The days when we used to watch artificial intelligence and robots in movies like Wall-E, The Matrix, and Terminator are long gone. Now, all thanks to technology and its evolution, everyone is getting to enjoy the benefits it has brought forward, thereby allowing us to live the sci-fi dream. Technology took us by a sudden force and announced world domination the day it started to get power. Us, along with the business sector and its branches, changed ourselves according to its advancements, and did so for good.

Digital transformation has become so vast today that businesses are seeing more of robots lately and less of humans. Their work is being carried out much faster and with precision as compared to manual labor. Technology has become one of the key characteristics of performing business activities smoothly and efficiently and has proved that investing in it won’t be a bad option after all.

The essence of the human resources department might be limited to manage the humans of a particular company, but that doesn’t mean it will stay wary of all the HR tech trends dynamics happening around the world. Our lives have become utterly digitized since we have started to rely more and more on high-tech every single day now. Digitalization across the globe is sure to affect the business sector as well and, with it, its HR department.

IT has crawled its way into HR in the form of a human resource management software that offers services like attendance management, payroll processing, work reporting, leave management, etc. With automated tools like cloud computing, refined decision-making,  AI-based biometric and face recognition services, etc., human resources have become a lot less complicated because of its ability to take care of repetitive tasks. This allows managers to focus on other essential tasks at hand.

The introduction of digitalization in personnel management gave birth to many trends that were invented for the betterment of the HR department and the employees of an organization. Some of the same are elaborated in this article below.

HR tech trends to look out for to achieve growth

Following are a few of the many HR tech trends that will help small businesses make their mark towards success.

Automated HR

Virtual human resource department is the new talk of the town since it is very much in demand for the last few years because of the benefits it provides. Cloud-based personnel solutions turn your entire manual staffing department into a virtual one and offer all HR-related services in a single platform, right from your staff members’ onboarding to their payroll to their offboarding. This also acts as a collaborating software when your employees work remotely and have to submit their work virtually.

Using an automated version of personnel management will bring you better returns since it will free up a lot of your workforce’s time, allowing them to focus better on crucial tasks and upping their productivity and efficiency levels. It is less costly than hiring manual workers and will also provide you with the facility to inflate and deflate itself based on the size of your organization. Using this will make your staff’s work much more manageable.

Remote working

Remote working has caught a lot of attention since millennials started working. It broke the old stereotype of work happening only in the office premises and not anywhere else, thereby changing the face of the working sector. This change came into force and influenced the working sector because of millennials and their job performing methods. Since youngsters are used to doing things in the environment they pertain to, businesses started offering work from home to their young staff.

It has become a necessity and an option that organizations have to offer in order to attract fresh talent. Businesses should really consider offering their staff the independence to work anywhere they want to since it is not only beneficial to their workers but also them. Statistics determine that almost 79% of employees, if offered the flexibility to work remotely, are likely to stay loyal to their organization.

Offering your employees to work within their geographical area of liking as part of their deserving perks reaps a lot of advantages for you. Even though a few challenges might occur initially, like collaborating with each staff member keeping in mind their location and time-zone, but once you grow accustomed to the same, it will become easy for you to connect with your staff members better. With collaborating apps like Zoom, Google Drive, Microsoft Teams, and several HR tech trends, simplifying workflows, connecting and communicating with your workforce, and bringing them together on a single platform will be easy.

Artificial Intelligence (AI)

Probably one of the greatest technology-based inventions, artificial intelligence (acronym AI) can mimic the human brain and provide quick and creative solutions based on its study of the real-time data fed to it. Many companies are embracing AI because it takes care of repetitive and mundane tasks and allows physical labor to use their skills and talent elsewhere in the organization. AI is proof that technology isn’t here to eliminate humans from the workplace but enhance their efforts and use them the best way possible.

Robotics in the workplace is doing wonders for business industries everywhere in the world. They are being widely used by giants like Amazon and are performing manual tasks automatically with minimal effort and very high accuracy. They take care of inventories, empty and refill stocks, transfer goods from one department to another based on their needs, etc. They are also being used virtually in the form of chatbots. These bots assist consumers by helping them solve their product-related queries and involve sales executives only when there is an absolute necessity for one.

By making use of AI and its tools, you will see your business running itself towards the course of change and ready to fight your rivals. Not only will AI help save your money by taking care of everyday duties, but it will also perform necessary tasks with precision.

HR analytics for better decision making

Since the workforce department of a company deals extensively with humans, the data they obtain from them can be used to derive better and faster decisions with the help of HR analytics. It can be termed as the process in which an organization collects meaningful information regarding their staff and then uses it to better their business’s performance and bring them profits. HR analytics mixes virtual and physical by bringing computer intelligence and human resources together. This HR tech trend will help you get clear insights into the data that your company gathers from employees regarding their daily work reports and then use their working behavior for better usage so as to improve your business activities.

HR analytics makes excessive use of AI and its ability to record and show real-time data and use the same to predict the future analysis of a company. It will offer solutions wherever necessary based on its expert technology and will help you come up with innovative solutions to fight problems. You can not only use it for the betterment of your enterprise but also for the learning and development of your workforce by offering them training based on the information derived. Investing in your staff is going to make them stay with you and help your firm grow.

You can use this HR tech trend to make fact-based decisions faster and place your workers based on their profile and ability to perform duties. This will help you generate greater returns.

Employee wellness

Organizations, especially after the COVID-19 outbreak, are doing a lot to encourage their employees and motivate them to perform their best. The plague has taken a toll on their physical and mental health, so many companies are addressing this issue by boosting their productivity levels through gamification techniques and making professional and casual group activities fun. By doing so, they are proving that every personnel that is a part of their firm is their own. Employee wellness has become a vast trend now that companies have started to focus more on their staff since they bring them profits and better their revenues.

By making this trend a part of your workplace, you are decreasing the chances of your personnel leaving you and are lifting their retention numbers. By using the data fed to your staffing department, you can arrange wellness programs for their physical well-being and also call guidance counselors for their mental health issues. Since these two are the most significant indicators for poor performances, focusing on their health and giving them the time and space to come out of it and grow will surely boost their performance, making these programs a success not just for them but also for you.

You can offer different health-based strategies to different workers based on their needs by curating plans for them. You can make these drives regular and cultivate a healthy habit in your workforce.

On a final note

Adapting to these trends as part of growing your small business will undoubtedly help you climb the ladder of success and change simultaneously, slowly but steadily. Technology won’t weigh you or your employees down but will instead allow you to grow and offer several benefits you can grab hold of for the long run.