To help you take advantage of the new opportunities HR technology is creating, we asked HR professionals and Business leaders a simple question:
"What do you see as the biggest opportunity that HR technology provides HR right now?"
From making recruiting and retention more manageable to predicting the skills needed for tomorrow, there are several new opportunities that HR technology is opening up for HR leaders to exploit for the benefit of their organizations.
Here are 10 ways technology is creating new opportunities for HR Leaders:
- Makes Recruiting and Retention More Manageable
- Better Ability To Harness Data for Decision-Making
- Boosts Microlearning Initiatives
- Automate and Manage Workflows
- Drives a Continuous Improvement Mindset
- Transforms Raw Data Into Management Guidance
- Delivering Increased Value To The Organization
- Provides Sufficient Digital Workforce Experiences
- Gives Employees Access to Traditionally HR-Owned Information
- Predicts the Skills Needed for Tomorrow
The ten contributors dive deeper into these topics below. If you want to learn more about HR Technology and how it can improve your business, plan on attending the next HR Technology Conference.
Makes Recruiting and Retention More Manageable
One huge opportunity for HR teams is to leverage new and existing tools to support recruiting and retention efforts in a highly competitive talent market. As we stare down a possible recession, HR teams will be tasked with the incredibly stressful (but important) task of retaining employees with little resources. The key to doing this in a budget-friendly way is through personalization.
HR tech companies have the opportunity to make this administratively simple and affordable, satisfying both HR and finance teams. Helping HR personalize existing benefits packages - going beyond traditional offerings like health insurance, PTO, 401k, etc. - by adding perks is a very inexpensive way to give each unique employee what they actually want, which in turn boosts engagement.
Many studies have proven engaged employees are happier and more likely to stay at their companies. If HR tech can make retention one less obstacle for HR teams to overcome right now that’s a successful business strategy.
Amy Spurling, CEO and Founder of Compt
You might also like our article on Using Technology in Recruiting
Better Ability to Harness Data for Decision-Making
HR technology's evolution from clunky enterprise to consumer-grade products gives HR teams the power to harness their people's data to make better-informed decisions affecting the whole organization. HR has traditionally been the "feelings" or compliance department and was not bringing the same level of rigor that their business counterparts (i.e. sales, marketing) were bringing to the executive table. Now, HR teams can harness data through new tools and platforms that no longer require a team of data scientists to understand the story the numbers tell.
We are seeing more and more HR teams using data to make better decisions on what programs to invest in, which teams need more resources, how the company will grow in the next 12-18 months, and how teams feel about working in their companies. Data has upped the game for HR teams, giving them more power and leveling the conversation with their business counterparts.
Noah Warder, Head of People at Guusto
Boosts Microlearning Initiatives
Corporate learners simultaneously report a greater desire to upskill and less time to learn on the job than ever before. In a time of unprecedented job churn and skill gaps, facilitating employees' ability to learn in as frictionless a way as possible is the single largest opportunity for HR leaders.
While there are numerous options for how to reduce friction in learning, one leading solution type is that of microlearning. Microlearning centers around repeated small learning engagements that combat the "forgetting curve" while minimizing time input on the part of learners.
Microlearning tends to work in one of two ways: either directly injecting learning into messaging apps where learners spend their time, or as overlays in applications. By meeting learners where they are instead of making learners come to the learning (and all related time and effort barriers), HR can drive behavior change and feelings of value in employees.
Merrill Cook, Director of Brand and Content at Arist
You might also like our article on Learning Management Systems
Automate and Manage Workflows
Perhaps the biggest potential benefit of HR technology available to HR teams now is the opportunity to automate their workflows and the management of them. The use of Applicant Tracking Systems, (ATS), is already common but comprehensive Human Capital Management, (HCM), technology solutions can offer more.
New technology is emerging which empowers HR teams. Artificial intelligence combined with powerful analytics offer help with workforce planning, skills assessment, and proficiency evaluation. Internal candidates can be auto-matched to opportunities. Development needs within the current workforce can be identified and training matched to individuals automatically.
One of the biggest costs of recruitment is the potentially lengthy time it takes to onboard someone into the organization. New solutions are available that help streamline this and is customized to the individual. Even employee performance and engagement management can be improved through automation.
Wendy Makinson, HR Manager at Joloda Hydraroll
Drives a Continuous Improvement Mindset
HR technology plays an important role in driving a continuous improvement mindset. As business processes and product owners within their domain, HR can continuously enhance experiences for employees, leaders, and practitioners through enabling technologies.
These advancements create additional space for HR professionals to really focus on what matters to the organization -- improving the people's experience while further streamlining processes. It is encouraging to see HR adapting the continuous improvement mindset and utilizing technology to achieve not only their strategies and goals but those of the organization as well.
Kimberly Carroll, Managing Principal at IA
Transforms Raw Data Into Management Guidance
People are the business and the effect that people have on results is being felt everywhere. Executives and functional leaders are looking for HR to bring the insights that keep their teams focused, successful, and healthy.
The top priority business challenges relate to the right way to grow output and innovation, manage mobility, and deliver results while balancing costs. The raw data required to solve these challenges is available. The key opportunity today is investing in the technologies which transform the raw data into the management guidance that brings success.
Ian Cook, VP of People Analytics at Visier
Delivers Increased Value to the Organization
Digital technology provides HR organizations with a huge opportunity to deliver new levels of value to the organization. Hackett Group research reveals HR organizations delivering high levels of operational excellence and business value - referred to as Digital World Class (DWC) - lead the way in deploying digital technology.
For example, DWC have automated 76% more HR transactions than typical HR organizations, enabling each HR full-time equivalent to serve 67% more employees and the HR organization overall to operate at a 34% lower cost per employee. DWC are also 83% more likely to provide managers with direct access to data and analytics capabilities. This helps DWC to build stronger relationships with business leaders. For example, they are 63% more likely to be involved in business planning, and 19% more likely to be viewed as a partner by business stakeholders.
Tony DiRomualdo, Senior Research Director at The Hackett Group
Provides Sufficient Digital Workforce Experiences
Employers should be laser-focused on choosing HR technology that enables their workforce to do their best work. The right digital setup has the potential to attract and retain rising talent. Amidst the Great Resignation, this cannot be overlooked.
A recent survey we conducted found that many businesses are lacking in this area and nearly three-quarters (72%) of businesses are not providing sufficient digital workforce experiences for young workers. Technology has the power to attract rising talent who are expecting a consumer-like experience at work and are likely to leave if they don’t get it.
By making this a central part of your employees' experience, HR technology can help HR solve the mass recruitment issues faced by many businesses and keep young, fresh talent. This is a massive opportunity for HR teams and one not to be missed.
Duncan Casemore, Co-Founder and CTO at Applaud
Gives Employees Access to Traditionally HR-Owned Information
Over the last few years, the workforce has experienced immense transformation, and HR technology is pivotal to enabling the success of these changes. Life as we know it has changed completely - the way we work, how we work, and where we work.
Through HR technology we can enable efficiency and optimization for the end-user. For example, through Legion Technologies’ automated scheduling, earned wage access, workforce sharing and communication solutions, organizations who use Legion are empowering their employees with flexibility over their schedules, while streamlining the administrative processes for managers and HR teams alike.
Not only are we optimizing the experience for HR, Operations, and Management teams, we are putting ownership back into the hands of hourly employees. HR technology must solve real-life problems and when it does, it can completely transform our lives.
Traci Chernoff, Director of Employee Engagement at Legion Technologies
You might also like our article on Employee Self-Service Tools
Predicts the Skills Needed for Tomorrow
HR technology has now reached a point where organizations can automatically index and inventory the skill sets of tens of thousands of people in mere hours. Not only that, but HR can now harness the power of artificial intelligence to drive just-in-time insights about the skills landscape throughout the labor market and how it impacts the hiring, retention, and upskilling strategy.
Better still, organizations are going beyond understanding the skills of today, but are now able to predict the skills they will need tomorrow. There has never been a better time to be a data-driven HR organization. More important than data availability though, is the use of intelligent systems to interpret, process and consolidate this data into actionable insights, even across multiple data sources. If "data is the new gold" was the adage this past decade, we are moving into a world where intelligent, automated interoperability of that data is the new platinum.
Sergey Bukharov, Chief Customer Officer at SkyHive Technologies
