR and People Analytics wisely and be a real talent leader for the business."
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What are your predictions for the future of HR Analytics?

​"I hope we use analytics as enabler to support our human decisions.  I also hope we never rely solely on analytics because it's also full of biases (eg reproducing same type of leaders, predictions based on just historical data,...). A combination of human and analytics/ digital is what works best."
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Are you an HR professional eager to get started or to get deeper into Digital HR and HR Analytics?
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Join our  2-day masterclass Digital HR and HR Analytics with theoretical frameworks, tools and immediate application to HR cases. Brought to you by Bruce Fecheyr-Lippens, expert in this field.