It’s no secret that the world of work has changed significantly during the past 3+ years. Companies have embraced remote and hybrid workplaces, which has resulted in changing organizational priorities and needs. The core challenge of attracting, engaging, and retaining top talent has not changed, but the strategies and tactics have.
Teams are geographically dispersed across the globe, which has increased our reliance on collaborative technologies that can operate seamlessly across all technology platforms. We now deal with timezone differences, increased well-being and burnout issues, disruptive family structures (e.g. children dealing with remote learning environments), and rising inflation and cost of living challenges.
These challenges have fallen into the laps of HR leaders to solve and figure out. Solutions have been multi-faceted and complex, and many leading organizations are doing great work in this regard. One of our core beliefs at ScaleHR is that technology needs to be part of growing SMBs’ HR strategies. Leveraging the right solutions allows HR teams to scale what they do, increase their positive impact on the business and move faster than ever before.
Many of our clients, prospects and members of the broader “HR in Tech” community have talked to us about what they need to be thinking about when levelling up their HR tech game in 2023. You can easily do a Google search on “HR Technology Trends 2023” and find millions of results, most of which may give you a laundry list. Simply put, it’s too much and unattainable. You can’t do it all. So, below are what we consider to be the top 5 realistic trends in HR technology that all growing tech SMBs need to think about.
- Seamless connectivity and integrations across platforms—virtually every single HR team that we encounter is using too many software platforms, and they don’t talk to one another. Geographically distributed workforces require technology that seamlessly connects all aspects of work—collaboration, communication, files/document management, recruiting, etc. In today’s world, it’s unacceptable for technology to not “talk to each other”.
- Cloud, cloud, and more cloud—storing documents on your laptop’s hard drive is so 2015. Everything an employee does should be stored in the cloud. This allows ease of access anywhere, using whichever device, and at any time. Software security is now extremely cost-effective and easy to use. You can kiss the dial-up VPN goodbye.
- Automated workflows—this is not overly new per se, but every single one of our leading HR tech partners enables users to customize their own HR and Recruitment workflows. This significantly reduces wasted time on manual processes, the seemingly never-ending quest to “follow up” with employees on basic tasks, and streamlines to the power of streamlines. In recruiting, there’s a positive correlation between a streamlined recruitment process and the candidate experience. Automation will beat out a “manual human” any day and all day long.
- Chatbots, virtual assistants, and cobots—HR spends so much time responding to routine questions from employees and performing repetitive tasks. This unique technology can take over these tasks and allow HR practitioners to spend more time on things that drive the business forward. Think, “how do I maintain that seat at the table”? Do more strategic stuff that helps the business be more productive, effective, profitable, etc…
- AI-powered analytics—most leading HRISs have integrated powerful analytics into their platforms. Analytics is not an area of strength for most HR leaders and practitioners, so vendors have needed to build easy-to-use analytics into their platforms. The cool thing about AI is that it nudges, provides tips and ideas, identifies trends, helps with decision-making, and can help with predictions—proactive action and not reactive.
Workplace-related technology has proliferated during the past 3+ years, and it’s one big blur for the majority of the HR community. How do you keep up with the latest trends and developments in the space? How do you make smart buying decisions? How do you maximize employee adoption of new solutions? It’s hard. We know it’s hard, which is why ScaleHR exists— yes, this is a timely shameless plug. Take a deep breath and know that no “HR tech stack” is perfect, and you’re in the same boat as the rest of the SMB tech community. However, when you’re working on your HR strategy, working with the leadership team and employees, always have a technology-focused mindset. It needs to be part of the solution going forward, which will allow you to maximize your efforts to attract, engage and retain top talent.
