Driving HR Innovation
An Executive Interview with Jay Xiao
Driving HR Innovation
An Executive Interview with Jay Xiao
In today’s rapidly evolving digital environment, staying ahead of technological developments and proactively embracing transformation has become crucial for enterprises. Digital transformation in HR is key to improving efficiency, reducing costs, and unlocking internal drivers for business growth. So how can companies actively adapt to changing industry trends? How can they harness new technologies to drive innovation in HR management?
To explore these pressing questions, we are honored to have Mr. Jay Xiao, CEO and Managing Partner of Digital&, share his perspectives and insights.
In today’s rapidly evolving digital environment, staying ahead of technological developments and proactively embracing transformation has become crucial for enterprises. Digital transformation in HR is key to improving efficiency, reducing costs, and unlocking internal drivers for business growth. So how can companies actively adapt to changing industry trends? How can they harness new technologies to drive innovation in HR management?
To explore these pressing questions, we are honored to have Mr. Jay Xiao, CEO and Managing Partner of Digital&, share his perspectives and insights.
Q1: As digital technologies continue to reshape our lives, they are also transforming the way HR operates. While the digital wave has arrived in the workplace, many traditional enterprises still face significant resistance when it comes to HR transformation. What are your recommendations for overcoming these challenges?
Q1: As digital technologies continue to reshape our lives, they are also transforming the way HR operates. While the digital wave has arrived in the workplace, many traditional enterprises still face significant resistance when it comes to HR transformation. What are your recommendations for overcoming these challenges?
Jay: First, we must recognize that any business transformation will inevitably face varying degrees of challenges, and HR digitalization is no exception. Therefore, we should approach it from two dimensions: transformation methodology and HR business models.
It is essential to establish a unified, top-down vision for HR digitalization. Digital HR is not merely a technical issue, nor is it just moving offline processes online or upgrading existing systems. Regardless of the current level of digital adoption within the organization, or the advanced tools available in the market, enterprises must start from their business objectives. They should seize the opportunity of digital transformation to break away from old habits, deeply understand business strategies, innovate processes, and reshape HR management and operations. By leveraging technology, they can build new HR digital capabilities and cultivate digital leadership and organizational capacity.
Within the HR team, it's crucial to define leadership responsibilities across business lines. HR leaders should champion the digital transformation journey by fostering a shared understanding of digital goals, challenges, and roadmaps. They must build a leadership team truly capable of driving digital execution. Based on clear objectives and roadmaps, they should integrate HR and technical teams to form an agile digital organization responsible for effective HR digitalization.
Planning holistically and implementing step by step is vital. Start by designing a future-oriented HR capability framework and operational process, aligned with business priorities. Typically, this begins with core HR capabilities, laying a solid foundation for operations before expanding into talent development and data analytics to build an end-to-end integrated HR platform. From a technology perspective, enterprises should start with a secure, stable foundational platform that supports process and data collaboration, then progressively adopt intelligent tools and technologies to achieve continuous upgrades. Ultimately, the transformation roadmap should address critical pain points quickly to deliver short-term wins, build long-term confidence, and ensure sustainable progress on the digital HR journey.
Jay: First, we must recognize that any business transformation will inevitably face varying degrees of challenges, and HR digitalization is no exception. Therefore, we should approach it from two dimensions: transformation methodology and HR business models.
It is essential to establish a unified, top-down vision for HR digitalization. Digital HR is not merely a technical issue, nor is it just moving offline processes online or upgrading existing systems. Regardless of the current level of digital adoption within the organization, or the advanced tools available in the market, enterprises must start from their business objectives. They should seize the opportunity of digital transformation to break away from old habits, deeply understand business strategies, innovate processes, and reshape HR management and operations. By leveraging technology, they can build new HR digital capabilities and cultivate digital leadership and organizational capacity.
Within the HR team, it's crucial to define leadership responsibilities across business lines. HR leaders should champion the digital transformation journey by fostering a shared understanding of digital goals, challenges, and roadmaps. They must build a leadership team truly capable of driving digital execution. Based on clear objectives and roadmaps, they should integrate HR and technical teams to form an agile digital organization responsible for effective HR digitalization.
Planning holistically and implementing step by step is vital. Start by designing a future-oriented HR capability framework and operational process, aligned with business priorities. Typically, this begins with core HR capabilities, laying a solid foundation for operations before expanding into talent development and data analytics to build an end-to-end integrated HR platform. From a technology perspective, enterprises should start with a secure, stable foundational platform that supports process and data collaboration, then progressively adopt intelligent tools and technologies to achieve continuous upgrades. Ultimately, the transformation roadmap should address critical pain points quickly to deliver short-term wins, build long-term confidence, and ensure sustainable progress on the digital HR journey.
Q2: Digitalization of HR plays a pivotal role in helping enterprises keep pace with technological advancements and productivity demands. Beyond simply moving HR processes online, what is the true purpose and value of HR digitalization?
Q2: Digitalization of HR plays a pivotal role in helping enterprises keep pace with technological advancements and productivity demands. Beyond simply moving HR processes online, what is the true purpose and value of HR digitalization?
Jay: From our extensive experience working with numerous enterprises, HR digitalization must align with business strategies. It requires a deep understanding of strategic goals, a rethinking of HR management systems, and a reimagining of operational models. By doing so, organizations can build capabilities, standardize management and services, and achieve end-to-end integration from strategy to processes.
Business Transformation:
Align HR transformation with business strategy and industry best practices. Redesign organizational capabilities, operational models, and process systems to support future strategic objectives.
Operational Excellence:
Build a unified, standardized HR platform to digitize and automate HR operations end-to-end, improving efficiency and service quality.
Decision-Making Empowerment:
Standardize data and break down silos between HR modules and other systems. Enable cross-business data sharing and advanced analytics, enriching organizational and talent profiles and enhancing decision-making capabilities.
Employee Empowerment:
Design processes and experiences centered around employees. Provide convenient self-service applications, extend flexible business functionalities for HR users, and empower management with comprehensive process visibility and multi-dimensional decision support.
Jay: From our extensive experience working with numerous enterprises, HR digitalization must align with business strategies. It requires a deep understanding of strategic goals, a rethinking of HR management systems, and a reimagining of operational models. By doing so, organizations can build capabilities, standardize management and services, and achieve end-to-end integration from strategy to processes.
Business Transformation:
Align HR transformation with business strategy and industry best practices. Redesign organizational capabilities, operational models, and process systems to support future strategic objectives.
Operational Excellence:
Build a unified, standardized HR platform to digitize and automate HR operations end-to-end, improving efficiency and service quality.
Decision-Making Empowerment:
Standardize data and break down silos between HR modules and other systems. Enable cross-business data sharing and advanced analytics, enriching organizational and talent profiles and enhancing decision-making capabilities.
Employee Empowerment:
Design processes and experiences centered around employees. Provide convenient self-service applications, extend flexible business functionalities for HR users, and empower management with comprehensive process visibility and multi-dimensional decision support.
Q3: Based on your years of experience in HR digitalization, what common challenges or pitfalls do enterprises face during transformation? How have you addressed these in practice?
Q3: Based on your years of experience in HR digitalization, what common challenges or pitfalls do enterprises face during transformation? How have you addressed these in practice?
Jay: From our perspective, there are several critical challenges to realizing the full value of HR digitalization:
Strategic Alignment:
Enterprises often focus too heavily on current strategies, neglecting future market competitiveness. A forward-looking approach is crucial, taking into account industry policies, market dynamics, and long-term goals to prioritize digital initiatives effectively.
Organizational Capability Building:
It’s not enough to assess existing organizational gaps and talent profiles. Companies must anticipate future strategic needs, plan organizational structures, and develop talent pipelines aligned with future capabilities.
Operational Model Design:
Beyond analyzing existing HR functions and workflows, enterprises should design future-ready HR service models and process systems (such as shared services centers), based on evolving organizational needs.
User Experience:
Focusing solely on interface convenience and replicating existing processes is insufficient. User experience must be redefined with process coordination, compliance, and data governance in mind.
Technology Implementation:
Enterprises should focus on comprehensive needs — processes, functions, interfaces, and permissions — while prioritizing data architecture. Ensuring data integrity and shareability enables robust analytics and informs strategic decisions.
Jay: From our perspective, there are several critical challenges to realizing the full value of HR digitalization:
Strategic Alignment:
Enterprises often focus too heavily on current strategies, neglecting future market competitiveness. A forward-looking approach is crucial, taking into account industry policies, market dynamics, and long-term goals to prioritize digital initiatives effectively.
Organizational Capability Building:
It’s not enough to assess existing organizational gaps and talent profiles. Companies must anticipate future strategic needs, plan organizational structures, and develop talent pipelines aligned with future capabilities.
Operational Model Design:
Beyond analyzing existing HR functions and workflows, enterprises should design future-ready HR service models and process systems (such as shared services centers), based on evolving organizational needs.
User Experience:
Focusing solely on interface convenience and replicating existing processes is insufficient. User experience must be redefined with process coordination, compliance, and data governance in mind.
Technology Implementation:
Enterprises should focus on comprehensive needs — processes, functions, interfaces, and permissions — while prioritizing data architecture. Ensuring data integrity and shareability enables robust analytics and informs strategic decisions.
Q4: With rising labor costs and advancing technologies, adopting intelligent digital employees can significantly enhance enterprise value. How should companies implement digital employees, and what key factors should they consider?
Q4: With rising labor costs and advancing technologies, adopting intelligent digital employees can significantly enhance enterprise value. How should companies implement digital employees, and what key factors should they consider?
Jay: Digital employees are the result of over a decade of successful digital transformation practice at Digital&. First, it’s important to understand their positioning:
Digital employees are the embodiment of HR digitalization and a long-term strategic goal. While initial HR digitalization focuses on managing human employees, the ultimate evolution is to digitize the workforce itself.
Unlike traditional HR tools, digital employees do not serve only HR functions — they support all business operations, replacing roles previously performed by human employees across various departments.
Compared to RPA (Robotic Process Automation), which focuses on automating individual process steps, digital employees are role-centric. Leveraging technologies such as RPA, APIs, and AI, they automate entire roles, delivering more comprehensive and intelligent business capabilities.
Digital&’s have successfully deployed across industries such as real estate, finance, and retail, helping leading enterprises transform operations and reduce costs by over 50%. To ensure successful implementation, companies should focus on:
Digital Maturity:
Digital employees thrive in an information-rich, digital environment. The higher the level of digitalization within the enterprise, the more scenarios and processes digital employees can manage, driving greater value.
Comprehensive Planning:
Take a holistic view to identify potential roles for digital employees. The more roles identified, the better the scale effect, which reduces repetitive deployment costs and optimizes processes for higher efficiency.
Continuous Improvement:
Like human employees, digital employees require ongoing training and adaptation. As organizational structures and business needs evolve, enterprises should establish dedicated teams to maintain and enhance digital employees, enabling them to quickly acquire new skills and adapt to new roles.
Building on extensive practical experience, Digital& has developed a standardized implementation methodology called EDGE. Drawing from successful cases across industries and roles, this framework empowers enterprises to rapidly identify, develop, and deploy digital employees, ensuring alignment with their digital transformation strategy and quality standards.
Jay: Digital employees are the result of over a decade of successful digital transformation practice at Digital&. First, it’s important to understand their positioning:
Digital employees are the embodiment of HR digitalization and a long-term strategic goal. While initial HR digitalization focuses on managing human employees, the ultimate evolution is to digitize the workforce itself.
Unlike traditional HR tools, digital employees do not serve only HR functions — they support all business operations, replacing roles previously performed by human employees across various departments.
Compared to RPA (Robotic Process Automation), which focuses on automating individual process steps, digital employees are role-centric. Leveraging technologies such as RPA, APIs, and AI, they automate entire roles, delivering more comprehensive and intelligent business capabilities.
Digital&’s have successfully deployed across industries such as real estate, finance, and retail, helping leading enterprises transform operations and reduce costs by over 50%. To ensure successful implementation, companies should focus on:
Digital Maturity:
Digital employees thrive in an information-rich, digital environment. The higher the level of digitalization within the enterprise, the more scenarios and processes digital employees can manage, driving greater value.
Comprehensive Planning:
Take a holistic view to identify potential roles for digital employees. The more roles identified, the better the scale effect, which reduces repetitive deployment costs and optimizes processes for higher efficiency.
Continuous Improvement:
Like human employees, digital employees require ongoing training and adaptation. As organizational structures and business needs evolve, enterprises should establish dedicated teams to maintain and enhance digital employees, enabling them to quickly acquire new skills and adapt to new roles.
Building on extensive practical experience, Digital& has developed a standardized implementation methodology called EDGE. Drawing from successful cases across industries and roles, this framework empowers enterprises to rapidly identify, develop, and deploy digital employees, ensuring alignment with their digital transformation strategy and quality standards.
Interview Notes
In the era of new economies and organizations, HR digitalization is no longer optional — it is essential for business success. By enabling smarter collaboration, improving productivity, enhancing employee experiences, and fostering organizational vitality, enterprises can stay competitive in a fast-changing world.
Digital& remains committed to helping companies elevate their organizational effectiveness and empower digital employees as they pursue the vision of becoming intelligent enterprises.
In the era of new economies and organizations, HR digitalization is no longer optional — it is essential for business success. By enabling smarter collaboration, improving productivity, enhancing employee experiences, and fostering organizational vitality, enterprises can stay competitive in a fast-changing world.
Digital& remains committed to helping companies elevate their organizational effectiveness and empower digital employees as they pursue the vision of becoming intelligent enterprises.