The emerging HR tech that is revolutionising business as we know it

What technology solutions are you using to hire and develop your employees? How well are these tools working for you and your HR team?

Technology is moving and changing rapidly in the HR landscape. And investing in contemporary tech solutions is an important part of efficient human resource management.

With the right technology, human resources professionals can work to greater understand a company’s biggest asset – its people. By keeping up-to-date with emerging HR tech, your human resources department will be able to greatly improve the way they’re recruiting, onboarding, training and managing employees.

Each new year brings further advancements in workplace technology, and we are currently seeing more exciting developments taking place in the HR space.

Here are some of the top emerging technology solutions for HR teams that are helping to revolutionise business as we know it.

The Ongoing Rise of Cloud-Based Solutions

Josh Bersin is founder of Bersin by Deloitte, a provider of global research in human resources and HR technology. Bersin has been analysing the HR tech market for almost 20 years and believes things are moving faster than ever in 2018.

Among the top disruptions in the HR sector are cloud-based solutions for human resource teams.

These days, “the question for most companies is no longer if you go to the cloud, but rather when and how,” Bersin says, with more and more organisations using cloud-based solutions such as HRMS (human resource management software) and HCM (human capital management) tools for payroll, onboarding, talent management, financial services and other ERP solutions.

Moving to cloud-based systems can provide organisations with greater collaboration, innovation and agility, while streamlining HR operations such as goal setting, coaching, feedback and evaluation.

Moving Towards Improved Productivity

Bersin also sees productivity to be the big topic in business today, as organisations embrace new tech tools that can help their teams achieve greater productivity.

“Burnout, focus, and employee engagement are all issues, and we are now dealing with email, messaging from many different systems, and a plethora of communication tools that overwhelm most of us,” Bersin says.

In response to this, he believes we’ll see more HR software emerging that’s been specifically created to improve productivity and help teams work better together.

David D’Souza, head of engagement at CIPD, agrees that there is some really interesting work being done in the partnership between human resources and technology.

“HR leaders need to become far, far more technology aware – outside of our traditional realms of HR systems – and start thinking about how technology can be used to support performance and reinforce culture,” he says.

Bringing Gamification to Human Resources

We’ve talked a lot about gamification in the workplace over the last year. And now we’re seeing it extend to the human resources space.

We know gamification technology has huge potential for changing the future of our workplaces, particularly when it comes to learning environments.

The application of gaming design psychology and principles to learning content has been shown to increase employee engagement and motivation, while encouraging individuals to hit learning goals faster.

Gamification is now being successfully adopted by HR teams to make recruitment, learning and development processes more fun, interactive and successful.

Automated Recruitment Tools and Chatbots

We will also see the recruitment process revolutionised by the next generation of screening technology being automated.

This new type of technology is being used to carry out the early stages of the interview process, through innovative use of chat bots, facial expression analysis and video interviewing.

“High volume recruitment (hospitality, services, healthcare, retail) is being automated by chatbots and other new tools; skilled job recruitment is being revolutionized by open sourcing tools, [and] more automated applicant tracking systems,” explains Birsin.

Chatbots have become increasingly popular across the customer service and marketing spaces, and they are now being successfully adopted by human resource departments.

D’Souza also believes that the use of chatbots will really take off over the next year.

“They have the potential to make real differences to the efficiency of HR teams whilst also improving speed – and potentially accuracy – of response for employees,” he says.

Companies spend billions each year on recruitment, so this development will certainly save businesses a considerable amount of time and money.

If you’re a HR manager, you should be constantly thinking about what avenues you can explore to improve the way you hire, onboard, train and manage staff. Having relevant, up-to-date technology solutions that are easily accessible is critical.

Keeping abreast of emerging developments in HR tech can help you improve your human resources strategy while bringing great benefits to the business and its employees.