During this exciting time of digital transformation, innovative HR solutions are set to take centre stage next year. Here, we take a look at 8 HR technology trends we believe will dominate 2019.
Off the back of reading a recent thought-provoking article by Courtney Moran at G2Crowd, which looks at their predicted 5 major HR tech innovations for 2019, it made us want to explore further and look at some of the ways HR technology will support other important HR operations over the next 12 months.
After 2018 has proven to be the year of addressing the serious issues surrounding equality, diversity, inclusion and sexual harassment, 2019âs focus has shifted to include solutions to these problems with help from HR software, automated systems and AI tools.
Looking back at some of this yearâs headlines, itâs also clear that workers are seeking employment within companies that are diverse, promote equal opportunities, harness a safe working environment and understand ways to improve the work-life experience, so itâs imperative that HR technology is best used to support these demands.
So here we have 8 HR tech trends for businesses to prepare for in 2019.
1/ Continued efforts to boost employee engagement
By now, you should be aware of the numerous benefits that employee engagement brings to the workplace â if not, you havenât read enough of our articles!
But in all seriousness, employee engagement has been proven to boost commitment, loyalty to the company, enthusiasm and increased productivity.
HR software has the power to improve these employee engagement initiatives by streamlining processes, tracking feedback and opening up the lines of instant communication which is great for recognition and performance management.
Therefore, itâs no surprise that such a large percentage of HR professionals, 80% to be exact, were found to believe HR tech improved employee attitude toward the company â Source G2 Crowd EE Survey
With more software options available to companies, itâs likely 2019 will continue to seek out the best HR technology to improve the delivery and management of these employee engagement strategies.
2/ Equal and diverse practices
Unfortunately even in this day and age, equality and diversity in the workplace still poses a challenge for employers to manage.
Even organisations actively promoting equal and diverse practices are still unable to overcome the unconscious biases that we all bring into the workplace.
This unconscious bias is particularly prominent in the hiring processes and can undermine recruitment efforts and staff development which is detrimental to any organisation and promotes a disconnected culture. By taking appropriate steps to remove unconscious bias from the hiring process, your organisation will be more likely to perform better.
G2 Crowd have predicted that companies will increase their use of HR software to diminish unconscious bias from their hiring processes by 30% in 2019.
There are an increasing number of HR tech solutions that can help HR and recruitment to overcome the issues surrounding equality and diversity by removing this unconscious bias and further analysis of stored data will help organisations to understand how diverse their workforce is and compare against their competition.
You canât manage what you donât measure!
3/ A ground-breaking approach to sexual harassment training (and quite possibly any corporate training for that matter)
We recently looked at what the #MeToo movement would mean for HR going forward and the growing pressure for companies to actually deal with sexual abuse and harassment means that a sexual harassment policy and training should be implemented, if not done so already.
However, it has come to light from a recent study that although 98% of companies have implemented a sexual harassment policy, progress has stalled and only 32% of women feel that inappropriate behaviour at work is challenged.
Itâs clear that having a policy alone just isnât enough to tackle this problem. But now a new, highly innovative concept is getting ready to change all of this.
Vantage Point is the worldâs first Virtual Reality training platform that has been working hard behind the scenes to develop immersive training techniques, targeted at sexual harassment, behavioural change and diversity and inclusion.
After announcing earlier this year that they had secured a seed funding round of $1.3M to bring a VR based anti-sexual harassment training function to corporations by delivering engaging, simulated training experiences in a safe environment, people are eagerly awaiting what they come up with â so watch this space in 2019!
4/ Fostering an inclusive and respectful company culture
If #MeToo and #TimesUp taught us anything, itâs that women are still being significantly disrespected and underrepresented in the workplace, and even more so for women of colour.
Only around 1 in 5 C-Suite leaders is a woman and shockingly only 1 in 25 is a woman of colour.
Although women are at the brunt of dealing with more demeaning comments, disrespectful behaviour and micro-aggression on a daily basis, 58% of all employees experience some type of incivility at work, which has to be challenged if it is ever going to change.
To foster a working environment in which all employees feel included and respected, people need to feel âsafeâ in their place of work.
Managers need to undergo training to understand and implement initiatives to prioritise diversity and inclusion alongside training on behaviours that are acceptable and behaviours that should never and will never be tolerated.
Everyone in a company should receive this type of training, to clearly understand the company code of conduct. HR technology can support this by making training effective and easily accessible, providing reports to review and manage levels of retention, grievances related to these issues and diversity in all levels of the organisation.
We hope that over the next 12 months, we will be able to report a positive development in this area.
5/ The employee experience (EX)
We have touched upon the importance of the employee experience in previous articles, but 2019 should see the employee experience play a more pivotal role in the bottom-line success of the organisation.
The employee experience is defined as a physical, cultural and technological environment and is strongly linked to the customer experience, in the sense that every interaction builds the relationship with the brand.
As the employee experience directly influences the customer experience, organisations will need to place importance on software learning and development programs, especially as employees and customers alike move further towards digital transactions and online support.
Things such as surveys and gathering feedback will help companies to better understand what drives and engages their employees in 2019 and HR tech will help to collate and analyse this data.
6/ Introduction of AI across multiple HR operations
AI is a big deal right now, so next year we imagine we will see a lot of companies jumping on board to welcome machine learning into their HR ops, mainly as a means to streamline processes and give time back to employees to focus on the bigger challenges they face in their roles.
AI is also improving the overall employee experience as it has the ability to take away some of the more mundane tasks such as responding to commonly asked questions from employees and quickening the recruitment process.
âCompanies are increasingly leveraging AI technology to help identify data opportunities, improve internal workflows, and increase productivity, to name a few.â â Courtney Moran, G2 Crowd
AI will also be the main driver to help remove the unconscious bias we looked at earlier, so we would expect to see an increase in the use of these automated systems in 2019.
7. An agile organisation business model
The agile organisation as a business model is becoming popular as it allows for quick change solutions and makes better use of an employeeâs skills across departments, keeping work engaging and motivating.
By moving away from the traditional managerial hierarchy and structured processes, to networks and teams who have more control over decision making at a faster rate, businesses will gain a competitive advantage.
It will also improve productivity and flexibility amongst people in the org in the following ways:
- Team based performance management
- Goal and objective sharing
- Feedback
- Assigning, managing and overseeing projects
- Real time communication
- Ability to create and dismantle team collaborations in line with business needs
- Less restrictive roles
Organisations are beginning to understand the benefits of the agile model, but the best way to manage this type of structure is with some type of organisational design software. This will allow leaderâs to overview their organisation as a whole, manage teams efficiently and provisionally see how teams could work together before actually confirming any final decisions.
8/ Remote working as a ânormâ
A study by the International Working Group (IWG) found that 70% of employees across the globe worked remotely every week in 2018, proving that remote working has entered the mainstream and is no longer considered an exception to certain job roles.
Viewed as a huge employee and company benefit, top talent will be looking to work for (and stay with) companies that are keeping ahead of the times and offering this type of working schedule.
Even learning and development can be conducted remotely in some instances, which saves on time and costs. Management can also take advantage of e-learning to upskill in how to manage a remote team effectively.
With software such as Slack, Asana and other HR cloud based platforms, remote working has been made easy to accommodate, which is great, as remote working has been shown to increase loyalty, productivity and boost brand reputation.
CakeHR in 2019
So as you can see, exciting things await the HR world next year!
Having a pro-active approach to these HR trends, you and your business can get a head start and put strategies in motion to engage, retain, diversify and protect your employees.
âThe HR industry is currently experiencing a deluge of innovation, and the business of creating ground breaking HR solutions is booming. The design, intelligence, and adaptability of HR management software will continue to evolve as new HR tools are developed. These indispensable solutions will help companies improve employee engagement, diversify their workforce, rethink sexual harassment training, expand corporate wellness solutions, and augment AI-based HR operations.â â Courtney Moran, Research Specialist at G2 Crowd
And with CakeHRâs recognition as a high performer in the HR Management Software marketplace, our aim is to continue to support the needs of our current and prospective clients to meet the demands of these trends forecast to govern business objectives throughout 2019.
Are there any other HR tech trends you forecast will impact your organisation in 2019? Let us know!
So to summarise, the 8 HR tech trends of 2019 are:
- Boost employee engagement
- Promote equal and diverse practices
- Virtual reality immersive training
- Foster an inclusive and respectful company culture
- The employee experience
- AI across HR operations
- Agile business model
- Remote working
Robyn đ©âđŠ±
There is a subtle difference between a good and a great HR management software. Know how we deliver nothing but âGreatâ by starting your 14-day free trial at CakeHR!
