4 Ways HR Can Stay Relevant Using New Technology

We live in a world that’s inevitably changing. Each day that goes by isn’t the same as the day before. You may believe your days go with zero change with the routine of waking up, getting to work, going back home to sleep only to repeat it the next day after. It may seem like there’s no change, but they’re subtler than you think. Think about it, do you really eat the same breakfast each day? Do you really work on the same report every day for 365 days? In this modern world where we expect and thrive on exciting new work each day, it’s hard to believe that there’s no change.

Millennials as disruptors of the HR landscape

One change that’s a big stand out in today’s modern society, and also a hot topic of discussion is the technological wave over millennials. The average millennial today will be seen holding a smartphone, most likely browsing on Facebook or Instagram. It’s seen as a phenomenon that has gotten those of older generations arguing whether technology advancements have been a good thing or a bad thing.

Now I can see why it’s perceived negatively in a sense – because when I say the average millennial will be seen with a smartphone, you can expect to see literally ALL millennials stuck to their smartphone (as a millennial myself, I would know for a fact!). You’ll see them glued to their screens; unaware of what goes on around them, oblivious to their surroundings and in some cases putting themselves in danger (crossing roads without looking left and right for example). Not just that, but the average millennial will rely on the internet, laptop or tablet to do most of what they have to do – work, school and leisure. Technology really has grown up with the millennials and its quite certain that it’s an essential basis for their lives.

The Roadblock to Technology Adoption

On the other end of the spectrum, the good thing about this technological change is that its allowed for things to move quicker. The search for information is faster and so is the speed of communicating with one another.

There’s only one problem left that presents itself and it’s that employees who still have their heads wrapped around traditional methods at work, will struggle to adapt to this change. As hard as it was getting used to a floppy disk, we now have the Cloud to get used to. HR as we all know it is still undergoing change every year. The fact that to this very day it’s still going through change makes it more than relevant to talk about. With both HR and technology being two separate areas that are both going through change, what we need to consider is how they can change for one another. What I mean by this is… how can HR adapt to new technology?

4 Hot HR Tech Trends to Adopt ASAP

There are a few ways how HR can do just that:

#1. Manage your employees with HR Management Software.

We now have technology that lets us manage our workforce from the comfort of our chairs. The times where you had to get up to dig (sometimes randomly) inside filling cabinets for a contract or an employee files are over. Simple and powerful HR software now exist to do that job for you (EmployeeConnect is one). For HR, it’s a big and must-do step as this type of technology is designed to make HR easier. Think about it, you no longer have to record and update your employee details via Excel anymore – you’ve got a system that stores it accurately and neatly for you.

#2. Manage your employees by keeping them within your loop – using Surveys.

You can keep them continuously engaged by using surveys to help understand their experience and emotions. Whether you use built-in HRIS functionality to develop your own surveys or use third party survey tools such as Survey Monkey or Google Forms. If it wasn’t for the breakthrough technology and the web, we wouldn’t be able to create, store and analyse this type of data any easier.

#3. Make use of social media to grow your employer branding and boost recruitment

With social media, you can get your prospective and current employees to know you and your organisation better. It’s as simple as letting your page or the company’s page be known on Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn. You get the chance to know your prospective or current employee better the same way they get to know you. Doing just this, you’re able to see whether their values and attitudes align well with what the company currently has. If it does, it’s a match made in heaven.

#4. Develop your employees by training them with online.

This can go two ways – you train them to learn how to use new technologies and software or you can create new online courses for them to access anytime, anywhere, from pretty much any device. It’s on-demand training at its best, and it also allows you to easily keep track of their progress and feedback. For the latter, by keeping courses in a convenient location like the cloud, your employees can complete their training when they both have the time and mind to focus.

While these are only four ways that HR can adapt to readily available technology, it still provides a means to advance your HR practices with it. You can take hold of the benefits technology presents for your HR department. Lives are made less complicated and the winning factor above all this is that your business is able to thrive efficiently. I guess we could say that change really sways towards the good end of the scale rather than the bad. Well in terms of business growth and development – the favour lies there.