A human resources team essentially symbolizes human touch. Paired with the 21st-century technology and the ‘digital’ buzzword, you have the perfect recipe for nurturing talent to scale revenue into new heights.
Digital inclusion in HR
Emerging technologies have sparked a renaissance for human resource processes. The advent of Industrial Revolution 4.0 has positively impacted the industries and sectors across the world. Smart organizations are now deploying disruptive methods—big data, IoT, blockchain, and predictive analysis. When it comes to hiring decisions—payroll management, supervising employee productivity, and all other operations concerning the workforce are considered to be a part of this grand disruption.
As per a Global Leadership Forecast 2018, data-savvy companies enjoy an edge over their traditional-mode counterparts on account of strong culture, future vision, experimental mindset, and agility. Their respective HR departments can make informed decisions about employee training, incentives, and recreational activities basis the treasure trove of data they possess.
Emerging technologies and amp; tools picking up steam
The modern millennials’ obsession for digital dexterity is keeping the current crop of organizations on its toes. An organization is compelled to take millennial-friendly steps because a happy employee equals a productive employee. And we all know how a productive environment does wonders for the revenue numbers.
Nowadays, balancing digital innovation and managing employee engagement are the cornerstones of an HR’s role. Rapidly transitioning from manual employee data management to a seamless digital process is on every HR manager’s to-do list.
Here are a few latest HR digital technology trends doing the rounds of the market:
People analytics. People analytics is the latest fad. Calculating the ROI of your organization’s learning and development spends or predicting the productivity quotient of your new hires is just the tip of the iceberg. Also known as talent analytics or HR analytics, it applies machine learning and data science apparatus to derive insights for better business and management decisions.
Statistics, technology, and expertise are applied to large mounds of employee data to make intelligent recruitment, training, managing, and hiring decisions. This, coupled with augmenting employee performance and retention and performing other necessary HR functions, leads to profits and a better return on equity for all stakeholders.
Self-service tools. HR’s conventional role included huge piles of administrative tasks—such as onboarding, employee performance management, managing salary slips, and expenses reimbursement—stealing away their time for more critical functions. The introduction of self-service tools enables employees to access their personal data and allows HR to delegate some of his/her responsibility to the employees.
Now imagine a single HR bookkeeping for 1,000 employees, undertaking all their clerical tasks. And on the other hand, visualize the 1,000 employees managing their data with a single click. Which out of these 2 sounds more efficient?
A recent study by Ernst and amp; Young found that a single HR task or entry of data without self-service functionality, on average, costs a company $ 4.39.
Now multiply the $ 4.39 to your organization’s number of employees and calculate the towering cost of just the clerical job.
Human cloud. The human cloud is an online career fair where prospective employees and companies on a hiring spree engage for mutual benefits. It takes into account the ongoing gig economy culture and is majorly categorized into 3 types—crowdsourcing, online work services, and online staffing platforms, as per the Staffing Industry Analysts.
Companies these days are devising innovative solutions to lure prospective employees via automated technologies. Because the workforce is not only motivated by money anymore, today’s generation X and Y are driven by passion, fascination, and a novel experience. Some of them find solace in the gig culture and flexible work arrangements.
The human cloud is appealing to both sides of the coin. The potential talent represents the head side, and the tail side is symbolized by the company wanting to hire.
Pathbreaking companies offering solace to HRs
Vantage Point. Virtual Reality (VR) is also shaping the training modules used to impart knowledge to the new recruits. Morgan Mercer, Founder and CEO of Vantage Point, has devised an immersive platform to instill EQ and soft skills, enabling employees to deliver their potential with full gusto. Its core training concentrates on workplace anti-sexual harassment.
The VR training offers real-time simulations to help school an employee to learn and retain better. Our predecessor’s training modules accompanied a face-to-face discussion or a PowerPoint presentation listing the pointers in a slide or video format. This new technology and innovation are changing the face of training.
TiiQu. Blockchain is serving an essential purpose for the HR teams. Some recent start-ups have been offering this technology and its benefits to give some respite to the HR teams. TiiQu is one such company. It uses the blockchain technology to provide a cross-check mechanism and certifiable employee identity to organizations running background checks on a prospective employee.
The company issues a digital passport to an individual basis the immutability and valid sources of data qualities. This digital passport acts as evidence of the individual’s professional credibility, identity, and qualifications. Thus, easing the HR’s headache in the process and encouraging offering transparency and reliability.
Summing up
Imbibing digital dexterity is something modern organizations are aspiring. It is needed ubiquitously in all functions of the organization—ranging from finance to HR and operations to security. The onus of introducing and training in the digital aspects falls on the HR department.
The delicate balance between an HR’s human-centric approach toward employees and the appropriate use of technology in HR processes ought to be maintained. It will be unreasonable if the human touch is lost while implementing the machine/digital element, and vice versa. The HR teams are the new revenue drivers. And merging digital literacy with the HR role is the need of the hour. The HR role in its entirety is primarily run by humans and for humans, with a dash of digital, of course.
