Top Disruptive HR Technology Trends to Track in 2020

Key Takeaways:

• Top three decision drivers for incorporating HR tech
• Progress in 2019
• The way ahead

KPMG’s 2019 Future of HR 2020 survey says three out of five HR leaders think HR function will become redundant if not modernized soon. Employers have sanctioned this need and 40% of respondents in the same survey say their organization is increasing its investments in HR technology.

Deloitte’s 2019 Global Human Capital Survey has outlined the prominent decision drivers propelling this sudden shift.

• 86% of respondents want to remodel their learning.
• 84% of respondents want to reinvent their employee experience
• 80% of respondents want a different approach to developing leaders.

The roots of this perspective drift dig deeper; The most important success measure for CEOs this year was magnified from curtailed-limited organizational benefit to all-encompassing-greater societal benefit. Organizational priorities underwent a seismic shift and income inequality, diversity, and the environment emerged as the biggest opportunities and challenges simultaneously.

Here’s how global leaders are addressing this change:

HR Tech Development Trajectory:

This year Artificial intelligence and humans began complementing each other at multiple levels. Organizations invested more and extracted more out of their HR technologies. 2019 laid the foundations for HR tech and post favorable results, organizations plan to incorporate much more in the coming years.

Investments in HR technology:

In 2019:

In the US, more than 12 million organizations are investing USD five trillion on benefits, payroll, and other programs. A Sierra-Cedar 2018-2019 report says the HR tech market grew by an astonishing 10%. Large companies on average are spending USD 310 per employee per year. The number has increased by 29% over the last year.

In future:

Many global organizations plan to increase the use of cognitive technologies, AI, robotics and robotic process automation (RPA) over the coming three years. 35% of organizations aim to invest in AI. To make their employees ready for this change, two out of three HR professionals are planning upskilling.

Learning and Development:

In 2019:

The L&D market swelled to USD 220 billion. Organizations used virtual and augmented reality for recruitment and learning and development. Artificial intelligence and humans complemented each other and Nudge-based technologies hatched. Bite-sized lessons, curated content and micro-learning became popular.

In future:

Learner engagement emerged as the prime focus. Many are using online games for this purpose.

Employee and candidate experience:

In 2019:

The recruitment market grew to USD 250 billion. 40% of the US workforce hopped jobs. More than 50% of employers focused on improving their employee experience. Candidate experience platforms like pathmotion, Honeypot and chatbots cropped up. PathSavvy or Talent Guard helped design individualized career plans by assessing the employee’s current potential, gauging the skill gap and analyzing job competencies.

In future:

KPMG’s Future of HR 2020 survey says 95% of organizations are focused on improving their employee experience.

Many more employee and candidate experience boosting platforms are expected to hatch.

50% of organizations plan to use HR chatbots by 2022. These chatbots will free time for other human-centric tasks and will allow HR professionals to focus on more urgent and complex questions.

Data driven changes:

In 2019:

Companies prepare to switch to an integrated digital platform wherein they can include and use features from their existing enterprise systems. Data-driven decisions are expected to buttress the employee experience and candidate experience measures.

In future:

46% of organizations plan to hire a data scientist.

Organizations will need to integrate different applications to facilitate seamless data sharing among different functions and stakeholders in the organization.

Changing work and workforce:

In 2019:

The new workforce, millennials and Gen-Zs, were more inclined toward gig or freelance works. Those still in the mainstream jobs sought meaning in their work. Cloud-based HR platforms, collaborative project management tools, VR conferencing and virtual coworking spaces arrived as the solution improving functionality and employee experience at multiple levels.

In future:

The International Working Group (IWG) says remote work has come far from being an exception and is quite likely to become a norm in the years ahead. Organizations are also including remote work as a perk for employees.

A new job landscape is likely to appear. AI metamorphosed jobs will be digital, data-oriented and versatile and they will be called Superjobs.

Parting Words:

We have covered the most prominent changes above. However, lot more tectonic shifts rattled the HR landscape this year; including but not limited to fairness, transparency, diversity and inclusion, social responsibility, productivity, employer brand image, teamwork, internal mobility, employee wellbeing, and leadership development. How long before disruptive technologies seep deeper into organizations’ core HR processes?