Investing in HR Technology to harness employee talent
Human resources by definition is a people profession, and it is people who drive businesses, yet this very human and personal industry appears completely at ease with the new age of digitization.
Today HR technology delivers a competitive edge for employers in the battle to attract and retain top talent. HR’s new mandate is to enable employees, guide managers, and leverage artificial intelligence and analytics to make the most of workforce talent while connecting people and the workplace technology.
More and more business leaders no longer see HR as an administrative function or a support function, but as a line function or even a strategic partner, the company relies on to deliver quality to its customers, especially when workforce is starting to return to workplaces after a long work-from-home haul.
If “necessity is the mother of invention”, the COVID-19 pandemic forced many organizations around the world to rethink and accelerate their digital transformation journeys leading to increased investments in HR technology.
With advanced technology making manual HR tasks obsolete, HR leaders now have the opportunity to permanently change how they approach their craft. For the human resources function technology is used to attract, hire, retain and maintain talent, support workforce administration, and optimize workforce management.
Game Changing Technologies
New technology helps in responding to the emergency with agility. Business continuity plans are brought into action and measures are undertaken to ensure the protection of all stakeholder groups.
So what are the tools that new technology provides to the HR manager? Automated recruitment and hiring processes is one. Talent analytics, enhanced recruitment applications, and mobile workforce integration application are some of the other many used tools. Then there are the chatbots for HR communications.
The IT and Digital teams too played a major role in tackling the challenges of COVID-19. It enabled secure and productive work-from-home options for employees, provided seamless remote operations of key systems and transactions, provided market intelligence and sales dashboards.
Automation and other digital tools also ensured employees work more efficiently. They also free up senior management time and help focus energy on managing the workforce.
With most of the employees working from home, companies came up with innovative interactive sessions to engage with them and families using technology.
Portals, where employees could register for a fun interaction, a virtual- crèche, summer and winter camp, were among the few interventions to engage the families and give employees some free time to be with themselves.
Competitive Advantages
The ongoing investments in HR technology, time has proved is not just essential for the growth of the company and its employees but to also save resources.
For example, with the coronavirus dramatically changing how work is done, HR leaders have had to spend the past year strategizing their organization’s responses to the pandemic. But it’s not just gathering new data about these changes that are so important but what they do with it is critical.
Therefore, investment in people analytics and artificial intelligence are key for not just insights, but action as well. As companies across the country consider reopening their workplaces, they have to be making decisions based on the ongoing situation.
With limited resources, HR needs to leverage technology to manage employee health, vaccination details and schedules and safety tracking quickly at scale, while keeping mental wellbeing on top of mind.
COVID-19 has not only reinforced the importance of up-skilling and reskilling, but it has also accelerated the adoption of digital learning solutions to make this happen.
Companies were able to continue their functional capability programs supplemented with the centrally-run virtual training on POSH, ABAC, Ethics, D&I, etc. Migrating to an integrated HRMS (human resource management system) solution made everyday tasks easier.
With such wide application of digital HR tools, investing in these technologies it isn’t just about a decision about costs and mitigating risk anymore. In the new era, it must also be aligned with the organization’s long-term strategy, provide competitive advantage and assist in managing attrition.
Winning With Talent
The debate around HR tech revolution is no more about job displacement, and machines taking over humans. It is, in fact, the age of human empowerment with technology. In a true sense, the role of technology has evolved to enabling efficiency, productivity, and developing people to reach their full potential. There is a growing focus on employee experience and employee-employer relations.
HR technology today prioritizes restructuring in line with organizational transformation and operational synergies. Building capacities to scale up new business through new hiring and internal capability development, making it play a pivotal role in the future of talent acquisition, retention, and growth.
Technology has enabled smoother employee experiences leading to a healthier workplace, nourishing trust amongst employees, and helping productivity. It also contributes to a positive financial impact on company bottom lines and hastens moves towards strategic corporate goals.
