Mya, a recruiter in some part of the United States, starts her day at work and begins to screen profiles and shortlists the top candidates as per job requirements.  She searches for resumes on job sites, calls the potential employees and holds video and phone interviews. For those candidates who are interested in the job offer, she proposes an online interview.  However, Mya is different from other recruiters. What stands out about her is that she can interview hundreds of candidates at the same. How is this humanly possible? It is not. Mya is not human, it is a bot created by a California based startup Mya Systems. It's 2018, and automated solutions like these are streamlining the process of recruitment and are cutting down the cost and time. In fact, it's not just recruitment, most of the HR processes today are automated. Technology has indeed disrupted the nature of jobs and transformed the HR function.

But the question is- How far has HR and organizations been able to adapt to these technological changes? 

In the study Disrupt and Grow 2017, CEO Outlook Survey by KPMG International 65 percent respondents shared that they view technology as an opportunity. Further emphasizing the importance of technology, the HR Transformation Study by Aon, highlighted ‘Technology Adoption' as one of the key priorities. But in the same survey, it was observed that organizations in APAC are struggling to get value out of HR Platforms they have invested in. Over a 35 percent shared that they plan on making new investments over the one to two years and more than a quarter of the respondents were dissatisfied with their current platforms. User adoption, integration, change management, and cost are some of the most pressing challenges on technology. Interestingly, these are also the most desired benefits expected out of platforms. 

As technology is one of the most influential elements of change, a robust HR Technology strategy is critical to the HR transformation journey. Let’s take a look at some of the strategies organizations in APAC are planning to focus on in the coming years, as highlighted in HR Transformation Study:

• 34 percent of respondents in APAC region see ‘Consolidate Core and Talent,' making it the most dominant HR technology strategy. This signifies the need to have one or two major technology platforms as the backbone of all HR Technology for core HR and talent. 
  
  
• 24 percent of respondents want to focus on having only one major platform as the backbone of all HR Technology. 
  
  
• 20 percent said that their focus would be on leveraging the cloud to develop a best of breed technology portfolio that is well integrated. 
  
  

Looking at the pace of change of technology, investments in the capability of the HR function, both for technology and for data science, should be a high priority. Until now the pace of technology adoption has been fairly slow. However, the companies which have transformed their functions have proven to be more successful.  KPMG’s report ‘HR Transformation: Which lens are you using?’ highlighted two types of organizations, enlightened and unenlightened. It showed that three out of four organizations that undertook HR transformation have successfully executed initiatives such as the implementation of cloud HR technology. And in the case of passive organizations that are falling behind, 76 percent did not achieve ROI on their cloud HRMS investment, and 69 percent lacked workforce analytics. Among forward-looking organizations, 46 percent evolved their HR model to capitalize on new technology. 

As transforming the HR function and capitalizing on emerging technologies has been identified as one of the key drivers to success, the rate of technology adoption will gain momentum. The need for technological solutions will be backed by the availability of these products as HR Tech market continues to expand. Some of the technological trends that the HR will look forward to in the coming years include, Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML), Conversational User Interfaces (CUI), Blockchain, Augmented Reality (AR), Virtual Reality (VR) and Big Data Analytics. Solutions around these are being developed and will continue to emerge and enhance the HR functions in the entire employee lifecycle.  

Join Alight Solutions in finding out the latest trends, best practices and how HR leaders like you are meeting changing business expectations and participate in their most recent survey, The State of HR Transformation Study 2018. Click here to share your responses.