The Future Of HR Tech
HR Technology has evolved rapidly over the last 20 months with an increasing need for businesses to enable ease of working for their employees while ensuring business continuity. A Fortune Business Insights report suggests that the global HR Tech market will prosper from $24.4 billion in 2021 to $35.66 Billion by 2028.
HR functions are now equipped with tools that are built on technologies like Artificial Intelligence, Deep Learning, Augmented Analytics and more. They are fortified to take control of the endless complexities of people management with better actionable insights into enhancing employee experiences, supporting hybrid workforce, improving productivity, and helping employees with their wellbeing.
I strongly believe that a lot of organizations must adopt AI-based applications that will track employee mood, the value they have been adding to their work, their stretch assignments, overtime, time spent with family, favorite hobbies, recreational activities and other factors to analyze and tell when a particular employee needs a break or predict when an employee may experience a burnout.
With an unending focus on enabling an Agile HR model, below are several important HR Tech trends of the future that will make a difference:
1. Technology helps Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion thrive.
I opine that innovative Artificial Intelligence-based SaaS applications that are driven by smart data and futuristic behavioral analytics will overthrow traditional people management practices.
To create and sustain more inclusive processes for talent acquisition and management and eliminate affinity, cognitive, confirmation, and attribution biases, organizations will invest a lot in software that will provide actionable insights about how the leaders are including diverse perspectives into decision making and how transparent they are with their team members.
2. Transforming Total Rewards with Technology
According to a study by LifeWorks, 50% of employees will leave an organization for better wellbeing support – an important facet of employee management in this era.
HR teams are investing in Augmented Analytics to understand the need for each of their employees and customizing Total Rewards. While the overarching benefit could be the same, the option for customizing rewards and benefits to one’s individual needs is a must. For example, we saw many organizations deploy applications for employees to register for on-site/off-site vaccinations for them and their families and getting nearly 90% of their employees vaccinated.
I believe that more analytics tools, SaaS software and AI-based chatbots will emerge in the next few years for helping HR personalize rewards and benefits and improve employee-employer association.
3. Digitizing Work-Life Balance
According to the ADP 'People at Work 2021: A Global Workforce View' study, the average amount of free overtime went up from 7.3 hours per employee to 9.2 hours during the COVID pandemic. To mitigate this, organizations are providing benefits like Privilege Holidays, hobby leaves, milestone leaves etc., but these won’t suffice.
I strongly believe that a lot of organizations must adopt automation to help relieve the recurring tasks for our workforce and allow them to focus on more value-adding work. This will help to develop careers, alleviate stress and improve time management at work. Such sustainable and cost-effective innovations will be helpful in improving employee experiences, productivity, and employee retention.
4. Automation in Payroll
I think that we will see more usage of AI and RPA in payroll in 2022, given its effectiveness during the COVID pandemic.
Automation in payroll is a blessing, considering the time it used to take to collate multiple payroll inputs. There are organizations, using automation, that can wait until 27th or 28th of a month to process the monthly pay or even run ‘Any-time pay’ for their employees, based on the working hours that they clock-in – all they have to do is make a request to get paid on demand.
5. Redefining HR Shared Services
Lately, we have been hearing a lot about organizations leveraging RPA and AI in HR Shared Services space to eliminate a lot of redundant tasks, thus, improving the quality of work. I wouldn’t be surprised to see comprehensive mobile applications integrated with AI-powered chatbot revolutionizing the future of the HRSS space.
For example, not many organizations today have BOTs that extract compliant bonus and overtime details from internal portals and email the same to the relevant stakeholders. Imagine the same happening through a mobile app, wherein, the talent acquisition employee selects a date range and hits ‘submit’ to get the required details without any errors – faster, easier, greater experience for all!
HR tech will boom through formal change management, thorough adoption, measure of business process improvements, and intelligent investments in technologies like conversational AI, Augmented Analytics, RPA and more, and I strongly opine that 2022 will be the year for this paradigm shift.
(The views expressed in this article have been solely penned by Dr. Vipul Singh, Divisional Vice-President and Head, HR, ADP India for BW People publication.)
