Globally, we all have seen an enormous evolution in the way technology has squirmed its way into any and every thing that we touch, such that it is very difficult to imagine life without it. Within India itself, sweeping transformations at workplace have helped India Inc. be synchronous with the global narrative on digitization.
With respect to technology impacting HR, the biggest question that remains to be answered is whether the Indian HR industry is really ready for the onslaught of digital proliferation. The answer may be found in the evolution graphs of some of the newest entrants in the Fortune 100 club.
The biggest tangible deviation in the last 20 years for Fortune 100 companies is not that they have embraced technology, but that by going digital, the world has ‘shrunk’ and now everyone is within reach, virtually or otherwise.
Today the biggest media companies are not Disney or Times Warner, but Google, Yahoo and Facebook. Airbnb is bigger than the world’s top 5 hotel brands put together. The world is no longer what we saw when we were growing up. And because the world has metamorphosed into a digital workplace, so have the jobs
Here are some humbling facts:
According a McKinsey report, 52% of the Fortune 500 companies since the year 2000 are gone and almost 25% of existing jobs will fade away by 2021.
If that doesn’t show you the future of what is to come, we don’t know what will.
Future of Work (FOW)
- Visible World– Data will no longer be shackled in a straightjacket, the move is towards total and absolute transparency that will redefine how we conduct business, how we interact with another and how the work culture will evolve to deem all these changes as perfectly acceptable.
- Amplified You: A few years ago, you could define yourself as an extension of your family and friends and dreams and ambitions, but today, the new You is not an ‘individual’ persona, it’s a more ‘social one’, a sum of social, collective, augmented, interactive experiences that make “You” unique.
- Disruption through Diversity: Right from our childhood we all have been schooled in the arts of etiquette and political correctness. Even at the workplace, traditional old-school employees will still try to be diplomatic and by-the-book to arrive at predictable outcomes. Today, Innovation and creativity overshadow all old-world sluggish traditions that threaten to impact the cutting edge advantage that a company could have over its competition, by encouraging ideas and thoughts to flow freely
- Science at Work: Technology is changing the way we perceive an ‘experience’. It allows us to be more intuitive and instinctive and guides us in putting those spontaneous impulses into practical or simulated situations to estimate their functionality.
How is Digital changing HR
Don’t ask what things have changed in HR… ask what hasn’t!
Everything’s new, everything’s improved, and we absolutely love it.
No more reams on paper wasted on printing and filing resumes in ever-increasing binders, no more heavy excel files linked to other excel files to keep tab on macros and formulae. It’s a whole new world now. Interviews processes are concluded in a jiffy because every one is making assessments digitally.
Helpdesks and Chatbots are the new, customer friendly and 24/7 version of customer service that always available and always ready to help. Employees get info-freedom by having a dedicated HR portal or a mobile app to access their own data. Even a little thing like instant messaging has made emails almost redundant. You don’t even need to physically punch-in your attendance any more. Technology tricks like geo-fencing enable employees to sign in their attendance without having to actually stand in front of the biometric device that reads their card or their thumbprint.
To allay all concerns about HR technology being nothing more than just digital chicanery, we sought some answers. In a Digital Business Global Executive study conducted in 2015 by MIT & Deloitte, they found that employees of ‘Digitally Evolved’ companies were more satisfied, and consequently happier, and turned out to be the best brand ambassadors for their firms.
But how many companies are actually leveraging technology exactly like it should be?
The reality is that even though the HR tech is a $400 billion industry, only 16% of the companies are working towards simplifying things for the employees. All those wonderful impacts of HR technology that we have talked above only happen when the technology is in sync with the intended users, the employees. The biggest irony is that even though there has been enormous research conducted to find out the top global talent priorities, there’s not enough research done to find out how HR technology can help you handle those priorities for you.
We can show you how.
As an HR manager, if you were to look at an HR cloud solution from PeopleStrong, you can get:
- Ease of Access: An extremely intuitive dashboard gives you a very easy-on-the-eyes layout where you can see your tasks for the day, which positions are open and at what stage of the recruitment process is each at, the system can show you auto-matched resumes against open positions, and a comprehensive info-graphic shows you how you have been performing against all open positions for the year till date. The dashboard is also a great way where you can see how your team is performing, and you can even give immediate rewards and recognitions via icons and buttons.
- Match Making: The software is able to understand and match existing resumes to an open position by intelligently parsing using details from the Job Description, the candidate’s resume as well as social profiling. The system makes it easy for you to schedule a call or an interview if you choose him and consecutively line up an interview panel for the same, all in a matter of minutes.
For an employee, PeopleStrong’s suite is a boon for making your hectic work life much more manageable:
- Human Capital Management gives you ease of access: In a single screen, you have access to your own Individual and Team information, Attendance records, Leave records, Organizational announcements and memos, and even little details like Upcoming birthdays of other employees.
- Recruit 2.0: A powerful AI based tool that is fuelled by a blend of futuristic trends and the relevant technologies, Recruit makes hiring an absolute breeze. Real time analytics with a complete, contextual background help zoom in on the best-fit candidates and make the interview process hop along much faster.
- Remote Learning: Learning, integrated with the talent management platform, offers outcome-based approach to learning, where employees may choose out of a variety of skills/programs to be trained on via a combination of classroom and online training.
- Mobile app is the epitome of ‘Connect & Collaborate’. The HR app gives you freedom to engage with a chatbot any time anywhere to resolve your queries. In the same way any other messenger works, the HR app messenger lets you have chats with individuals or groups, giving you real time information on demand.
Each element of the suite is a digital enabler in its own right and all the pieces come together to create one of the most powerful and popular HR technologies that our country can offer today. The cherry on the cake is one of the most unique offerings from PeopleStrong in the recent times: One.
Formally launched in January 2018, it is an online service for HR managers that covers end-to-end need of work and life related solutions, along with chatbot capabilities. Via One, employees can discover more than 20 other amazing partner apps, all in one place. For solution providers, it is a very lucrative platform to showcase their apps to over 600,000 employees. Come have a look yourself, and maybe you’ll like what you see.
