Article: Time to move beyond: Pankaj Bhargav

Technology

Time to move beyond: Pankaj Bhargav

It is time for organisations to move beyond paper based HR transactions and adopt HR automation
Time to move beyond: Pankaj Bhargav
 

There are more than 2 million firms in India and less than 2,000 firms have opted for any sensible HR software; there is immense opportunity for HR technology service roviders in India”

 

How has the demand for HR automation evolved in India?

Till around 2003 expectationsfromtheHR Department were simply to automate the employee database, run simple queries on it and be able to do payroll computations. Things changed after 2004 as web based technology evolved.Employee self service transactions like Leave,Attendance Regularisation, Overtime, Onduty etc.,were the first workflows to be implemented and once these mundane HR transactions were automated, clients started asking for automation of the HR transformational activities like performance management, training management etc.

How can automation help enterprises achieve greater efficiencies?

With increase in salaries over the last one decade, organizations are faced with the challenge of doing more with less people. While only 10percent of the staff may use sales CRM/ERP/Accounting Softwares,HR Software can be used by all the employees thereby benefitting the business phenomenally. .Doing away with paper-based HR transactions is not only cost effective but also reduces carbon footprint and saves more than 20 minutes of employee time per daythus givinga great ROI.

What is the typical approach of Indian organizations toward HR automation?

Though HR software offers many benefits, more often than not, it is considered as a cost centre - in addition to the salaries of support functionssuch as HR, Payroll, Admin & IT departments -and ends up being amongst the last in the organization’s priority list. While companies pay huge salaries to such professionals, they do not want to invest even 10percentof their salary cost to HR Software. This state of affair prevails, despite the fact that organizations are aware that the software helps to bring down the associated costs. All the more, it is a stress buster to our impatient,attentiondeficitgeneration wanting everything on a platter.

What is the future outlook of HR technology services in India?

Times have changed; the conversation has moved from “Oh, you have only 3 pages of employee information?” to “Oh my god! you have 30 pages of employee information.” Clients want more and more features and software to go live as quickly as possible and that it should be able to collaborate with all other softwares on a real timebasis and should be accessible from any device including cell phones, tablets etc. Organisations which can continue to innovate without having any customisation layer and can give a personalised experience to all the employees with minimal bugs can expect to survive. Those HR technology firms which can compete globally, are fully focussed to create world class products and do not need any support on cloud and provide great value will be able to thrive. There are more than 2 million firms in India and less than 2,000 firms have opted for any sensible HR software; there is immense opportunity for HR technology service providers in India.
 

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Topics: Technology, Strategic HR

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