Technology has made the world smaller and faster. With its ideas and massive amount of information are in constant movement. Managers and HR managers included are faced with a challenge to make sense and good use of what technology offers. Managers have been urged to stay ahead of the information curve, learning to leverage information for business results.
To begin with, the internet and email have shortened the recruitment process. Adverts are now accessed by a phenomenal number of job seekers. As HR managers we need to ensure that our target markets have access to our chosen advertising channels and that the systems are user friendly. Candidates can now easily access information about prospective employers and do not necessarily have to be physically present for interviews. Success stories, photos and blogs are being used by job seekers to find out more about a company. One of the challenges here is how then do we make the playing field level when candidates applying for the same job are interviewed on different platforms. Face to face interviews may allow candidates to score good impression points such as coming in early, greeting everyone they meet, a firm handshake etc., over video or telephone interviews.
Technological elements like Artificial Intelligence (AI) and machine learning have opened doors to a whole new world of possibilities for the human capital space. In today’s business environment, AI has made recruitment smarter. Recruiting new employees is generally a time consuming and costly process. With the advent of AI, finding skilled people has been made easier. Technological interventions that have hit the market have ranged from automated resume screening to robot interviewing and all have provided people who are a logical fit. AI has therefore freed up recruiters to focus more on conducting soft skills and culture fit evaluations.
Internal and external information dissemination has also been made easy by advancements in technology. Formal and social platforms are used by organisations. Social media has become a good source to know what current and potential employees are saying about your company. Because of its wide spread use, the social media has become an ideal platform to engage employees, build relationships and bolster communication in the workspace. There is however need to balance electronic communication with face to face interactions. HR departments have adopted the use of technology to gather information on employee engagement and cultural norms. However, experience has shown that employees perceive face to face interactions as management’s commitment to employee participation in matters that affect them and as such good HR managers will try and balance their approach.
Another interesting change that has been brought about by technological advancement is flexi time and flexi place. Employees have access to their work even outside the work place and beyond the traditional working hours. Is this now the norm and nature of the 21st century work life or HR practitioners should look into structuring flexi time?
Technology has now streamlined the performance management process. HR will see new levels of data competency due to the rapid and widespread adoption of people analytics that will help managers and executives to make decisions about the workforce. The data to be pulled from these analytics, they say will be used to create actionable insights that will support data driven decisions also around compensation, promotions development and succession planning.
HR information can now be digitalised. Most HR professionals are using what is known as big data powers. Big data is helping HR to understand current and prospective employees, labour market trends and new HR management concepts and practice. When integrated with other technologies Big Data helps to gain deep insights and allows HR professionals to make decisions powered by vital information. Big data gives HR Managers fact-based view of the current workforce and helps them to identify emerging trends.
Technology has significantly reduced time spent on administrative work by HR professionals, allowing them to focus on strategic issues. HR software systems which support the wok life cycle of employees and interface with payroll and benefits systems and are increasingly dominating the current HR landscape. The cloud technology is inevitable in today’s business space. Collection, data storage and dissemination have been difficult until the evolution of the cloud. With the advent of cloud technologies all information such as documents can be easily accessed online. Employee information can be archived and organised in secure locations.
Globally artificial intelligence has started to outperform human beings at making hiring decisions in certain areas such as the evaluation of hard skills. Broadly technology has helped businesses to eliminate silos and bridge gaps. Talent management processes have become better. Intellectual webs to manage specific tasks are a reality these day and organisations have radically changed the way they do businesses dramatically increasing their financial profits.
In conclusion, these technological advancements have helped the HR function to be streamlined and efficient, and have not ultimately taken away key HR management skills such as listening, motivating, impartiality, conflict solving skills, an ethical approach to assessing staff issues on a case by case basis but ensuring consistency etc.
Emmanuel Jinda is the Managing Consultant of PROSERVE Consulting Group, a leading supplier of Professional Human Resources and Management services locally, regionally and internationally. He can be contacted at Tel: 263 773004143 or 263 242 772778 or visit our website at www.proservehr.com