How Technology Has Impacted HR In The Past Decade

HR welcomes a general shift to embrace employee enablement and satisfaction as a new standard

 
The past decade presented a dynamic whirlwind of technological innovation. Industries got disrupted time and again. The HR industry was no exception. 
 
During that decade, HR also welcomed a general shift to embrace employee enablement and satisfaction as a new standard. These changes were parallel and transformed the nature of HR as we know it. What used to be a more administratively oriented role is now a strategic one that plays an important part in organizational development. 
 

The tech industry made its way to the HR one and impacted it in ways that would support and empower this new, modified HR role accordingly. In this article, we cover some of the key ways that tech has influenced HR processes since the 10s.  

Recruitment Is Smarter, More Efficient and Faster Than Ever 

Ten years ago, the recruitment process was different. The recruiting process has dramatically accelerated through the use of online platforms, chatbots, AI, mobile technology, etc.  Automation has had such a positive influence on this aspect of HR. 
 
Nowadays, there are plenty of solutions out there organizations can use such as Recruitee to screen CVs at a faster rate, select the right candidates to interview on pre-selected criteria, filter by elements of their choice, automatically send out messages and classify recruitees by preferences. All this at the press of a button. Modern-day recruitment has enabled HR professionals to scout the right people from a larger talent pool, to speed up their processes immensely and to spend less time on administrative tasks.  

Performance Reviews Are More Structured and Helpful for Everyone Involved

The major impact new tech has had on performance reviews can be seen in all the different software solutions on the market. They have developed over time to offer variations of performance reviews to include aspects like peer-to-peer reviews, 360 feedback, leadership reviews, engagement surveys, self-assessments and more. 
 
Automation has improved performance reviews by turning a task that was somewhat tedious and very paperwork-heavy into a streamlined process that is easy to use and brings as much value as possible to everyone involved. The trend to put people first has sparked the new age of HR objectives and tech has ensured that there are available solutions to cover every base.  

HR Analytics Emerged and Is Helping Professionals Make Better-informed Decisions

Given that HR has moved from a strictly operational function to a more strategic one, HR professionals have started to show increased interest in using HR analytics to improve organizational culture and processes. Even though not every HR team out there has employed this practice, HR analytics has become a hot topic in the industry over the last few years. Research from 2017 stated that 69% of companies were integrating data to build people analytics database. 

Worldwide Google Trends Search for “HR analytics”

Implementing software that provides HR professionals with accurate and insightful analytics enables them to explore how employees are performing in the company, track turnover rates, calculate engagement percentiles and much more. This allows them to make better-informed decisions that impact the company positively. About 81% of developed analytics organizations report at least one HR analytics project with a proven business impact. 

Data-informed decisions help when dealing with employee satisfaction, retention, acquisition of top talent, culture and everything in between. Google’s People Operations team has been using People Analytics to tailor different aspects of its people processes to fit their unique work culture.  

Conclusion 

HR professionals should make use of the latest developments in tech to work smarter not harder. Depending on the HR maturity stage of each organization, goals, and needs will differ and so will the tech solutions they could adopt. Find out what is your HR maturity stage to see what to focus on to improve organizational processes and what you will need to get there

Author Bio

Bas Kohnke is the Founder and CEO of Impraise. Visit www.impraise.com  Connect Bas Kohnke Follow @baskohnke