How to Harness New HR Technologies?


"Necessity is the mother of invention." The pandemic pushed us to accept the digitalization and collaboration of different functions of the business to run smoothly during the dreaded time. Now that the situation has improved, we can see that both employees and employers prefer the work-from-home model for a variety of reasons. The work-from-home model is leading to the opening up of the job market globally, and hence we are experiencing issues like retention, attrition, higher salary hike demand, less engagement among the employees, loss of productivity and motivation to succeed, and others. Modern problems require modern solutions, and hence it became critical for us to harness the new HR technologies on the market.

In this article, we will be diving deep into how businesses can harness new HR technologies and where the Human Resources department is headed in the near future.

Human Resources Technologies

The business world today runs on data and automation. We see that artificial intelligence is not replacing or eating up jobs, but people who know how to adapt to these technologies are replacing obsolete functions. The automation led to the automation of the HR department as well. Today, all 500 Fortune companies are using HR technologies, i.e., tools, to carry out their HR function. These HR technologies reduce manual labor or data copying and pasting so that HR professionals in each division can devote their time to developing strategies that will help the business succeed.HR is no longer a data entry and intuitive job; the human capital of an organization depends upon the working of this function, and hence the HR department has also established itself as a fair and transparent model.

How to Harness HR Technologies?

Before a company starts adapting to an HR automation tool, it is important for them to understand how to harness that technology in the workings of the business. Some simple steps that will help you in choosing the best HR tool for your business are

  • Understand the business problems − Gone are the days of mindless gazing. where the recruitment department would just get the job description for an open requirement and start finding the keywords on the applications. Businesses cannot work with such a narrow-minded HR concept. To be a successful HR professional, one needs to ask questions like, "What is the current problem of the business?" What is leading to the loss of clients and revenue in the market? What is the business aiming for in the next year, five years, and 10 years?

  • Align the business problem with people challenges − Once HR has identified the business's issues, it is critical for them to ask questions such as, what are the people issues that the business is facing? What are the talent or skill issues that the business is facing? What new skill sets or qualities can help the business solve this issue? If there are not any current issues and things are running smoothly, HR should ask questions like, "What talent acquisition or skill sets is the business looking for in order to meet their 1-year, 5-year, and 10-year project aims?"

  • It's time to make sense of or categorize everything − There is a high chance that once you have connected with the business and the stakeholders, there are going to be myriad problems in every box. It is time to make sense of all of it. It is time that HR prioritizes the problems and starts working on the most urgent ones. In this area, HR can ask themselves: in what areas can they upskill themselves? which automation technique can reduce their current manual and monotonous workload? are all the HR practitioners in the organization aligned with the business requirements, and if not, how can they fill this gap?

  • Setting S.M.A.R.T. goals − Once we have understood the business issue and decided which issues to start working on, it is time for us to set goals. These goals are going to be SMART, which means specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound. We have to invest in HR technologies here. These HR technologies are not going to solve all our issues, but they will at least ensure that we are walking in the right direction. Companies can determine whether they are currently saturated in their graph (looking for innovation) or whether they are simply looking for ways to increase the efficiency of their work.

  • Determine the HR tech areas involved − After setting up goals, all we need is a helping hand. This hand will ensure that we can achieve our goals on time or before time. For selecting the HR technology tool, HR practitioners have to ask themselves questions like, "Are we having issues in the data management of the recruitment department?" Are we having issues because we are unable to find the right talent? Or do we have the right talent but cannot achieve the optimum level of productivity? Or are we failing to meet our targets due to a higher attrition rate? Is the higher attrition rate because of toxic working conditions and the environment, or is it because of the compensation factor? Are we recognizing and rewarding our employees fairly? And others. 

Different HR Tools That Businesses Can Adapt to

After harnessing the HR technologies and the requirements we have, it is important for us to understand the different tools available in the market so that we can make a choice between them. I will discuss a few of the most popular tools on the market today, as well as their advantages.

  • Kissflow HR cloud − This is a highly data-driven technology. This tool will help the company with application tracking, onboarding, collection of performance reviews, and offboarding of employees. It is going to help you amalgamate the different HR departments. It can also be integrated with payroll and other software.

  • Zoho application − The tool was designed with small and medium-sized businesses in mind. It helps the company with tracking leaves and performance data, managing timesheets, creating custom forms, and others. It is not feature-rich but is transparent by nature.

  • ICIMS Talent Acquisition − This software was created to solve talent acquisition needs or simplify the processes of the recruitment department. It helps the company connect with different job platforms and collaborate with them. Every applicant is tracked here. It is good for organizations that hire in bulk and are looking for a different system for each HR function.

  • Breezy HR − This also assists the company in centralizing recruitment-related data. It is easy to use and comfortable for data migration purposes. This helps the company hire high-quality candidates with ease. With the recruitment-related tool, it is easy for businesses to go back to certain candidates and ensure no data related to the recruitment process is lost if an HR practitioner leaves the organization.

With the above article, we are able to harness the HR technologies that an organization might need. The technology is decided not by the features of the application or the budget but by understanding the needs of the business. With great HR technologies, we can actually align the people management team of the business with the business world and its problems. Our aim should be to create HR practitioners or talent advisers, not just mundane recruiters.

Updated on: 10-Mar-2023

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