Navigating a maze: A round-up of HR tech that matters

The HR tech market, which is valued at $34 billion globally by 2021, will be driven by technologies that go beyond just transactional solution. The top-most widely used future-ready HR technologies will include enterprise human capital technologies. According to a snap poll on #HRTechThatMatters by PeopleStrong and PeopleMatters, adoption of human capital management technologies is already on the rise. 60% of the companies said they use agile HRIS with regular lifecycle updates and 51% use technologies to support unified employee experience.

According to the snap poll, 81% of the companies do not use AI-based tech to support their people processes. While a majority of the companies already use technologies that are capable of making regular employee lifecycle updates, there is an urgent need to ramp up future readiness by leveraging AI &ML based tools for support. An AI layer of intelligence will be a key factor in determining whether the technologies will be central to drive transformative change.

Learn how superior technologies drives business results by reading these three cases studies.

Why is AI in HR important?

Right from digital matchmaking i.e., recruiting the right person for the right job at the right time, to hyper personalizing career support – AI is transforming the world of work. It is helping companies identify early warning signs to identify slack or disengagement at the workplace, so they can take corrective action much earlier. AI-based tools are addressing various challenges across the employee lifecycle. Their application to HR technology is also definitively transforming employee experience. Here’s a quick round-up of the key dimensions of transformative change:

• • Recruitment is an area where technology has eased the hiring manager’s role. The hours spent shortlisting candidates have cut down significantly, so the focus in on having qualitative conversations. But the #HRTechThatMatters poll reveals that only less than half of the companies are using technology that can ease their work significantly.Taking the conversation on talent acquisition technology forward, a webinar was held where Kiran Kumar, Founding Member, and Chief Sales Officer, PeopleStrong; Naveen Narayanan, Talent Acquisition Lead for India & APAC, Sapient; Joyeeta Chatterjee, Executive Vice President – Human Resources at Punj Lloyd Group; and Madhu Raghunath, Head – HR and OC – TVS & Sons spoke on how to re-define your talent acquisition HR technology stack.
  • Learning and Development – While companies are providing on-demand learning resources, according to the snap poll, there is a huge opportunity in personalizing learning resources. Only 35% of those polled said they have access to personalized learning resources. And despite the buzz around providing accessible learning resources on a mobile device, 73% still have to have to make the shift. “With access to high-speed Internet, employees are able to garner information about what they need to excel in their work. The world is moving towards self-serve. Hence, learners will play a proactive role in crafting their learning agenda. While companies earlier invested in proprietary content, today, companies take advantage of the ‘limitless’ information that is already available – which means they are more likely to choose what is being consumed by a peer in a similar job context,” said Mrigank Tripathi, VP – SaaS at PeopleStrong.Find out how AI-based technology is transforming the world of learning. And what is the role of an L&D professional in addressing learning challenges?
  • Workforce management – A connected workplace is about embracing a cultural shift to create an open environment where employees are encouraged to share, innovate and collaborate virtually. “In a webinar on the topic of collaboration at the workplace, Suresh Mani, Head HR Ops, and Shared Services, Aditya Birla Capital noted that ever since the company leveraged conversational interfaces, it has seen an increase in productivity. With an employee size of 14,000, with over 600 branches around the country, these platforms are used to run HR campaigns from any of the locations. Ever since the financial services company leveraged a messaging app, it has reduced the response time significantly. It has boosted connectivity among a disbursed workforce and has improved the effectiveness of discussions.”The snap poll results show that there is a need to recognize the change in the workplace. The modern-day workforce is diverse and distributed – employees come from various backgrounds, geographies, and most importantly, mindsets. In this business context, there is a pressing need to create a ‘connected enterprise’ – one that is productive, and high performing.

Here’s a video of Aditya Birla Capital’s journey.

In Summary:

While the case for using HR technology is clear, it about time we learn how to plan and drive HR tech strategy goals. Here is a handy reference tool-kit to help you plan, define and execute your goals:

A checklist to assess the future readiness of your HR tech

How to plan a digital HR roadmap – Lessons from BankBazaar’s journey

Implementing HR Tech – Do’s and Don’ts you need to know

Understand the role of HR and IT in the digital transformation maturity curve

This article was published on People Matters