The Practical Guide to Digital Transformation with HR Technology
Introduction
HR transformed through technology
Today, the face of HR is looked at as a portal rather than a person. In today’s day and age, almost every company is offering universal access to HR services via technology and the internet – a computer application that dramatically changes HR practices management. These changes often employ cost savings and extend or improve the service. According to a recent survey, organizations that adopt sophisticated HR technology tools outperform their counterparts.
The reason HR technology is being embraced by organizations are:
- Organizations need to streamline processes to reduce administrative stress.
- Reduce administration and compliance costs.
- Improve data accessibility for employees and managers.
- Have real-time metrics and analytics to help decision-makers monitor trends and manage the workforce more efficiently.
- Help HR play a more pivotal strategic role in the organization.
HR technology or e-HR is the transformation of HR services from a manual operation to delivery using web-based technologies. While the implementation of HR technologies is an important one, it requires a fundamental shift in the way HR professionals look at their roles. HR technology pushes HR personnel towards mastering traditional HR knowledge and skills with the ability to apply that very knowledge through technology.
Cloud HR Solutions
One of the key changes that HR technologies have brought in is the democratization of data. Today’s organizations are looking at ensuring everyone in the organization has access to key data, which was otherwise restricted to the HR personnel only. Up until recently, HR personnel worked with just managers, health insurers, senior executives, giving them access to key information. But with today’s HR technologies, companies can offer access to key information to different parties.
HR portals that are backed by cloud-based solutions provide a targeted access point for every employee. The portal allows individuals to access data and resources that are relevant to them, from anywhere or anytime using any device. Accessible even to job prospects, these portals can help brand themselves to employees by displaying services and products to individuals. Having a cloud-based, centralized HR portal offers organizations a systematic and strategic opportunity for themselves. HR departments today play a strategic role in attaining the business objectives and this is done by utilizing technology in tandem with their knowledge. This could be very helpful in handling important tasks like leave and attendance, onboarding, payroll and more.
Using HR Technology
Core HCM
Human Capital Management has become a pivotal part of organizations wherein it transforms different administrative functions that include the likes of payroll, compensation, training, performance management and recruitment and converts it into opportunities that can drive business value. HCM is also integral for increasing productivity and engagement owing to how it looks at the workforce as a core business asset.
The functional components of an HCM include:
- Strategic HR
- Employee engagement
- HR service delivery
- Employee lifecycle
HCM also comes with myriad benefits including the likes of:
- Streamlines HR operations
- Optimizes workforce management and spending
- Brings agility into responses
- Attracts and retains talent
Cloud deployment of core HCM solutions has become the new normal. Thanks to faster deployment and the advantage of turning volatile capital investment into fixed operating expenses along with driving agility into processes, cloud based HCM solutions are in demand.
Talent Acquisition
HR Technologies can be extremely useful in e-recruiting, helping companies attract a stronger and more diverse pool of applicants. Companies are embracing e-recruiting for numerous reasons that include the likes of:
Improves efficiency in recruiting: According to recent research, online recruiting using HR technologies can help reduce cycle times by 25% and can reduce the costs by 95%.
Improve quantity and quality of applicants: : E-recruiting using HR technologies can help companies reach out to applicants across the globe.
Establish and communicate brand identity: More and more applicants are looking for a well-established online presence to form a perception of an organization.
Improve convenience for applicants: Potential candidates who look for the web portal for recruitment opportunities can easily discover positions and submit an application online.
A talent acquisition software also comes with numerous features like:
- The ability to make job requisitions on the go.
- Different online interview, assessment and productivity tools.
- Smart talent acquisition metrics
- The ability to recruit proactively and post openings across different portals.
- Paperless employee onboarding and offboarding.
Talent Management
Organizations are today adopting different talent management tools. In fact, a recent survey has stated that nearly 75% of all organizations are looking at adopting talent management and HR technologies to help them with their recruitment needs. This number is bound to grow to 85% in the coming years, with different e-recruitment and talent management technologies becoming commonplace. Moreover, applicants today are looking for ease in navigation and efficiency, both of which have a significant impact on the perception of the firm.
With talent management expanding rapidly with the gargantuan amounts of data that is available today, AI is becoming an important tool in assisting employers to attain employee development. To harness the true potential of data through HR technologies for talent management, it is helpful to keep the 5 levels in mind:
Level 1 – Reactive: Reporting based on basic metrics
Level 2 – Proactive: Advanced reporting that makes use of data to make decisions
Level 3 – Strategic: Using sophisticated analytics to understand and better the process
Level 4 – Predictive Analytics: Using deep, insight-driven analytics to make decisions
Level 5 – Deep talent: With the help of predictive analytics, automate the process with algorithm-backed decision-making.
One of the biggest challenges that companies are facing today is the inability to align the software with the talent management objectives. Ensuring that the business model and workflows are properly aligned with the talent management solutions can help businesses concentrate on employee retention, a facet that needs to be focused on greatly by HR personnel in today’s day and age.
Talent management solutions bring numerous advantages to the workflow, both for employees and employers. For employers, the benefits include:
- Smarter recruiting
- Better diversity and inclusion
- Improved employee engagement
- Planned team succession
- Minimize attrition
For employees, the benefits include:
- Improved onboarding experience
- Career advancement
- Improved performance management>
- Enhanced employee experience
- Increased opportunities for reskilling and training
The core features of a talent management solution include:
- Compliance safeguards
- Integration capabilities
- Scalability
- Data management and analytics
- Usability and accessibility
HR Analytics
HR personnel makes use of HR analysis to find out what’s happening with their team and how they can get the most out of their resources. Human resources analysis is the information that the human resources department collects to analyze and understand the workforce of a business. This information includes ROI, project assignments, recruitment, staff, salaries, role-based assignments, workplaces (such as offices and remote setups), onboarding, recruitment, diversity and inclusiveness, learning and development among numerous other factors.
HR teams make use of HR analytics mainly for three purposes:
- To understand their workforce better
- To deploy resources efficiently
- To plan for the future
HR analytics provides HR leaders with the data they need to improve their HR capabilities and employee experience. The constant influx of innovation that challenges the workplace enables employees to be intelligently managed and supported during their rigorous lifecycle. Improving HR strategies through HR analytics can promote work satisfaction and lead to a healthy corporate culture of a motivated workforce.
The core features of an HR Analytics solution include:
- Recruitment analytics
- Employee turnover
- Employee engagement metrics
- Corporate culture analytics
- Performance analytics
The advantages of having an HR Analytics solution are:
- Increases staff retention
- Improves employee experience
- Uncovers different skill gaps
- Improves process efficiency
- Enhances financial insights
- Prevents workplace misconduct
Learning Management System
A learning management system (LMS) can be defined as a holistic, end-to-end software solution for planning, execution, documentation, and reporting of training courses and training programs. The idea of LMS has emerged as a natural successor to learning. Organizational learning must provide an insightful, real-time understanding of problems and their tangible solutions today. Learning solutions for a workforce that are diverse, remote and extended is the need of the hour. Moreover, learning processes and presentations need continuous adjustments and transformation to adapt to the changing expectations of employees and the dynamic demands of the business ecosystem.
Here are the main components of an LMS system:
- Learner experience quotient
- Intelligent integration
- Content customization
- Blended learning frameworks
When choosing an effective learning management system, the head of the organization and the manager must make decisions that are consistent with the culture, process, and function of the organization. A relaxed, auditory-specific experience, robust data protection, mobile device-based processes, and seamless integration are essential components of today’s LMS. It should also be noted that learning needs to be learner-centric in order to strive for excellence and business improvement. An interesting thing to remember is that learning is, after all, a relatively permanent behavioural change that is triggered by experience and maintained through practice. Therefore, effective LMS coupled with the right HR technology guarantees the most appropriate experience and training opportunities to enable sustainable behavioural change and practical evolution of skills
The features of an LMS include:
- Course creation
- Mobile learning
- Certification/skills tracking
- Gamification
- Video conferencing
- Social learning
- Asynchronous learning
The advantages of an LMS are:
- Effective learning assessment
- Easy content customization
- Scalable and consistent content delivery
- Flexible access for learners
- Reduced dependency for learners
- Having engaging and interactive courses
HR Chatbots
The adoption of chatbots for service optimization is expanding. Most businesses focus on interacting with consumers through customer service. However, businesses benefit significantly through the automation of internal processes that add value to both the business and its employees. Invariably, when we have issues, whether it’s IT, sales, or operations, employees consult HR. This is the case with small and large organizations, making chatbots a great solution for optimizing the answers to the most common questions. One can think of a chatbot as a manual that collects all relevant information. Chatbots through HR technologies deals with complex topics by redirecting to the experts who answer it through live chat.
These chatbots can be used for various HR tasks across categories like:
- Recruitment
- Worker’s satisfaction
- Processes automation
- Centralizing information
Moreover, chatbots can be useful in:
- Automating interactions and programming tasks
- Increasing productivity of the HR team
- Reducing costs
- Offering service 24*7
Conclusion
Cloud based HR technologies have brought a seismic shift in the way HR services are managed by organizations. This shift when embraced can help the staff make more informed decisions, be proactive in communicating how they are adding value to the business and in making them efficient. Research has shown that organizations that have effectively combined efficient processes with technologies have had been more profitable. In the coming years the adoption of HR technologies is bound to become indispensable across organizations.