As businesses continue to face a challenging climate relating to their people, the need for game-changing HR technologies has never been more critical to their success. In this article, we look at new HR technology trends and how to find new HR software - in the most simple way possible.
HR technology trends
The HR team is facing a number of challenges right now. HR Technology and HR software can really make a difference in how the department performs and how it impacts the performance of the wider business.
Watch out for technology helping in the following ways;
Understanding your employee's skills and capabilities - with the squeeze on available talent continuing, understanding who you have in your business and what skills they have is going to be crucial.
Retraining for a flexible workforce - there is increasing demand to allow employees to operate more flexibly and be assigned new roles in short order. Having learning and development systems that can cater for any quick role changes (e.g. compliance or specific learning needs) will be critical.
Capturing changing working patterns - as employee working patterns are changing, there is a need for technology to capture this - both from a time and attendance perspective but also in terms of HR systems and compensation platforms.
Remote workforce - one of the most dramatic changes post-Covid is the varying degrees of remote working. Having systems in place to support remote employees - again looking at HR platforms, training, time, and attendance etc, is now a must-have for any HR team. Communication platforms - where employees can feel a sense of community but also gain instructions from leadership or management teams will also be hugely advantageous.
New dynamic recruitment platforms - as the jobs market becomes more challenging for recruiters, a plethora of modern recruitment solutions have brought different approaches to finding the most in-demand talent. If you aren't following this new path - you better believe your competitors will be taking the staff before you have a chance to notice.
How to find new HR technologies
There is an increasingly large pool of HR software vendors offering a variety of new technologies for enterprise customers. Finding this new technology - and understanding how it can help you is a real skill. Our HR Technology Longlist Guide features over 40 HR vendors that we think are worthy of your time and consideration. We would suggest reading through the report and picking out a few vendors to go and talk to.
Here are our suggestions for finding technology vendors that can help you.
Ask your team
This may sound like a pretty obvious point - but ask your HR team and any new employees coming into the business what systems and technologies they have seen that they would recommend. Think about the companies that you have recently recruited from - it's highly likely that they will have used HR tech that you have never heard of. It's a great way to find new ideas and suggestions.
Ask the vendors to come and talk to you
At Viewpoint Analysis, we are big fans of this approach. We have a 'Technology Ideas Matchmaker' that does nothing else other than this. We speak to the HR team - we write up a 'problem statement' (which talks about the HR strategy, plans, and any issue) and we go and advertise this to the HR technology community. We pose them the challenges - and we invite them to come along and talk to the HR team about how they can help. It's really simple - and hugely effective. You can work with us to do this or you can simply do it yourself.
Talk to your peer group
Broker conversations with your non-competitive peer groups. What technology are they using at the moment? How is this acting as a game-changer for them?
Read the analyst's reports
In the same way that we have produced a list of potential HR vendors to speak to, there is a range of analysts that spend time and energy doing the same thing. Read what they say about HR technology trends and listen to any suggestions they have about new vendors and capabilities.
Summary
HR has always struggled to find a budget for new HR technology and systems. However, now is the time to approach the CFO and demand that investment. People are central to the success of your business. HR systems are central to the success of your people. The world has changed - nobody can dispute that. Your HR technology needs to change and it needs to power this new business that will emerge.
We hope that you see that finding new HR Technologies need not be rocket science. This article is all about keeping things simple - talk to your peers, talk to your employees, talk to the vendors - and give them your problems. You will know when you have found a fantastic system that can change your department and your business. Once you do, go out and get the procurement underway (our Technology Matchmaker will be able to help you here too) but do it quickly. The business needs your team to be firing on all cylinders so don't take forever to select the platform, go and buy it and get it implemented quickly.