Change has never happened this fast before, and will never be this slow again.

For many years, we have looked at technology as a threat and have been constantly training ourselves to understand it and cope with the changes it is bringing in. But now the tables have turned. Instead of people adapting to technology, the scenario now is that technology is being customized to adapt to people’s needs.

The technology revolution is no more about job displacement, and machines taking over humans. It is in fact the age of human empowerment with technology. In true sense, the role of technology has evolved to enable a ‘Smarter’ work life.  

According to a People Matters report on State of HR Technology India 2019, it was found that the key objective of investing in HR technology was not limited to a standard scope for process effectiveness but organizations have realized that HR technology provides an opportunity to empower employees and increase employee satisfaction and engagement. 

While HR technology seems to have been around for quite some time now, a closer look reveals significant milestones in the evolution of HR Tech itself. The year 2012 which is considered as the mark of a generational shift in technology introduced workplaces with SMAC technologies—social, mobile, analytics and cloud.

Fast-forward seven years later, the talent technology is beaming with what is commonly referred to as ‘new-age technologies.’ These technologies which include AI & Chatbots, ML, Cognitive technologies, Prescriptive Analytics, etc. have further disrupted the talent landscape for a smarter work life.

Here is a reflection on the disruptive potential of HR technology and how it is creating a smarter work life:

More human: 

The dynamics of the global workforce is changing. In this new marketplace exemplified by delivering hyper-personalized user experiences, there is a need to make the process more human. The talent technology available today is built on the concept of hyper-personalization that is both transforming how organizations are engaging with employees and signaling profound implications for organizations of the future.

With technology organizations can nudge for feedback from a colleague at the exact right time based on the context of work or for that matter from a candidate through a bot interaction. They can also personalize policies, processes and performance for every possible micro-team based on the organization entity, work roles and multiple other employee level attributes. This helps in not only delivering a human-like delightful experience but also keeps productivity at its best by applying only what is necessary for a specific set of people rather than generalizing the approach.

Connected Workforce:

According to a study released by Aspen Institute’s Workforce of the Future survey, “over 60 percent of companies are said to use on-demand or contingent workers, and 70 percent of employers predict that more companies will move toward a gig-based labor model in the future”. Cut to 2019 and this trend has intensified and evolved to an even greater extent.

Integrated HR technologies play the role of a central hub that connects them with all the right information at one place, offers one experience across the organization, helps them collaborate, learn and perform as a virtual team. The technology has enabled HR leaders can support, engage and motivate their virtual employees from even thousands of miles away.

Hyper-Productive teams:

Projects, goals and milestones that are well coordinated and easily accessed can greatly enhance team performance, productivity and collaboration and eventually can become a competitive advantage. 

Employees can be organized across workflows with cloud-based technology or task management software, where delays are not an outcome of a system failure or the lack of workflow framework Companies can make every second count using tools like Task Assignment where one can assign different tasks to different permission holders for effective delegation. And also track the status of the respective task. Keeping in mind the growing cross-functional and distributed team, managers can generate and execute process-specific workflows as well as define and assign the multiple stages of a process to relevant stakeholders from the platform itself.

Smart work life

According to a research by People Matters, one of the key priorities for investing in HR technology is to empower employees and managers to self-manage people workflows and processes.

Take this example of performance feedback system. Now, employees don’t have to wait annually or semi-annually to receive feedback on their performance or their work. Technologies today allow continuous and multi-stakeholder feedback which allows employees and managers to track performance and productivity. Learning is the other area that has got benefited through digital media, making it possible to learn 'anytime, anywhere'. 

Equipped with technology, HR has not only impacted the agility and productivity quotient of  the workforce but has also created more time for you to tackle bigger and more important challenges and focus on what you do best: nurturing, cultivating and working with talent. Supported by agile, new-age technology solutions and break-through HR practices; organizations have access to all the right levers one need to make a difference at work.