9 min read

5 HR Technology Trends of 2023 and Beyond

QUICK SUMMARY

The major HR technology trends helping us work more effectively.

TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. The AI evolution gathers pace 2. Tools to better enable hybrid/remote working 3. Cybersecurity a growing concern 4. New compensation solutions 5. Coaching and mentoring platform resurgence

Technology advances at too fast a pace for some, but not fast enough for others (shouldn’t we all be in flying cars by now?).

Whichever way you look at it, it’s undeniable that an increasing number of tasks in our professional and personal lives can be carried out more effectively with the help of technology.

HR professionals interested in using new technologies to their advantage should keep their eye on the following HR technology trends of 2023 and beyond.

The AI evolution gathers pace
Tools to better enable hybrid/remote working
Cybersecurity a growing concern
New compensation solutions
Coaching and mentoring platform resurgence

1. The AI Evolution Gathers Pace

Artificial intelligence is gradually moving from sci-fi novels into everyone’s daily lives, including HR professionals.

It seems one can’t browse a news site or open a newsletter without AI being mentioned at least once.

So, how can this rapidly-developing branch of technology help HR professionals?

Hyperautomation

Hyperautomation is the idea that if a task can be automated, then it should be. You’ll likely be aware of automation to help with payroll and data entry and, as AI gets ‘smarter’, the breadth of tasks that can be automated will increase.

AI chatbots, for example, can greatly enhance employee experience by immediately providing workers with the information they need and delivering relevant data to the HR team.

AI can also be trained to look through CVs and parse candidates based on their education and experience, although we recommend exercising caution here.

As AI technology continues to evolve, it's crucial to choose the right HR software equipped with advanced AI capabilities to stay ahead of the curve.

Enhanced decision-making

The power of AI also comes from machine learning, or its capability to analyze and interpret large data sets.

The more data you can collect about employees the better it is for the AI, so many enterprise-level human resource management systems (HRMS) in particular have been beefing up their AI technology to help with people analytics.

For human resource teams and business leaders, machine learning can help you figure out how team members can best be utilized and even which employees are about to quit.

Write better job descriptions and outreach emails

Unless you’ve been living under a rock you’ll have heard about Chat GPT and other natural language processing tools.

They’re fun to play around with and are particularly useful for creating the first drafts of job descriptions (note first drafts) or copy for your recruitment marketing.

Related to recruitment, they can also be useful for starting an interview question bank or helping you write Boolean searches!

2. Tools To Better Enable Hybrid/Remote Working

According to research by Zippia, 74% companies use a hybrid model or are working on it.

Remote/hybrid work is here to stay and will improve the lives of a lot of people. But, as we all know, remote or hybrid workforces present their own unique challenges. For example, many organizations are seeking out hot desk booking software and other tools to help reduce and maximize their office space.

HR is now tasked with managing people across multiple locations, time zones, and jurisdictions and ensuring remote workers are healthy, engaged, and can access HR products and services.

In many ways, remote/hybrid can represent a new opportunity for human resources to redefine its role within organizations.

Here’s how technology can help with this endeavor.

Employee well-being is going virtual

The circumstances of the pandemic brought employee well-being, particularly mental health, further into the spotlight.

As a result, a survey by the Business Group Health showed that, in the US, the number of large employers providing online resources to support mental health will increase to 88 percent this year.

According to the same survey, at least half of employers plan on “lowering or waiving costs” for remote mental health services and nearly one in five respondents plan to provide managers with additional training to recognize and support an employee who may experience a mental health issue.

Telehealth mental health services—like Talkspace and BetterHelp—bring trained professionals right into the homes of remote workers.

Start-up Oliva aims to provide customized, personal video therapy sessions and workshops for managers. Some employees are even open to AI therapy because a non-human is easier to open up to.

Technology to monitor employees

Remote work has changed the rules of communication. Remote workers can’t pop into a neighbor’s office to collaborate or have serendipitous chats with colleagues in the kitchen.

From a manager and HR perspective, it’s harder to gauge what people are working on and how engaged they are when you’re not sharing a space with them.

This is why, increasingly, organizations in 2023 are relying on methods such as regular pulse surveys, using tools like TinyPulse, to continuously gather feedback from employees and use it to improve their experience.

In addition to this, some organizations are now using increasingly advanced employee monitoring tools that track how engaged employees are when working from home.

These gather metrics such as time tracking, application and website usage, and productivity, in addition to random screen screenshots and sentiment analysis (studying dialogue).

The data from these remote employee monitoring systems can then be used to track healthy habits and avoid burnout, suggest improvements for productivity, and designate training and coaching.

Related Read: What Is Employee Monitoring?

Tools to help build connections remotely

While many enjoy the flexibility to be able to work remotely, people also say they miss the in-office connections and it can get lonely.

A number of apps have been developed to counter this and help teams build crucial relationships.

Many integrate with instant messaging apps like Slack or Teams, some common ones being Donut, Know Your Team, HeyTaco!, and Gatheround.

Global payroll technology and employer of record (EOR)

Now that many organizations have realized they can still grow with teams party or fully remotely, they’re looking beyond their nation's border and hiring globally.

Enter the proliferation of global payroll software and employer or record technology to help HR teams handle a distributed workforce.

Both will help you manage global employee data, compile payroll and assist with recruiting, onboarding, and compliance.

Indeed, HR technology tools such as Oyster help you to create locally compliant contracts, communicate your employment terms and keep documentation centralized, safe, and accessible.

Compliance cannot be fully automated, but hybrid services combining humans and technology can help absorb new changes in an expanding regulatory landscape.

3. Cybersecurity A Growing Concern

As the world becomes increasingly digital and remote work becomes more widespread, unfortunately, cybersecurity is becoming an ever-growing concern.

According to a study by IBM, the cost of data breaches in the United States rose to $4.24 million in 2022 and remote work was a direct contributor to the increase.

Despite the increasing risk of data breaches, most HR professionals in a recent survey suggested that data security is not a “serious issue.”

However, HR should be at the forefront of ensuring employee and company data is as secure as possible. Identity theft through leaked personal data can result in real losses for employees and can also hamper recruitment and employee retention.

HR, working with their organization’s information technology leadership, should lay out a clear set of policies for data security.

The HR department should also ensure its team receives proper cybersecurity training. HR can even facilitate training for the organization as a whole as well.

Finally, HR departments should be involved in planning a response to a data breach. Employees who lose their personal information to a cyberattack will need clear communication from the organization and support going forward to minimize harm.

4. New Compensation Management Solutions

With new laws coming in around pay transparency and more conversations happening around important topics such as pay transparency and equity, platforms such as Pave have gotten a lot of investment in recent times.

Compensation management software helps HR and business leaders get to grips with their compensation management and tackle projects like job leveling, benchmarking and banding.

5. Coaching And Mentoring Platforms Getting A Resurgence

The best employers help enable their employees' development and there are a number of technologies that can help with this.

Learning management systems are becoming increasingly sophisticated, adapting to trends like in-the-flow learning, microlearning, personalization, and gamification.

Something we’re noticing is that they’re also getting beefed up on the reporting side of things as learning and development becomes increasingly operationalized.

But, what’s been getting a lot of investment recently is coaching and mentorship software. These admittedly quite basic apps help you quickly spin up new coaching and mentoring programs to connect people across your organizations and share knowledge and skills.

Sometimes it’s not the shiniest or sexiest stuff that’s actually needed!

How Can HR Technology Help Your Business?

While HR technology is always changing, the core function of the HR department remains the same: empowering people to make fulfilling contributions to their organizations.

HR technology is a means to an end and can’t be treated as a magic bullet. Some AI solutions, for example, won’t work unless you have the requisite levels of data management in place.

For further reading, try our article Is Your Organization Ready for HR Technology? covering key considerations when choosing HR software and how to balance the cost vs benefits of new technologies.

Other useful resources:

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