Five HR tech trends to keep an eye on

Looking to transform your team culture, speed up the recruitment process or improve employee wellbeing? No matter what your HR priorities may be, there’s probably an app for that. 

Today we’re exploring five technology trends that have the potential to supercharge your HR initiatives and give some tips on how to prioritise investment in an increasingly crowded market.

HR and technology are evolving

As recently as five years ago, it seemed as if the digital workplace revolution would bypass HR. Technology has been used to manage payroll and employee leave for nearly half a century, but HR’s other responsibilities such as employee lifecycle management, it seemed, would always require the human touch. 

But HR’s form-driven, paper-based and highly manual processes were ripe for automation, leading to an explosion of HR technology offerings ranging from end-to-end systems to niche products. At the same time, evolving priorities including a focus on D&I and the employee experience have benefited from tech-driven integration, scalability and reporting. 

HR professionals are transforming too, becoming savvier and swifter consumers of analytics and information systems. But with thousands of HR tech vendors operating in a market that is expected to reach US$35 billion by 2028, it is easy to become overwhelmed by choice and lose track of what’s important. 

Below, we explore five of the biggest trends changing the game in HR technology, and what they could mean for your organisation.

1. Recruitment automation

Every stage of the recruitment funnel can benefit from automation, which is why it’s no surprise that recruitment tech makes up a big chunk of the HR tech market. Keep in mind that automation isn’t just about eliminating manual tasks; it enables companies to scale up their recruitment programs, leverage data analytics, improve the candidate experience and drive efficiency. Examples include:

• Candidate attraction: Automated candidate segmentation, job posting and social media posting.
• Screening: Automated resume screening.
• Interviewing: Automated interview scheduling or even automated video-based interviewing.
• Onboarding: Automated background screening, job offers and onboarding.

Tips: Avoid the risk of dehumanising the whole process; make sure to place the candidate experience at the heart of all technology investment. Prioritise human communication and leverage data analytics and candidate surveys to drive continuous improvement.

2. Onboarding tech

Manual onboarding can be time-consuming, heavy on paperwork, and (let’s face it) dull for the new hire and the HR employees running the process. Poor onboarding can cause engagement levels to plummet and impact the organisation’s bottom line by extending the new hire’s time-to-productivity. Luckily, onboarding technology can be used to:

• Automate the end-to-end onboarding process. 
• Enable remote and mobile onboarding no matter where your new hire is based. 
• Auto-schedule introductory meetings between the new hire and their colleagues/stakeholders.
• Drive engagement by mixing up the format and adding elements such as videos and quizzes. 
• Improve the candidate experience with a pleasant, easy-to-use interface that aligns with the organisation’s brand. 
• Create a compliance record to ensure the candidate has completed all required forms and training.
• Digitise a process that has traditionally been heavily reliant on paper-based forms. 
• Generate stakeholder alerts: For example, an alert may be sent to the IT team to enable system access for the new hire, or to a colleague to get in touch and introduce themselves.

3. Culture and engagement tech

There are several technology routes to choose from that focus on team culture and engagement. Popular options include: 

• Recognition and reward software: Increase visibility of employees’ efforts and reward great work. Software vendors offer varying methods of recognition and reward ranging from “shout outs” to digital stars/badges, or a points system that can be put towards real rewards such as a holiday package. 
• Employee surveys and pulse checks: Replace the lengthy annual staff survey with a series of frequent, automated micro-surveys or pulse checks. These could be as short as a single question.
• Gamification: Gamification can bring excitement to the most mundane of tasks and encourage friendly competition amongst teams to boost engagement and productivity. 
• Team building tech: The pandemic gave rise to a boom in remote team building software such as virtual escape rooms, online art courses and other ways to break down barriers and help people connect. In the future, expect team-building exercises to take place in the Metaverse. 
• Employee sentiment analysis: Sophisticated AI and Machine Learning can be used to spot a downturn in employee engagement and even predict when an employee is likely to quit. Solutions typically protect privacy by analysing communications (such as emails) for language/keyword-based cues without reading the actual content. 

Tips: Something to be aware of in a remote and/or highly automated environment is the danger of employees feeling dehumanised and invisible. Leverage the power of HR technology to drive radical visibility and human-to-human connection to ensure every employee feels seen, recognised, connected and engaged.

4. Diversity and inclusion tech

Having a D&I policy or a carefully crafted statement on your company website isn’t enough. Real change comes from end-to-end transformation of the recruitment process and workplace culture, which is where HR technology can help. Examples include:

• Scaling diversity and inclusion programs to extend D&I training across the organisation. 
• Text analysis to reduce bias in job postings: Tools like Textio and Applied show how technology can be used to flag bias in job listings and comms.
• Blind resumé screening: Resume-reading software can scrub identifying details in resumés. Some examples include GapJumpers and Talenya.
• Interview process standardisation: Using software like TalVista can help build a fair and equitable structured interview process and enable object post-interview scoring. 
• Diversity reports and representation analytics: Take the guesswork out of D&I and track the impact of improvement programs with analytics software such as Diversio.
• Pay equity analysis: Identify and close wage gaps to achieve equal pay with software such as Gapsquare or Assemble.

Tips: When it comes to this kind of tech, the tools work only as well as their inputs. Human bias can creep into AI systems as was the case with Amazon’s accidentally-biased hiring AI back in 2018. The AI was trained using historical hiring data, which (predictably) contained instances of human bias such as a preference for hiring male candidates.

5. Health and wellbeing tech

Employee burnout is estimated to cost the Australian economy as much as $15 billion per year, providing a powerful business case to invest in health and wellbeing programs supported by technology. Examples include:

• Burnout prevention software such as Thrive Global which provides “real-time stress-reducing tools, inspirational storytelling, and science-backed micro-steps.”
• Automated pulse surveys with questions designed to gauge employee health and wellbeing and support Employee Assistance Programs (EAPs).  
• Mental health apps such as Calm or Moodfit. 
• Health and fitness trackers or wearables such as Fitbit.
• Online training for managers on how to support team members struggling with mental health.

Where to begin

With so many HR tech offerings on the market it’s hard to know where to begin. Avoid “shiny new thing syndrome”; that is, don’t rush out and purchase the latest trending technology because a senior executive thought it looked cool. Assess your business priorities before making any investment decision – first at the enterprise level, then at the HR level. 

There are several ways to get started. You could discover where your HR team members are spending the most time, automate that first, then move on to the next-most time-consuming task. Or you could review your HR/recruitment metrics to understand the areas that would benefit most from tech investment, such as slashing time-to-hire.

You will also have to decide between an enterprise-scale system that does everything versus a smaller HR tech stack made up of best-in-class, integrated solutions. Understand the different cost models and look for a right-size solution for your organisation. 

It can seem overwhelming at first, but take it slow and take the time to familiarise yourself with the options out there. You are in control. Take charge of the tech purchasing process and resist the temptation to handball the decision to the procurement or IT functions. Be sure to make a list of relevant specifications and must-haves before speaking to an HR tech vendor.