Keeping up to date with the latest trends in tech is essential for any business that wants to compete in today’s market. This applies to every industry, in Human Resources.
Numerous articles have covered the various advantages of integrating tech in our daily life. From using AI for home surveillance to using voice technology like Alexa and Siri to aid in general day to day practices.
In this piece, we’ll explore HR trends that’ll influence your business in 2020.
Tech trends
Research from the HR Federation found that in 2018, the amount spent on HR-related technology amounted to just over $3 billion, which is more than what was invested in 2017. This figure indicates that there is a gap in the market for tech-related systems to help the HR process. Some of the post popular trends include:
Remote team working
Although not a new trend, the popularity of flexible and remote working doesn’t look like it’s going to slow down soon. And why should it?
With the introduction of communication tools like Slack, Trello and holiday management tools, there’s no excuse for some organisations not to allow flexible working.
In the UK, the government has gone as far as making it a legal right for employees to be able to request flexible working. But the legislation doesn’t guarantee they’ll receive it, as there may be valid business reasons for refusal.
Employee wellbeing
It’s common knowledge the physical and mental wellbeing of your workforce has direct impacts on your organisation’s productivity and overall bottom line.
To help this, organisations are taking steps to help employees prevent burnout by caring for their staff’s physical and mental wellbeing. While physical wellbeing has always been the focus for company initiative, we’re now seeing a change to a focus on mental health.
For example, while many organisations provide Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) via Employee Assistance Programmes, a Research from the HR Federation is taking advantage of the growth in tech by offering digital CBT tools.
HR analytics
It involves using tech to analyse people. The aim is to use the results to improve performance, engagement and retention of your workforce.
With HR analytics, you can measure your overall employee turnover (employee churn analytics) to help you predict the future and reduce turnover rates.
Learning and development
Whether in our professional or private life, no one wants to be stagnant. This is why training is important for career development and progression.
Various organisations are investing in HR-related innovations in AI, VR, AR and gamification for employee training.
With these tools, employees can develop a personalised course where the can work at their own pace and with their own learning style. With the various training tools available, employers can monitor the development of their staff and gain insight into gaps in their skills.
Recruiting
Tech has already transformed the way HR professionals go about finding and filtering out potential candidates.
With the popularity of social media platforms like Twitter and Linkedin, HR professionals now have their job cut out for them. From finding CVs to background checks and everything in between, tech has transformed the entire recruitment lifecycle.
A popular tech now coming into the recruiting industry is the use of chatbots. While it can’t take over the whole recruiting process, it can help HR professionals save time by screening potential candidates.
Diversity, discrimination and inclusion
With the popularity of the #MeToo and Times up movements, curbing harassment and discrimination in the workplace is at the forefront of many company objectives.
To help with this, there are now tools employers can use to identify problems within the organisation. With it, they can train teams to understand how to work better and managers to efficiently identify and root out bias.
For example, a recruitment company Pymetrics use AI-driven tech to eliminate bias in the process with neurological assessments.
Conclusion
This in no way definitive list of technology-based trends in HR. There are numerous advances in tech that HR professionals can use to change the way that they contact employees and recruits, store files and analyse employee performance.
While some believe this increased focus on tech in the industry will remove the human from human resources, this isn’t quite the case. Integrating technology to HR efforts is in the benefit of the organisation, employees and potential recruits.
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