As we enter the last quarter of the year 2020, it has become abundantly clear that the COVID-19 has disrupted every industry. Traditional ways of working have become things of past and the HR department is seeing an increased pressure to embrace the latest technologies in their day to day activities.
From quick and easy onboarding of new employees to automating the entire employee documentation, technology is expeditiously advancing and reforming the way HR professionals work.
Here are five emerging HR technologies that will drive the future of Human Resource profession:
1. Artificial Intelligence (AI)
Artificial Intelligence enhances your work to be more focused and strategic, opposite to the earlier concerns that it devalues human work. AI and humans can work together to achieve increased efficiency, with the machines doing the mundane tasks, while humans working more on the cognitive part.
Top industry experts believe that in next few years, more than 50 percent of organizations world-wide will use HR technologies that will provide them with daily recommendations and employee insights based on AI.
Highly advanced AI based chatbots are already proving their effectiveness through automation of monotonous tasks, communications, onboarding, training and other jobs previously done by HR professionals. Similarly, the AI algorithms are helping recruiters to understand which passive candidates are open to job change if given an opportunity.
Thus, AI technology properly implemented in organizations can help the HR team through efficient recruitment processes, reduced administrative tasks, improved employee onboarding and increased employee self-service options.
2. Prescriptive and predictive analytics
High employee turnovers can lead to millions of dollars of loss every year to the organizations. However, using prescriptive and predictive analytics this loss can be drastically reduced. Applying these analytics, HR departments can now amass tons of information that can help the organization to retain their employees.
In pure layman’s terms, the predictive analytics is used to find out future outcomes, using data from the past, while prescriptive analytics offers specific and actionable steps to solve any future issues.
In an organization, human resource professionals possess large quantity of employee data, that is usually managed using an HRIS (Human Resources Information System). Through the application of analytical technologies, organizations are able to gather, track and analyse employee’s recruitment, payroll, onboarding, training, work efficiency, etc. They are able to predict when an employee is seeking opportunities outside the company and can make productive decisions to retain employees, increase workforce engagement and achieve better business outcomes.
3. Cloud HRIS
Cloud based HRIS (Human Resources Information System) is used by an organization to store employee data on a single, secured online location. This data can be easily accessed by the company HR’s anywhere in the world and at any time instantly from an internet connected device.
The pandemic has forced many companies to increase remote working. More or less, this is going to be the new norm at least for some time now. The cloud based HRIS technology can play a vital role in managing the employee lifecycle across the geographies through co-working and co-performing.
HRIS on cloud helps organization in having reduced paper work, by storing files and documents related to employees safely on cloud and it is readily available to the HR at any time. In addition, this technology helps to keep employees connected through automated reminders of birthdays, anniversaries and work benefits, which otherwise would have been done manually by Human Resource team.
Organizations should start investing in the cloud based HRIS technologies to ensure greater flexibility, less downtime, speedy updates and greater innovation.
4. Virtual Reality (VR)
Virtual Reality is a trending technology that is reshaping the way HR professionals work. Although, VR may sound like a technology of the future for HR professionals, it is indeed being used by few of the companies for their hiring and training programs.
HR mangers can use the VR technology to improve their workforce productivity and communication. It can be used to serve all the HR functions from seeking potential candidates, to hiring and onboarding them to new jobs and roles.
Some of the biggest advantages of implementing VR into HR team includes the following:
- The candidates can be given a better sense of an organisation’s workspace and culture even before joining the company
- Using this technology, onboarding process can be cost-effective as it’s easily scalable and independent of geographical location
- Both in-office and remote employees can have an enriched training using this technology
- As the companies are now preferring more remote working options, the VR technology can help in better employee engagement among remote teams.
Few companies have already started to interview candidates and test their aptitudes using the VR technology. For example, Toyota High System, a subsidiary of automotive company Toyota tied up with InstaVR and used the VR technology to create engaging virtual tours of their campus for the college hiring fares.
5. Mobile-first
The mobile apps have become so popular among the millennial generation that organizations are being forced to go mobile-first. The mobile revolution that we have seen in past few years is now more than just communication and entertainment. The technology used in these devices have become an inherent part of our workplace, as organizations as well as their workforce strive for increased efficiency, accessibility and flexibility.
According to internet world stats, the total mobile usage has already surpassed the desktop usage few years ago. As employees within an organisation usually communicate using their smartphones or other portable devices, these mobile devices have become extremely necessary for efficient communication during work.
Implementing mobile based HR apps or solutions has become more than a necessity for the HR team to manage their employees across different geographical locations.
Wrapping it Up
The digital revolution as well as the current COVID pandemic has changed the way human resource professionals perform their daily tasks. These unprecedented times demands for implementation of new HR technologies in organizations faster than ever before.
The 5 HR technologies discussed here will not only help to provide smooth working of the organization as well as the employees, but also help the businesses grow.
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