What Is HR Tech and How to Integrate It in the Workplace

Human resources has traditionally centered around the 'human' element, focusing on employee relations and management.

However, HR has significantly evolved in recent years, increasingly leveraging technology to enhance its functions.

In fact, 36 percent of HR professionals cite a lack of technology as the reason for their inability to automate and better organize onboarding programs. Companies that recognize their shortcomings and integrate appropriate HR tech tools to address them gain a competitive edge and maintain their lead.

Thus, developing a tech-based HR strategy could provide your company with a significant advantage.

Human resources is the one department that integrates all functions and tasks across the organization and streamlines them to give a usable output for the organization. Managing human resources is no easy feat, and HR managers can get all the help they can. Integrating the best HR tech into your organization has a multitude of benefits:

• Helps reposition HR as a strategic player in the business rather than just a facilitator.
• You can streamline the entire HR process.
• Bring down administrative burdens and compliance costs.
• Easy accessibility of data for employees and managers.
• Real-time metrics enable efficient decision-making.

Although almost all companies have known the taste of automation and the wonders it can do for the business, one must not overplay the hand. Too much automation takes away the human element from HR. Rather, companies could focus on choosing the right kind of tools to enhance the HR functions maintaining the human aspect and personalized services. 

HR technology streamlines and optimizes a variety of tasks that traditionally consumed a lot of HR professionals' time and energy. Here are some key functions it assists with:

1. Recruitment and Talent Acquisition: From posting job ads to tracking applications and managing interviews, HR tech makes finding and hiring the right candidates faster and more efficient.

2. Onboarding and Training: Automated workflows ensure new hires get up to speed quickly, with access to necessary training materials and schedules right from their start date.

3. Performance Management: Tools for setting, tracking, and reviewing goals make it easier to manage employee performance, provide feedback, and plan career development paths.

4. Payroll and Benefits Administration: Automating these critical but time-consuming tasks ensures accuracy and compliance, reducing the risk of errors and ensuring employees are compensated on time.

5. Employee Engagement: Surveys, feedback tools, and recognition platforms help companies measure and boost engagement, fostering a positive workplace culture.

6. Compliance and Risk Management: HR tech helps manage employee data securely, ensuring compliance with labor laws and regulations while minimizing risks.

The world of HR tech is diverse, offering solutions tailored to every aspect of human resource management. Here are some types of HR tech you'll encounter:

1. Human Resource Information Systems (HRIS): An integrated suite of software providing a central database for managing employee data, payroll, and benefits.

2. Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS): Software designed to streamline the recruitment process, from posting job openings to handling applications and conducting interviews.

3. Learning Management Systems (LMS): Platforms that facilitate online training and development courses for employees, allowing for skill upgrades and compliance training.

4. Performance Management Systems: Tools that support goal setting, progress tracking, and feedback, enabling continuous performance assessment and development.

5. Employee Engagement Platforms: Software that surveys employee satisfaction and engagement, offering insights into the workplace atmosphere and how it can be improved.

6. Payroll and Benefits Platforms: Automated systems for managing payroll, taxes, and employee benefits, ensuring accuracy and legal compliance.

7. Workforce Analytics and Planning Tools: Advanced analytics tools that help HR professionals forecast staffing needs, analyze trends, and make data-driven decisions about the workforce.

Integrating a new technology into your HR game can be tricky. There is no cookie-cutter solution that works for every company, but here is a basic template or guide which you can start working on:

Step 1: Conduct a Thorough Need Analysis

The first step in integrating tech into your HR operations is identifying areas where you need extra help. It is important to note here that we are not talking merely about automation. Integrating technology helps managers see things through a whole new perspective.

Depending on the nature, size, and type of business, the areas where technological assistance is needed vary. Identify the kind of tools you would like to have in your HR tech stack. It can be CRM, payroll management, recruitment solutions, and so on. The first step in integrating tech in HR is to pinpoint these areas of need.

Here are some examples of the most prominent tech in their respective domains.

CRM solution - HubSpot, Zoho CRM

Payroll and attendance Management - GreytHR, Keka

Customer Experience - SurveyMonkey, SurveySparrow

Employee Experience - Lattice, ThriveSparrow

Step 2: Choose the Kind of Tools You Would Need 

Having identified the tools required for your HR tech stack, the next step is to decide if you need these solutions consolidated on a single platform or prefer separate, specialized systems. An integrated platform offers a comprehensive solution supporting multiple HR functions, simplifying management and data analysis.

Alternatively, a best-of-breed approach involves using distinct systems for each HR function, offering customization and depth in each area.

The choice between a unified platform or multiple specialized systems depends on your organization's specific needs and preferences. While some may value the convenience of a single platform covering all HR activities, others might opt for the specialization and flexibility of individual systems for each function.

Step 3: Decide Between Going In-House or Choosing Vendors

The third step involves choosing between developing these platforms internally or outsourcing to third-party vendors. Outsourcing often proves beneficial, leveraging the expertise of specialists in this domain. If you've opted for a unified platform, seeking a single vendor for its development is necessary.

Conversely, with a best-of-breed approach, you can allocate different aspects of the platform to various vendors. Smaller organizations, especially those with limited budgets, may find outsourcing to multiple vendors more cost-effective.

Developing a comprehensive platform in-house or with a single vendor could cost more.

Step 4: Carefully Plan the Implementation Process

Now that you've picked your tools, decided on the platform type, and selected vendors, it's time to plan how you'll put everything in place.

This means thinking about what might go wrong and how to deal with it. Set clear goals and checkpoints to see how things are going.

Break the process down into steps, and decide who will do what and how much money you'll need. Also, think about which parts might be hard to combine with what you already have. If your company already uses some tech, like automation, make sure the new tools work well with what's already there.

Step 5: Decide Who Gets Access to the Tech Stack

Your HR tech stack is important and needs to be handled carefully. It's essential to think about who can use it because any changes one person makes can affect everyone. At first, only employees who really understand the technology and have the right permissions should have access. Also, think about making sure your HR tech stack can be used from anywhere.

For basic things like checking in and out of work, everyone should be able to access it, even from home. But for more complicated tools, like customer management and hiring systems, you might want to limit who can use them.

Step 6: Conduct a Pilot Test and Launch the Product

After planning implementation and securing your tools, conduct a pilot test for a short period. Monitor how employees interact with the new technology and its performance within your organization. This trial phase is vital for evaluating the tech's real-world functionality and integration with your operations. If the pilot test proves successful, proceed with the full launch of the new technology.

Step 7: Closely Monitor and Evaluate the Tech

Once the HR tech stack is up and running, make sure to closely observe the same for any glitches or malfunctions. Identify areas where employees find difficulty using the same and upgrade to new versions whenever necessary. Conduct employee satisfaction and feedback surveys to get real-time insights on how the technology has impacted the workforce as a whole. 

Change can be messy. No matter what the scale of change, the process is inherently tricky. Here are some tips that could help you navigate through the hr tech integration process in a hassle-free way:

#1 Manage resistance to change

One of the biggest hurdles the HR team might face during the whole integration process is resistance to change. This is especially true if your organization has not implemented any new technology in the recent past. Employees might have a hard time adapting to the sudden changes, so make sure your change management game is on point.

It is said that 63% of employees stop using technology if they don’t see its relevance to their day-to-day work. So before implementing the new technology, make sure that it would make the jobs of employees easier and not the other way around. Make employees see the point in implementing the new technology and how it increases the overall efficiency and productivity of your organization. Then, there will not be any more resistance to change. 

#2 Make use of internal SLAs

The benefit of having a solid internal SLA (service level agreement) in place is that there is a sense of accountability from both parties involved in the integration process.  The agreement can be between the service provider and the stakeholders of the company or between the facilities manager and the employees of the HR department. The agreement makes sure that the involved pirates have a clear knowledge of their individual duties and expectations from each other. It makes sure that both parties hold their end of the bargain, which in turn ensures smooth integration of the HR tech stack. 

#3 Focus the digitization efforts on end users

Whenever you sit down to make a decision regarding integrating HR tech into your organization, make sure to think from the point of view of the end users. It is the employees who make the most use of the digitization efforts done by the company. The inputs and feedback received from employees must be the main focus while making amendments and new integrations to the tech stack. 

Go Digital with a HR Tech Stack

A digital transformation is an inevitable phase every company must go through sooner or later (the sooner, the better). Adding technology to your everyday operations makes it 10x more efficient if done the right way.

The key lies in getting employees on board. With ThriveSparrow, you can conduct n number of customized employee engagement surveys to analyze how your employees are faring in the midst of the transformation process. With a band of happy employees to boost your digital transformation, there is nothing stopping you from becoming the net industry leader!