Technophobes have feared that technology would take away jobs, since a very long time. The truth is, in any case, technology is not actually taking away jobs, but instead giving businesses the ability to do more with the same number of employees. In fact, technology investments can actually help increasing revenue, which gives companies the capability to recruit more employees instead of laying them off.

Human Resource is one of those industries which doesn’t quite make its way into the book of science fiction, and hardly some kids grow up thinking of revolutionizing the technology inside this particular industry. Traditionally, Human Resource was always seen as a paper-intensive, non-innovative area, where salary decisions are made and conveyed, individuals are hired or fired and where team building sessions are organized. But behind the scenes, the industry is changing and integrating technology at a very rapid pace, even if it wasn’t designed for HR in the start. HR technology can be leveraged by growing businesses precisely to develop and strengthen their practices, often at very little cost. In 2019, 45% of large companies and 51% of mid-sized businesses said that they plan on increasing their spending on HR technology, according to Sierra-Cedar.

A technology boom that is fundamentally reshaping the manner in which the HR industry works and how it thinks. As per the reports presented by The HR Federation known as ‘2019 HCM Trends report‘, global HR technology venture capital has topped $3.1 billion this year, more than triple the amount invested in 2017. While there is a range of technologies, some of the most interesting and disruptive examples are powered by AI and automation.

So, let’s have a look at the reasons behind the constant increase of technology in the Human Resource Industry.

The effective talent acquisition process

Searching and onboarding new employees is one of the most laborious and time-consuming tasks that HR professionals have to do particularly if they are not doing it effectively. If they are not finding and recruiting the right candidate the first time around, they just have to keep doing it again and again until they get it right. Finding the right candidate can be a challenge, however, because, in reality, traditional screening methods give you very little information about an individual to go on before making such a crucial decision.

Resumes and even interviews just give a snapshot look of the complete potential of an individual, when you really require a 360-degree view. Personal biases will also always play a strong role in the recruitment process, no matter how hard we try to recognize and eradicate them. Machine learning and Artificial Intelligence, however, can help in overcoming any number of these issues. AI can screen candidates on the basis of temperament as well as a skillset to find candidates that have both the skills and the right traits to fit in with your corporate culture.

Efficient Compliance Management

Keeping up with compliance, a moving target within the HR space, impacts employers of almost all sizes. And as compliance continues to become more complicated, antiquated systems for staying on the right side of the law are being replaced by technology-driven solutions that can simplify success in decreasing legal exposure. Better compliance management is a tough task and if done correctly it also eases the functions of human resource management and also enhances the performance of HR executives.

Laws and regulations are constantly changing and frequently need vast amounts of paperwork and information. Compliance once required organization and dedicated IT storage capacity, however, cloud-based solutions have streamlined the process. Technologies continue to improve and labour laws evolve and companies will progressively turn to technology to navigate complex and sometimes politically charged compliance issues.

HR Analytics for employee performance improvement

Technology is being touted as a key enabler that Human Resource department is now considering to predict employee performance. Analytics is one such tool that can help organizations in predicting the performance of employees on the basis of historical and real-time data. It provides both retroactive as well as forward-looking analysis.

Analyzing employee performance used to depend on personal assessments and obvious standards such as Did the employee complete the task on time? Does their manager trust them? etc.

Technology makes it easier to collect and break down data on employees to get an overall picture. Which tasks do they perform best? Do they accomplish all the goals from last year’s performance appraisal? If they fell short, was it by 12%, 50% or 75%? Software programs can also take over much of the work in evaluating employees.

Predictive analytics can be applied to the workforce to recognize traits/patterns that account for bad or good performance on an employee and team basis. Since analytics is a combination of powerful mathematical algorithms, it also gives objective insight into their work preferences and the factors that drive their performance. HR analytics is a very important and widely used tool in the HRTech service market.

Enhance employee satisfaction

Technology is being widely used to better educate and train the employees to prepare them for advancement, but it can also help you in better managing their progress. There might not be anything more frustrating for an employee than expending the time and energy to learn a new skill set only to have it sit unused and unacknowledged.

Modern human resource functions are able to help managers effectively analyze and predict employee requirements accurately and track progress far more effectively to help essentially improve productivity and increase job satisfaction overall. Technology can help managers better recognize quietly consistent top performers that might otherwise slip under the radar as well as permits employees themselves to single out their peers for praise.

Better Time Management

Talent management software can automate any time-consuming manual processes which will allow you to concentrate on more productive and significant work. If your organization has a decent number of employees, you will find it difficult to manage their records on paper. Finding even the most basic details such as how many leaves are available for a particular employee can be a complete nightmare, but if you have an HR management tool in place, it will empower you to automate basic processes like employee self-service, training/learning, sick leaves and leave allowance.

It can additionally streamline workflows to improve overall work management and productivity. In this manner, an HR management platform can save you ample time, which can help you in better strategizing things.

Conclusion

The best HR professionals are empathetic and truly dedicated to solving the problems of their employees. A tech-based solution can’t replace this process completely. As it is said, adopting technology can make HR managers more informed and empathetic, and simplify the process of human resources management.

It’s also a great time for buying as well as selling HR software today, lots of options available and they are all getting better to best serve their clients during this pandemic.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Aashish Yadav
Content Writer, Martech Cube
Aashish is currently a Content writer at Martech Cube. He is an enthusiastic and avid writer. His key region of interests include covering different aspects of technology and mixing them up with layman ideologies to pan out an interesting take. His main area of interests range from medical journals to marketing arena.