HR technology emerged to simplify and streamline arduous paper-based workflows. From its humble beginnings as simple record-keeping file management and payroll systems, today’s solutions offer much more.
Leveraging artificial intelligence and advanced automation, HR professionals have more time to focus on improving the employee experience. Additionally, employers have the advantage of data-driven insights collected by HR management systems to understand internal culture better and gain insights into employee sentiment.
Companies must remain on the cutting edge of HR technology trends to stay competitive in today’s challenging employment landscape. So, let’s discuss projected HR tech trends for 2024 to inform and prepare managers and leaders for the road ahead.
#1. AI integration
Artificial intelligence is changing the way HR professionals—and employees—spend their time. Automating repetitive tasks and streamlining everyday workflows puts time back in their day. Features like machine learning and algorithms help them improve decision-making and reduce biases from recruitment and onboarding to performance reviews and throughout the employee lifecycle.
Common examples of AI use in recruitment include selecting candidates based on keywords, phrases, and other criteria critical to the hiring team. AI also supports onboarding processes, helping new hires complete required paperwork and training modules so nothing falls through the cracks.
Performance reviews can be standardized, and employee engagement can be enhanced through personalized training programs, automated content delivery, surveys, self-managed benefits platforms, and AI-enabled collaborative tools.
#2. Employee success platforms
Employee success platforms connect teams in and outside the office to the company’s culture, providing the collaborative tools and information they need to feel like their work matters. In a remote environment, employee success platforms take on even greater significance, enabling everything workers need to thrive.
HR tools and apps can be integrated into employee success platforms, ensuring a user-friendly experience for the employee and integrated data for the HR team. Examples include scheduling, benefits, payroll, compliance documentation, and job boards, which provide employees with career pathing ideas based on their skills and competencies.
The platform can also integrate wellness tools, offering challenges, activities, health monitoring, and mindfulness exercises.
Employee success platforms support hyper-personalization, allowing employees to customize their desktops and feeds according to their preferences, teams, and interests—essentially, providing a highly personalized workspace they will love to log into each day. If employee happiness is HR’s ultimate goal, employee success platforms are essential for achieving it.
#3. Data analytics and predictive insights
Understanding employee happiness and sentiment is vital to HR, as much as productivity is to management. Gone are the days of making leadership decisions solely based on the opinions of the few or waiting for data scientists to crunch the data only to deliver insights that are long past their prime.
Companies today use hundreds of applications to accomplish various business functions. Those apps collect real-time data, which is delivered as a visual representation from which critical business decisions are made. Data illuminates trends over time, helping decision-makers predict employee behavior so they can mitigate risk and act in a timely manner.
HR data can also inform workforce planning, such as identifying employees nearing retirement dates, filling gaps in the market based on industry trends, or indicating talent ready for promotion or up-skilling.
#4. Remote work and collaboration tools
The remote work trend is more of a typical situation these days. Though employees occasionally work in the office, many prefer to work from home, so providing them with tools that support remote collaboration, communication, and performance management is vital.
This scenario also applies to HR teams, who may not all work from the same location. Virtual tools enable efficiency for all employees, ensuring they are connecting to the same tools and apps as their coworkers while enabling strong team building, streamlining onboarding processes, and improving digital collaboration.
When employees have what they need to do their jobs well, they tend to be happier, more engaged, and less likely to seek other employment, making HR’s job much easier.
#5. Continuous learning and development
Personalized and continuous learning opportunities have been a strong HR focus for many companies in recent years. Employees want to feel like they have a future where they work, and providing avenues to enhance their skills is a great way to make them feel valued.
Learning management systems (LMS) help employers manage their training programs, streamlining the learning process according to individual preferences and needs. A company’s LMS may offer videos, courses, quizzes, guides, and other programs that employees can access at their own pace and even provide ideas for new learning opportunities that suit their preferences. Modules can be specified to individual employees, roles, positions, or departments, and results are viewable by HR and factored into compensation, performance reviews, and candidacy for other positions in the company.
Microlearning functions similarly but usually focuses on short bursts of educational content integrated into their daily workflows. Content could be company-focused, skills-focused, or wellness-focused. With an AI-powered engine, it can adapt to an employee’s changing needs based on interactive data and machine learning.
Employees need to re-skill and upskill frequently in rapidly changing work environments. LMS and microlearning platforms can be incredibly valuable in ensuring employees are well-adapted to current needs.
#6. Diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) solutions
Companies embrace DEI for many reasons. A strong focus on DEI is a trait that many of the world’s most successful organizations have in common.
A diverse workforce is more relevant in today’s society as it invites different viewpoints and (ostensibly) eliminates policies and practices that are harmful or biased. Of course, people are human, and even for HR professionals and managers who know the meaning of DEI, unconscious bias can creep in.
Companies must make DEI part of their culture and mission while identifying and addressing issues that may challenge their success.
For HR, technology can help to remove bias in various ways. AI in job description management software can identify biased language to improve response and reduce the incidence of self-elimination during the recruitment process. Debiasing in HR is especially critical in conflict situations as it may help the company avoid litigation and ensure transparency in pay equity.
Anonymous surveys remove bias by disconnecting responses from the individuals, helping to remove barriers to positive change. Technology platforms support unbiased skills-based and competency-based hiring, pay equity, and inclusive performance management, delivering analytics informing stakeholders of the success of their DEI strategies.
Final Thoughts
We’ve discussed many aspects of HR technology and how employment and work trends are shaping the way it’s used. Artificial intelligence is a driving factor in most solutions, enabling automation and optimizations that improve workflows for HR teams, drive engagement, and facilitate employee success.
From awareness to onboarding and throughout the employee lifecycle, HR technology helps employees access the tools and content they need to thrive while providing critical data that informs better decision-making.
As the way we work continues to shift and evolve, the HR tech landscape will undoubtedly introduce additional innovations to streamline workflows. Other trends we can expect include advancements in multi-state compliance administration, especially as it pertains to remote workers.
