HR technology that delivers a great user experience can help organisations engage more deeply with employees and provide HR leaders with key strategic information in real time. However, technology must be an enabler rather than a blocker of productivity in the workplace. This is according to a panel of leading thinkers in the HR technology space which agreed that:
- A new wave of HR technology solutions has the potential to facilitate greater employee engagement – if managers embrace it and really value their employees
- By facilitating access to real time information, HR leaders can be ever more crucial to the executive decision making processes
- Enterprises which demonstrate technological leadership will have a competitive advantage in the war for talent
- The next wave of technology must be intuitive to deliver on its potential and meet the needs of the growing number of millennials in employment
- HR leaders will have to be brave and experiment with new technologies to see where the real value lies, and demonstrate real return on investment
The insights are based on a panel discussion on ‘The world of work in the next five years’, hosted by ADP, which brought together the following industry insiders and leading thinkers:
- Dr Anthony Hesketh, Senior Lecturer at Lancaster University Management School, Visiting Professor at Copenhagen Business School, Senior Advisor at EY
- Neil Lancaster, HR Director at Gamestec
- Mervyn Dinnen, Award Winning International Blogger & HR thought leader
- Bridget Penney, VP Human Resources at ADP
- Jaime Losantos, Product Marketing Director at ADP
The panel noted that we are at the cusp of a new range of technologies that could be completely transformational for the way HR technology enables businesses to function. The panel was united in its opinion that technology could be a driver of significant business change – although some questioned whether technology as it currently stands actually helps with employee engagement and driving business performance.
The panel discussed the impact of high quality design and user experience on coming technologies, believing that more intuitive technology that enables people to achieve their day to day roles more effectively will drive increased usage, and more valuable data. One key observation from ADP’s Jaime Losantos summed up the challenge for the next wave of HR tools; “In HR you own the last digital mile, you have the power to generate engagement through the use of that tool, to generate interest, and most importantly – to convey the corporate culture.”
One key area of focus for the panel was the wider social implications of the tools and technology that will impact working life in the near future. The discussion focused on how organisations can meet the challenge of maintaining a coherent organisational culture while maintaining a working community spread across borders. Additionally, a new concept, of diversity was discussed, Mervyn Dinnen noted that in Europe, discussions about diversity had already changed, “it’s not just about age, gender and ethnicity; it’s about introverts and extrovert working together, creative and analytical people, people with different technological abilities.”
The panel also discussed the impact that a high quality technical environment could have for positive communication with potential employees. It was noted that within the next five years, over 50% of the workforce will be ‘millennials,’ (people who reached young adulthood after the year 2000). Firms that are unable to provide a modern suite of communications tools for the working environment will suffer – especially in the knowledge economy.
Commenting on the discussions, David Foskett, Managing Director, ADP UK, said: “This is an exciting time to be a technology provider to the business community. If we work hard to deliver solutions that are a joy for employees to use and make their work easier – then ‘pushing’ adoption will be a thing of the past; instead, employees will ‘pull’ the technology in. If we can make that happen, then the resulting data that HR teams can use will become richer and more useful for driving strategic decision making.”
The findings of the panel are detailed more extensively in ADP’s recent perspective paper, “The world of work in the next five years,” available for download here.
