HR Technology Trends for 2017 and Beyond
From social media, to mobile to SaaS, human resources technology landscape has been changing rapidly for the last few years. For instance, according to a recent recruiting software study by Capterra, more than 75% of hiring managers today, use either recruiting or applicant tracking software to improve their hiring process. And things have changed so much that, in fact, it’s no longer a question whether your company has an HR software system, but how it is deployed.
As you can see, the fusion of organizations, HR and technology is gathering serious momentum. Unquestionably, globalization and dramatic demographic shifts are modeling a world where the emphasis is toward workers who are more tech-savvy and the ones that stay connected all the time.
Employee Engagement and Feedback
Employee engagement still remains surprisingly low, as Gallup tells us, only around 33% of employees are actively engaged. If HR professionals do not know how to keep their personnel engaged and happy, they will pack up and leave, right? Well, a surprising number of unhappy employees never leave their job, and as new research on unsatisfied workers and team effectiveness shows that these employees can bring down team performance by 30% to 40%.
The solution for this problem is anonymous employee feedback and just as customer feedback has transformed the UX, this will transform the employee experience. That is why feedback apps like PD@GE, that allow the HR department to get feedback in real-time will redefine the way we think of employee engagement in 2017.
Advanced Performance Management
For the last five years, we have seen companies throwing away check-ins, developing agile goal systems and making performance management much more analytics-driven. Unfortunately, for years, there were no tools in the market that allowed you to automate this, however, things are going to change drastically.
Today, we see at least a dozen of well-funded and organized companies that are developing and selling team-centric management systems that enable your HR department to oversee your staff, make sure that they clock in and out on time and monitor their work on the go. Companies such as these will surely grow to even turn into the “next wave” of performance management providers.
Mobile Employee Communications
In addition to employee engagement mobile applications, a good number of employment branding technologies are finally offering apps, including mobile and messaging. Flexible schedules are becoming increasingly common as more and more employees are working from home. In fact, according to a recent survey of business leaders, 34% said that they expect that more than half of their workforce will be working remotely by the end of the decade.
We will definitely see an increased demand for communication platforms such as Facebook at Work in the next twelve months. What is more, when you take into consideration that employers are looking for new ways to increase candidate touch points, leading to more candidate conversions, it is easy to see why going mobile is unavoidable.
Embracing Big Data Analytics
A recent report from Oxford Economics discovered that while just a few HR departments are without analytics altogether (just around 7%), many departments still struggle to interpret big data and use it in a way that matters. But as our ability to analyze all of that data matures, new tools are emerging and the existing ones are only getting “smarter”.
While predictive analytics already can provide insights into promotions, employee benefits and talent management, they are starting to be used for deeper forecasting. Predictive analytics can help you measure the efficacy of your training courses and identify which workers are more likely to reach their targets.
Conclusion
The availability of modern HR technologies is expanding organizations’ abilities to hire, manage and retain their employees better than ever before. While social recruiting is helping businesses reach new potential candidates, HR tech can provide better visibility into the employment process and help them make smarter decisions throughout the employee-lifecycle process. Therefore, investment in HR technology should not only be the biggest trend in 2017, but it should also remain in the years ahead.