HR policies and HR management are a major contributor in the growth or failure of any organisation. The people who build up a company are among the few factors that set a company apart from its competitors.
Image Source: WebAnywhere
With the evolving technologies the culture at workplaces is changing too. With an increasing emphasis on tech enabled HR managers , it is clear that the conventional HR systems are going to get replaced by innovative ones. Here are some of the strategies that are being adopted to bring out an enhancing change in the HRM system of a company
Collaborative Working
Image Source: Hyperoffice
A number of enterprise level collaborative online tools have come up in the market in order to enhance the productivity in an organization. These tools aid in creation of a virtual workspace in the cloud where the employees can work together on documents, hold meetings with colleagues in different offices, and even provide a business networking space to stay updated with what’s happening on different projects.
Image Source: Yammer
The above given image shows the various ways collaborative working can enhance things in a company. According to a report by The Information Services Group (ISG), a technology insights, market intelligence and advisory services firm on the ‘Industry Trends in Human Resources Technology and Service Delivery’ more than 50% of survey respondents have implemented or are implementing cloud-based SaaS systems in their organizations.
Some of the available collaborative tools for different functions are as follows:
- Yammer
- Google Drive
- IBM Connections
- Zoho
- Huddle
- Hyperoffice
Gamification
As defined by Gartner , Gamification is the usage of game mechanics and game design techniques in non-gaming context – it’s a powerful tool to engage employees, customers and the public to change behaviors, develop skills and drive innovation.
Gamification is a great way to engage the employees and keep them motivated. It involves goal setting, competition, feedback and rewards. Even the daily mundane tasks could be made into a gamified process to make them more engaging for the team.
According to the predictions made by Gartner , Gamification is going to be a major area of innovation for the development of an organization. It can be used for the following areas of HR function
- Talent Onboarding and Employee Referral Management
- Retention of Existing Employees
- Employee Training Program
- Incentivizing Routine Tasks
- Setting up Mission Based Career Goals
There are also certain platforms available such as eMee, PlayVox, MindTickle etc. that can be used to facilitate Gamification in organizations.
Holacracy
Holacracy is a social technology for changing the organizational structure, where the decision making authority and power is divided into individual self-organizing teams instead of a top down hierarchy pyramid.
Image Source: Holacracy.org
The aim of enabling Holacracy within an organization is to improve the accountability, efficiency, communication, innovation within an organization. Since it abolishes the concept of reporting to a number of individuals at different seniority levels, every individual becomes an owner/leader of his/her role and a follower of others’, thus strengthening the team and increasing the organization’s productivity.
Rise of Social Media in HR
Social media is emerging as a powerful tool for recruiters to tap into talent. One of the interesting advantage of Social media is tapping into Potential “Not Looking” Candidates who are not searching for a job proactively however given an opportunity can consider. Such potential opportunities are up to 75% of professional falling into category of Passive Candidates as per recent Linkedin Report:
Social Professional Networks as recruitment tool tops the trend as per Linkedin report (above), and additionally Social Media is being actively used by HR Managers for various functions
- Companies are using Social media in many other aspects also as follows:
- Communicating with Potential Employees
- Generalized branding about working with them
- Background Checks
Mobile in HR
with growth of smartphone and inclusion of millennials into HR workforce, the expectation from an organization to Mobile enable their HR is high. New age employees expect convenience in accessing information, filing applications, tracking updates, communicating with their organization, all via mobile.
just like facebook, employees want to access workplace engagement, collaboration and gamification via mobile App, employees also wish to access their rewards, benefits, health care program, etc virtually anywhere when they need over mobile. Mobile Application have significant impact in following areas:
- Workforce Management
- Core HR
- Payroll
- Time and Attendance
- Learning & Development
- Application & Recruitments
Advance Matching / Application Tracking Technologies
Growing digital application sources, increasing hiring volumes and requirement of more precise cultural fit people, make the task of Job Application Tracking and Management tough and not perceivable without use of technology.
Linkedin says Improved Job & Candidate Matching is #1 Global recruitment trend for Year 2015, hence adoption of advanced application tracking system is bound to increase.
Conclusion
Most of the above trends are an impact of Digital and Technology in HR domain, hence it is clear that both these levers shall continue to drive transformation of HR Function, and the dynamic nature of Digital & Technology shall keep innovation on prime focus in this function, which have long stayed on traditional technology stack.