Only 9% of chief HR officers agree that their organization is prepared for the future of work. (Gartner) Human Resources is no longer only a “people thing”. Together with technology, HR is leveraging a unique hybrid design – a mix of people and tech working together. This post will introduce you to 5 technology trends that are shaping HR.

85% of the jobs that people will be working on in 2030 don’t even exist yet. (Dell Technologies & Institute For The Future Report) We need to prepare ourselves for a future of technology being like a coworker, guide or helping hand in fulfilling our work responsibilities.

At Lionstep, we are already using AI and smart algorithms to analyze masses of data points and find amazing talents for our clients. We believe that technology is one of the most significant factors impacting workplaces today. There are processes that technology can help automate, streamline, and completely redefine. Especially in human resources, technology is already impacting and will further influence, processes involving administration up to becoming a major strategic actor in decision-making.

Instead of listing all the technologies impacting HR processes, we thought it’s best to list the exact ways in which tech is shaping HR processes, such as: Collaboration tools, decision-making through big data, the UX of recruiting, tech in storytelling and learning & development tools.

1. Collaboration Tools

Working remotely is becoming a trend within employee benefits, changing the way people work and engage with one another. It even provides access to new talent pools that were previously inaccessible. However, think about the administrative factors to consider, as people work from different areas within different time zones – even within team projects. Therefore the need to connect and ensure equal learning & development opportunities is becoming a challenge.

This is where technology plays a role in providing collaborative tools for communicating and managing projects. Tools such as Google Docs, Trello or Slack, or cloud-based HR platforms can keep track of distributed workforces, ensuring that people can connect and be productive at the same time. There are even tools such as Notion, a wiki-like database or Pragli, a so-called virtual-office for remote workers. Other solutions include anti-procrastination tools, virtual coworking spaces or VR conferencing.

2. Decision-making through Big Data

HR professionals want to understand their processes, candidates and employees better. Some significant topics they are concerned with include: reducing time to hire, recruitment funnel effectiveness and their employer brand. For this, they need to be able to know what to track, how to track and finally make sense of that data. Applicant tracking system and UTM parameters can help analyze important recruitment data. When combined with AI, further processes can be automated. Lionstep, for example helps reduce the time to hire by screening and qualifying relevant candidates for job positions. Various platforms exist, that can support companies in decision-making processes regarding recruiting.

3. The UX of recruiting

We are moving towards a trend of “experiences”. Right now everything is becoming digitized, especially in the HR industry. Résumés, interviews, job boards, and even things like onboarding. The goal is to keep the candidate and employee experience as seamless as possible. Tools are being developed to support these new experiences, allowing for: connecting outside talent to employees, applications via mobile devices and even the development of recruitment chatbots. Natural language processing enables software to understand human language, in turn this can fuel chatbots in becoming more “human” and provides the ability to help recruiters with asking screening questions or scheduling an interview in advance. Great chatbot tools are: landbot.io or drift.com. The UX of recruitment processes can be tested with tools such as usabilityhub (user research), teston.io, or hotjar (heatmap tool).

4. Tech in Storytelling

Storytelling is gaining momentum in recruitment as a way to differentiate employer branding. Those who implement video storytelling have a 34% higher application rate than those without videos, according to Glassdoor. There are various tools for easy video developing such as lumen5, vidyard, rocketium and more. Furthermore, employee advocacy in storytelling can help create awareness for the employer brand. On LinkedIn, people engage more with content from people, rather than companies. If you are a large company, tools such as LinkedIn Elevate can be great to connect and find relevant content of your employees, and share them on your company page. Smarp is also a tool used to communicate with employees through personalized content.

5. Learning & Development Tools

Finally, one of the largest sectors regarding growth, learning & development, is seeing changes. In 2019, 43% expected talent development budgets to increase (2019 Workplace Learning Report LinkedIn). Since remote work is impacting companies, employee onboarding and training is becoming digitized. Technologies, such as AI, AR & VR, help these processes through gamification. The idea with gamification is to create fun and creative tools that make information memorable. Learning & Development is moving towards a personalized, self-driven approach. While companies should ideally recognize skill gaps in their workforce and provide training to overcome those, it is most often still up to the employees to decide what trainings they want to undergo. HR Tech tools suited for these purposes include: Coursera.org, Blinkist, Udemy, Guider AI, Virtualspeech and so much more.

Conclusion

As demonstrated above, there are various technologies and processes becoming upgraded within HR. Most importantly you should not follow or adapt any tools blindly. Think about your recruitment funnel, find the challenges and optimize for them specifically. The 5 technology trends that are shaping HR are not meant to replace people, but rather a way to help them grow professionally, create meaningful connections and solve challenges efficiently.

Looking for your next candidate? Find out how to optimize your recruiting with Lionstep. Connect with us.

Read about the experience our scale-up customer Radicant had with Lionstep.

As an ambitious candidate ready for change, you will discover interesting job offers on our job board.