Your HR’s success in digital transformation, part of it by adopting HR technology, plays a vital role in the success of your organization, especially in the ever-changing business landscape.
For example, cloud-based technology allows your HR team to accomplish a lot more things, while freeing up your team’s time and making wiser use of your organization’s resources.
But if your HR team is yet to adopt cloud-based HR tech, you’re not taking advantage of its benefits, including bettering and maximizing people, creating a more productive workplace, and reducing operation cost and expenses.
With the emergence of human resource technology and adopting it into your team, you can change the traditional HR’s role from administrative into more important roles for improved business operations, which is much-needed in this very competitive business world.
Human Resource Technology Definition
HR technology refers to software and related hardware used to automate certain human resources function in organizations. Such include compensation and payroll, workforce analytics, recruitment and selection, benefits administration, performance management, and so on.
International companies, such as NetFlix, Coca-Cola, and eBay use cloud computing, too. Not only them but a lot of large employers are embracing HR tech and doing away with on-premise systems. They’re switching their on-premise systems with cloud-based platforms. Small and medium enterprises are also digitizing their HR functions.
HR Tech Benefits
But perhaps you’re asking, “Why?” Human Resources technology improves HR functions and streamlines an organization’s overall operation. It can support employee learning, recruitment and retention, and workplace administration.
Faster hiring times with an integrated applicant tracking system
Using HR tech, such as an applicant tracking system (ATS) can speed up the time that a critical role should be filled. It can get the job posted and scan & source qualified candidates. It can also manage the interview process and make offers.
That’s not all because ATS, depending on what you’ve chosen, can also handle on-boarding and training, allowing you to get the new hire working fast.
Otherwise, HR teams that fail to embrace technology like this might get their organization suffering, especially when important positions remain vacant for a long time.
Consequently, other employees in the company might have to pick up the tasks of the “person” supposed to be working in a particular position.
As when an organization has an unfilled job, you might think of diffusing tasks and responsibilities among other employees. This can result in reduced productivity and even delays. In a worst case scenario, the job might not get done at all.
In the technology field, for instance, 263,586 jobs are unfilled, according to GLASSDOOR. This figure adds up to $20.1 billion.
Based on a 2015 Deloitte Study, 94 days is what is takes to hire people for skilled roles and 70 for skilled production workers.
Unfilled job, technology or not, can negatively impact a business. But nevertheless, HR software or technology can help employers make a better hiring decision, eventually saving them time and effort. Systems like an ATS can organize and manage the hiring process and help your HR team improve their function.
Supports compliance issues related to human resource
A good HR software can help you company meet any compliance requirements. Will your company need to comply with government-mandated requirements because you need to hire more people? The HR platform can help in determining if your organization remains compliant with HR-related government requirements.
Streamlines data entry
Using HR platform, your organization can take advantage of an integrated system that will prevent duplication and data-entry errors. This sounds especially true for companies that are still paper reliant or are using different non-integrated systems.
But if you’re using HR tech, you can avoid human errors in data processing and entry for employee benefits and compensation, vacation, payroll, performance reviews, and government reports.
However, manually entering data does not only increase chances for errors, but it is also time-consuming. So, instead of your employees doing other important tasks, they need to spend their time on manual data-entry that can be automated and done by a reliable human resource platform.
To prevent this from happening, use robust and efficient HR software to streamline and automate redundant HR tasks. One can also integrate your organization’s information in one place.
Saves important human resources team’s time
How many hours do your people have to spend in fixing errors or entering data? Time is money. You can do the math and calculate how much it costs your business to transfer information and work on paper.
How much does manual data entry cost? Can doing redundant tasks the best way to use your people’s skills and time? Have you ever considered having them spend their time and effort on strategic planning?
Using the right HR tools, you’ll be able to free your employee’s time from any of the redundant administrative tasks; thus, your team can shift their focus on tasks and activities, including ways to retain top talent and improve company culture.
Enhances productivity
Cloud HR solutions can help in scheduling and manage staff time, improving overall productivity. Both of these lead toward productivity management, which is an essential business function.
For example, using a reliable HR platform, you can ensure all positions are staffed and avoid duplicate coverage and downtime. Using the right scheduling platforms help HR managers determine their staffing needs, while also managing both individual and group schedule.
Plus, the right HR technology can help you monitor employee remaining leaves and holiday requests as well as let you automate holiday booking.
If you want to streamline employee scheduling and increase productivity, it might be a wise move to consider an HR scheduling platform for your organization.
Improves compliance and oversight
Tracking employee hours manually can lead to a lot of errors and can be time-consuming. But with the right HR solutions, you’ll be able to set up any customized alert for a particular monitoring need as well as pay scale rules based on the unique policies of your organization when it comes to rounding, breaks, and vacations.
And with a more customized solution tailored to the needs of your company, your HR will be more efficient in monitoring the activities of your team rather than manually doing it.
Improves manager’s time
With the straightforward and simplified administration, including time approvals, overseeing scheduling and so on, your HR manager or you can decide efficiently and fast. There are HR tech solutions that have these and more in one interface to help improve HR function and performance.
Enhances decision making
Having access to critical data is another importance of using an HR platform, and this includes access to staff performance information. This data can help financial forecast as well as an organization’s succession planning.
Using the tailored HR tech solution for productivity, which is integrated across different aspects, decision making will improve because it gives managers the access to employee information. It can also provide HR professionals the important insights for making valuable decision that can improve business.
Easier onboarding
Getting new employees settled in their new roles is a great way to introduce your company to them and leave a good impression. This has to do with smooth onboarding.
For example, instead of them filling out forms, they can meet their teammates and get hands on their job on the first day with an HR solution that makes the onboarding process smoother, including on documentation, drug test results, and nondisclosure agreements, and so on. It can help keep the information you need from people you hire.
Secure and convenient access to documents is another benefit of cloud-based HR technology. Gone are the days when you need to keep all the HR files in a filing cabinet.
Storing important employee information on cloud-based document filing and storage system, you don’t need to keep a filing cabinet that needs physical space.
Using a cloud-based platform, you can archive records and then access it later if needed in the case of terminated employee records, for instance.
Grows with your business
Choose an HR tech platform that aligns with your business and your envisioned growth for it. With this said, look for a system that is scalable and which features align with the goals of your business and its growth.
Offers workforce analytics
Using an integrated technology solution that’s customized for your company, you can easily access vital information anytime. So, for instance, if you need to investigate the slow growth of your organization despite regularly hiring new people, you can check what’s going on per department.
And that’s not all because using the right one also allows you to track the cost of turnover, for instance, as well as your long-term employees’ characteristics. Such valuable insights help you make better decisions especially when it comes to hiring people.
Companies can use the insights when it comes to optimizing every HR function, including new employee recruitment and employee engagement efforts as well as talent performance and supplier strategies. Implementing it properly, talent analytics can be used in predicting skills demands as well as anticipate different labor trends so that organizations can create long-term strategies.
Employee development
Recruiting employees alone is not enough to make your company successful, but more on the development of your people. It will be more beneficial to train your employees, and a talent management system can help you with that through facilitating employee development. An integrated system can include features, such as training courses.
Performance appraisal can also be included the software because it can store the data you and the employee have discussed as well as the objectives and goals that you’ve decided together. Using a streamlined HR tool, you can also plan the development of your employees, while also delegating them in short- and long-term tasks or goals.
Cloud-Based HR Tech
The above benefits give us a clear picture on how HR platforms, which are customized for the needs of your organization. For the most obvious importance of HR systems, they can automate redundant, time-consuming, and tedious administrative processes. Examples are employee requests and approval management, onboarding, and more.
Using an integrated system, HR professionals can improve their function because they can easily facilitate employee training and development, recruiting, health and wellness management, performance reviews, and employee continuing education.
HR-related technology can also streamline data analytics, including report and insights, and gather data. It can also help in processing unstructured data and give us valuable insights.
Nevertheless, HR technology can help with HR operations and eventually allowing us to focus more on strategic planning than on repetitive administrative tasks.
Applications of HR technology
In the following are the common applications of cloud-based HR technology for your organization.
Payroll
There are systems that do not only specialize in payrolls but also in functions, including tracking employee wages, deductions, and withholding taxes. Others can offer services being a part of a suite of digital HR systems while others as a standalone service.
You can also find systems offering compensation management, although it’s another niche. It’s a software that can help you figure out the best rates that will attract and keep employees as well as reward top performers.
Travel and expense
On the market are travel and expense management platforms that you can use in providing travel services to your people as well as paying providers, recording related expenses, and reimbursing your people through a payroll services. Your organization can take advantage of the HR technology’s automated analytics and reporting of such tools.
On the other hand, you’ll find mobile expense management tools that can provide you with the insights about usage and cost details regarding the mobile services and devices that your organization is providing to your employees.
Talent acquisition and management
A strategic process of finding suitable employees for your organization is talent acquisition. It is an important aspect in company success because hiring top talents can make your company competitive, and that can give you an edge on the market.
One of the tools to help with this includes ATS, which is used in posting job openings on a job board or careers page of your company. It also works efficiently in screening resumes and generating interviews, among others.
Part of it also includes candidate relationship management that allows your hiring managers and recruiters to keep a candidate pool for consideration later.
On the other hand, you’ll find employee referral systems to help with recommendation collection from current employees about any current or potential candidates.
In addition is employee assessment software that can help you decide if an applicant is fit for the vacancy or open position. There is also software that can determine if a candidate is suited for their personality or fits the company’s culture.
Involving the process of not just recruiting but also developing and compensating employees, talent management system suites can be made up of functions and modules for recruiting, onboarding, employee development, compensation management, performance management, and succession planning.
Performance management
With the technological tools for the human resource department of your organization, you’ll have the ability to monitor employee performance and skip an annual job review.
Employee engagement
It’s another application of technology in your HR, and it’s of increasing importance when it comes to performance management.
Administration of benefits
Digitizing admin tasks, including benefits and compensation administration, you can free up the time of your HR people and instead make them focus on strategic planning.
You can choose to put the information about benefits online, such as sick days, vacation, disability insurance, and health insurance. Your benefits program can also include wellness and wellbeing benefits whether involving human coaches, app-based programs, or on-premise programs.
There are also HR tech solutions that specialize in are selling systems that can reward or incentivize employees that participate in wellness programs. An example includes wearing tracking devices that can monitor or measure activity.
Now, it is also become a trend in benefits administration through solutions that can optimize the health insurance benefits of employees through applying different data analytics to claims, and then customizing the packages of benefits for workers.
Learning
The good thing about HR tech programs in terms of application is migrating continuing education and training to online platforms. They can now use learning management software that allows organizations to use a customized training program whether it’s through real-time or asynchronous communication. They can also track and monitor whether an employee has completed it or not.
Conclusion
HR technology plays a crucial role and a major driver in the future of human resources, including on employee engagement, employee retention, and talent acquisition. It also simplifies HR tasks and functions, including employee performance management, payroll and benefits, and monitoring of employee vacation and leaves, and other information.
It is the reason that human resource departments must make careful assessments in determining the right HR technology to work for their needs. One must be scalable, flexible, and suitable to the goals and objectives of an organization.
But nevertheless, HR solutions can change the way that HR departments work, including how they screen applicants, contact employees, store employee files and information, and analyze performance. And when used well, HR tech can make human resources functions and practices more efficient.
