2017-11-27
The world over, HR tech is in a phase of total overhaul. The driving trends of yesteryears (read the past 10 to 20 years) are being replaced by other defining trends that took their place this year. A large percentage of small and medium enterprises are quickly taking to HR and payroll software as well, or plan to invest in one in the near future. The world is, verily, catching up with HR tech and its disruptive potential for businesses.

The rise and rise of HR tech


This disruption is being driven first and foremost by the transition from desktop or on-premise software to cloud- and mobile-driven HR tech capabilities. We are also seeing an explosion in HR automation and HR analytics. Simultaneously, video is emerging as a key format in which content - including HR-related content - is being consumed, as is AI- and social-driven recruiting as the linchpin of recruiting activities.What all this points to is change - at an unprecedented rate. In fact, it is said that technology is no longer advancing linearly but rather at an exponential rate.

And where does HR tech stand in all of this? While HR - as is typical of the function - has been a late entrant into tech, it is catching up and widespread changes are being seen - although this change has not happened at the same pace that it is being seen in other functions. Where is this change most pronounced? In the shift from traditional HR tools such as spreadsheet and the like to automated HR software.

The top 3


Geo-fencing gets introduced into attendance management software

Every modern online attendance monitoring system (Click Here) comes packed with a geo-fencing option today. Not only does geo-fencing allow for real-time attendance capture like biometrics and other systems do but its defining feature is the option to preset office locations upon entering which attendance will be captured. These preset locations can include branch offices, client locations, vendor locations and the like. It is easy to imagine how geo-fencing can be of immense utility to organizations with a large part of the workforce in the sales function and the like. Additionally, geo-fencing brings in the immense convenience of not having to deal with additional third-party hardware systems as the ubiquitous smartphone can pull off the attendance-capturing trick with ease in case of geo-fencing-enabled attendance monitoring systems. Goodbye biometrics and swipe cards, welcome convenience!

Customized performance management systems make a foray into the field

Performance management has been changing over the past decade or so, with changing business drivers. It is no longer practical to achieve employee retention, especially that of high performers, with soon-becoming-obsolete systems such as the bell curve, which force fits employees into a pre-existing curve, thus leading to disproportionate performance-reward equations and hence, disgruntled employees. Replacing such systems in terms of capturing, storage and measurement of performance is the shiny new concept of customized performance management. Inherent to these systems is a data-driven approach that is often oriented towards teams. And what is the role of HR tech here? The automation of such systems, which is being afforded by advanced players in the HR tech market.

Employee engagement is alive and kicking

The new black is to treat employees with as much care as you would customers. It is after all not new knowledge that taking care of one's employees is the holy grail when it comes to taking care of customers. Take care of your employees, and they will take care of your customers, the old adage goes. A new paradigm is coming into play here with the introduction of event-based feedback and the like that allows an organization to measure accurately the level of employee engagement within the organization. This can now be done through social feeds, app-based help desks, and more.

In conclusion, we bring you a fourth trend that is shaping HR tech today: the integration of disparate HR systems such as core payroll software with some of the best HR software (Click here to know more). This brings in valuable synergy that can, quite simply, change the HR game altogether in the watershed year that 2017 is proving to be for the function.