To keep you up-to-date on "what's next" in HR Technology, we asked HR leaders and business owners for their insights into what they felt was the coolest HR technology they've come across recently.
We received a wide-range of responses that covered everything including applicant tracking software, onboarding, sustainability, soft skills and more.
We whittled the list down to the top 13 Coolest HR Technologies You Need to Know About.
- AbsenceSoft, Compliance Software
- Organimi, a Visual Aid for Employee Data
- Uptime, a Micro-Learning App
- Talmundo, an Onboarding Experience
- Robotics, an Automation Aid
- People Intelligence Tools, an Evolving Field
- HiBob, an Information System
- ATS, a Promising Solution
- The Whole Self Model, a Sustainability Tool
- Pymetrics, a Behavioral Soft Skills Platform
- Culture Fit Assessment, a Workplace Preference Analyzer
- Eightfold, an AI-driven Talent Attractor
- Digital Identities, a Revolutionary Technology
AbsenceSoft, Compliance Software
I recently came across this compliance management software that looked interesting to me. AbsenceSoft helps businesses keep track of employee leave and removes the complexities around legal compliance.
It provides an improved solution to leave applications and takes away the complications around state and federal laws. This software ensures that the company focuses on its employees and supports them through their leave process. It brings automation, order and transparency to an otherwise tough problem—all while making the process ten times faster.
The application provides a great way to guarantee compliance with the FMLA and ADA laws. This process is generally time-consuming and incredibly critical for HR teams when done manually.
Antreas Koutis, Administrative Manager at Financer
Organimi, a Visual Aid for Employee Data
My company's HR team utilizes a program called Organimi as a visual aid for organizing employee information and data. Organimi is a program that builds fully customizable and interactive charts that display your company hierarchy and departments. It provides higher-ups an all-encompassing view of those working under them.
This allows leaders in large companies to put faces to names, more effectively plan projects and easily keep everyone in the loop regarding company announcements and developments.
Roy Morejon, President & Co-Founder of Enventys Partners
Uptime, a Micro-Learning App
Every HR and people leader I know should be using Uptime at their place of work. It's a micro-learning app that transforms all your favorite content into five-minute “Knowledge Hacks.” Best-selling books, popular podcasts, the best learning courses—you name it. Be smarter about anything in just five minutes.
This is important. It's cool to be smart, and who doesn't want to feed a curious workforce? But what I love most is the accessibility. Knowledge is power. Putting learning, information, communication and content into the hands of anyone, everyone, everywhere is key to serving the underserved, increasing skills, providing upward talent mobility and letting learning be anyone's passport to the future. I'm telling you, Uptime is the future of work.
Jess Von Bank, Head of Brand Strategy & Vendor Solutions at Leapgen
Talmundo, an Onboarding Experience
Human resource information system (HRIS) software is falling short when it comes to onboarding in automation, user experience and customization. Talmundo bridges these gaps by integrating with HR technology to build empowering, automated-onboarding employee journeys. The Talmundo platform offers a one-stop-shop during the employee's onboarding journey, and it can be customized all the way down to the position level, with automated content releases at various points throughout an employee's onboarding—starting on the day the job offer is signed!
An employee gets an email to log in to the platform where they can be welcomed with a video from their manager, hear the CEO tell them all about the company, explore each department, meet their company leaders and team members, see an onboarding timeline and checklist and more! With Talmundo, an extraordinary employee experience is at the center of onboarding, which provides employees with the clarity, positive engagement and company connection they need to thrive.
Kelsey Griffis, HR Executive Leader at Griffis Business Consulting
See our article on How Good Onboarding Can Reduce Employee Turnover
Robotics, an Automation Aid
People often assume that robots will replace manual work, when in fact, robotics are now mature enough to play a part in automating so-called white-collar work. And that's badly needed in a time where companies struggle to find workers and employees feel overwhelmed at work. Imagine if you could automate just 10% of a person's job—wouldn't that immediately relieve some of the hiring pressure, while allowing people to focus on activities that add value?
If you don't know if your company is running pilots, I strongly suggest you find out. Recent research shows that employees aren't afraid of robots replacing them. In fact, they would welcome their support to relieve them from low-value repetitive activities. It's a complete mindset change, and one you should take advantage of to make sure your HR team has time to deal with what's important—helping people use their talents in the most advantageous way.
Anita Lettink, Partner of Strategic Management Centre
People Intelligence Tools, an Evolving Field
We have come a long way from standard reports and even analytics. Over the past few months I have had a chance to look at all types of people intelligence technology, which harness the power of data in ways we could have only dreamed about less than a decade ago.
Some of the tools allow sentiment analysis and employee feedback through collaboration channels, which help you keep ahead of employee engagement and allows you to experience in real-time without surveys. Others can look at every detail of employees, skills and business growth plans and connect it back to business outcomes—identifying future hiring and development needs along with retention risk. The future of data isn't coming—it is already here.
Sarah White, CEO and Head of Research of Aspect43
HiBob, an Information System
A few weeks ago, I was so impressed by an HRIS that I literally clapped my hands with glee during the demo. HiBob is hands down the coolest piece of HR tech that I have come across, and I've come across quite a few during my two-decade-long career in HR. It is an extraordinarily customizable solution that is user-friendly and easy to learn. Without any training, I was able to find my way around the system and create a performance review and 9-Box. From the employee side, it is just as intuitive and has a great social community feel to it, which is very helpful with remote teams.
Tamica Sears, HR Consultant at Sears Coaching
ATS, a Promising Solution
The promise of applicant tracking systems (ATS) and talent management solutions to unleash the power of internal sourcing has largely remained unfulfilled. Despite the best of intentions, these systems—whether due to design complexity or user error—stay focused on the transactional nature of filling open requisitions or building employee profiles that will never be visited again.
The new generation of talent solutions hints at the ability to leverage AI and machine learning to better enable internal mobility and proactively match workers to projects based on skills, experience and learning agility. It remains to be seen whether organizations embrace the approach, and if these solutions can deliver what they promise over the long term, but it certainly is interesting to see the evolution.
Mary Faulkner, Principal of IA-HR
See our article on How Technology is Used in the Recruitment Process
The Whole Self Model, a Sustainability Tool
At SAP SuccessFactors, we see the opportunity to change the way that organizations think about talent development. Many organizations today face significant needs for reskilling and upskilling—and they simply can’t hire their way out of this problem. This begins with the Whole Self model, which goes beyond tracking people’s capabilities by understanding their strengths, styles and preferences to provide a more holistic view of each individual.
By understanding individuals more, it means we can provide them with talent development opportunities that are aligned to who they are and who they want to become in their career. This drives greater employee engagement—which means better outcomes for the business as well as more engaged employees who will be more productive and stay longer.
Meg Bear, President & Chief Product Officer at SuccessFactors
Pymetrics, A Behavioral Soft Skills Platform
Companies need to advance diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) by examining their policies, practices and procedures. Those that are looking to diversify their teams need to reexamine their hiring and recruitment processes to ensure they are equitable across the board. Recruiters typically review applicants through resumes, but studies have shown that this can lead to unconscious biases against women, the elderly and other underrepresented applicants. Companies need to invest in technology that can help reduce this barrier.
Our goal at Kanarys is to transform DEI work with data and technology, and we know that is how we’ll solve the inequities in the workplace.
For our clients whose data reveals a need to focus on the hiring process, we recommend Pymetrics. Their talent matching platform solves for inequities in recruitment. Their behavioral data and audited algorithms help eliminate unconscious bias from archaic resume reviews by measuring an individual's true skills potential and match such a person with the best-fit job.
Star Carter, Co-founder, Chief Operating Officer (COO), and General Counsel at Kanarys, Inc.
Culture Fit Assessment, a Workplace Preference Analyzer
The coolest HR tech that I’ve come across recently is what we’ve built at Workzinga! Our Discover platform features a scientifically validated Culture Fit Assessment, which is designed to indicate to both the candidate and the company if they will be a good culture fit for each other.
Developed by organizational psychologists and tech wizards, the technology allows candidates and employers to consider each other based on key motivations, leadership preferences, personality, values and job preferences. Available on web and mobile, we built the platform based on a 2,500-person survey about workplace preferences and motivations.
Dan Hunter, Founder of Workzinga
Eightfold, an AI-driven Talent Attractor
Eightfold stands out in terms of how it is changing the landscape, expectations and narrative around skills and the use of AI technology in HR. Accurate and unbiased AI-driven, skills-based role calibration and candidate recommendation is revolutionizing the candidate experience and quality of equitable hires. For employees, enabling smart skills profiling and assessment experiences markedly advances employee engagement and learning-culture ambitions.
Marc Starfield, Group Head of HR Systems and Programmes at Vodafone
Digital Identities, a Revolutionary Technology
The introduction of digital identities and digital wallets is one of the coolest HR technologies that is altering the hiring landscape. Digital identities and digital wallets allow individuals to store their information digitally, so various identity elements can easily be retrieved and shared.
When individuals are in control of how their identity elements and credentials are shared—from their professional licenses to education to work history—this shifts the dynamics from employers requesting information to individuals easily and quickly sharing information in a digital way. This groundbreaking technology reduces errors from typos and misspellings, improves hiring speed and transforms the relationship between individuals and companies.
Taylor Liggett, General Manager at Sterling Identity
If you'd like to see these and other technologies in action, register for the HR Technology Conference and Exposition
