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Going beyond HR digitisation how to redesign work for a more intelligent, future-ready workforce with ETHRWorld Carla Lanza and Anirban Dass
The next opportunity in digitising HR processes is rethinking how work gets done, empowering people and connecting technology investments why is this important to business outcomes?
A recent conversation with ETHRWorld Southeast Asia featuring insights from Carla Lanza, Chief People Officer at Maya Philippines, and Anirban Dass, Vice President – Payroll & Professional Services, APAC at Strada, focused on answering this topic.
Watch the full beyond HR digitising interview with Carla Lanza and Anirban Dass below
Reimangining how work gets done with HR automation and digtalisation
Digitalisation has helped organisations improve efficiency and simplify HR operations. However, the next phase of transformation goes beyond automating existing processes. It requires organisations to rethink how work gets done, where technology can add value and where human expertise remains essential.
For Maya Philippines, the evolution from a digital payments business into a digital bank highlighted the importance of anticipating future workforce capabilities and aligning HR strategy with business growth.
Drawing on its experience working with more than 3,000 clients, Strada sees a similar shift: organisations are looking beyond technology adoption to redesign workflows, improve workforce models and create better employee experiences.
How Chief Human Resource Officers roles are evolving from people leader to enterprise transformation partner?
As business needs evolve, HR leaders must look ahead and align workforce capabilities, organisational design and technology with enterprise priorities.
Carla Lanza emphasises the importance of anticipating business needs rather than responding only when new capabilities are required. This positions HR as a strategic partner in shaping organisational transformation.
Anirban Dass sees a similar evolution across organisations: the focus is shifting from implementing technology to understanding whether it is delivering meaningful business outcomes. Productivity, agility and better decision-making are becoming important measures of transformation success.
How AI helps augment human potential in the future of work
The conversation around AI often centres on job displacement. A more practical approach is to examine work task by task—identifying what can be automated, where AI can support employees and which activities require human judgement.
At Maya, this means preparing the workforce for changing business requirements and helping employees adapt to the evolving nature of work.
For organisations more broadly, this approach creates opportunities to reduce repetitive work while enabling people to focus on collaboration, innovation and higher-value responsibilities.
Turning AI into tangible productivity gains
AI is creating opportunities to simplify activities across HR and payroll. At Strada, applications such as payroll anomaly detection and candidate matching illustrate how technology can accelerate tasks that traditionally require significant manual effort.
The value extends beyond speed. By reducing administrative friction, organisations can free up capacity for workforce planning, employee relationships and more informed decisions.
Realising these benefits requires organisations to connect technology with well-designed processes, reliable data and clearly defined business outcomes.
Why does AI and technology transformation stall?
Technology alone cannot deliver lasting transformation. Leadership alignment, employee confidence and continuous learning are equally important to successful AI adoption.
Organisations need to treat AI as an ongoing capability rather than a one-time implementation, giving employees the support and skills needed to adapt as work evolves.
Ultimately, the next phase of HR transformation is about bringing people, processes and technology together to create more agile organisations and better business outcomes.
At Strada, we believe transformation creates its greatest value when technology simplifies complexity and empowers people to focus on what matters most. By combining intelligent technology with human expertise, organisations can move beyond digitisation to build a more strategic, connected and future-ready workforce.
