While HR Tech and Work Tech solutions have been fast gaining ground over the last couple of years, however, the pace of change and the way several trends came roaring together dramatically in 2020 was unheard of. Over the last one and half years, technologies have been playing a crucial role in keeping organizations and employees functional. And these technologies and disruptive digital innovations may have a long-lasting impact beyond the pandemic.  

But what are the top drivers that organizations factor in to invest in work tech? How are they tackling the adoption challenge and making sure their investments are giving them returns? What are some of the areas which will see high adoption of worktech technologies?

To answer these and more questions, we spoke to Jai Balan, Head, Human Resources at Bharti AXA Life Insurance. Here are the excerpts.

The HR landscape is undergoing a drastic shift. Next-gen technologies that helped facilitate ‘work’ in remote mode have gone from being something of an experiment to essential for survival. What are some of the shifts that you foresee in the near future?

Traditional definitions of “workplace” and "home” have undergone tectonic shifts. These changes will take longer to stabilize as we move in and out of different waves of the pandemic. Consequent to these shifts, we anticipate the proportion of gig workers going up and organizations being more open to their role in the workforce. 

“We’re also witnessing a greater acceptance of permanent remote working arrangements.”

At Bharti AXA, we are leveraging technology through the launch of platforms/products like M-Smart – an office in a box module wherein the entire office moves to a mobile phone platform. This ensures that our colleagues have all resources at their fingertips to provide a delightful experience for our customers.  We are also addressing the need for staying connected and listening to our people – through an AI-powered tool to check in with our colleagues at different touchpoints of their experience at the company.

What are some of the top drivers organizations factor in to invest in work tech?

Customer, Employee & Partner experience, and delight are some of the key vectors which we aim to enhance by investing in work tech. Over the last one year, we have invested in technologies to equip our employees to provide efficient, timely, and seamless experiences for our customers and partners with platforms like M-Sell and M-Customer. There is an accelerated trend for individuals using their mobile devices for various needs such as shopping, financial transactions, ordering food, and booking tickets. We are also aiming to deploy tools, as a hygiene factor that covers the entire employee lifecycle and is available on multiple platforms 

What are some of the challenges that will be faced by organizations and employers alike when it comes to adoption and how can they mitigate those challenges?

“Organizations and employees will continue to have personal data privacy as a concern which would hinder the adoption rate.”

Simultaneously, the versatility of the applications to work on varied operating systems and devices will also be a key catalyst in rapid scale-up and transition from legacy systems to new tools and platforms. This will also require significant upskilling of the existing workforce to keep up with the times.

How can organizations make sure that they are getting a ROI on worktech investments? 

While adoption is the low-hanging fruit that most work tech application deployments will aim for, I personally believe that organizations must aim for measuring optimization of resources allocated for repetitive & transactional assignments. Another metric would be the contribution of such applications to strategic decision-making processes.