Human Resource Practices

6 Major Impacts of Technology on Human Resource Practices

In this digital era, technology has transformed every aspect of our lives. Whether it’s education, lifestyle, or business operations, technology has made groundbreaking upgrades to make everything better, faster, and more efficient.

When technology has left its mark on every sector, it’s only apparent that it impacts Human Resources too. Advanced HR technology solutions are changing the way the HR departments function.

For instance, HR professionals use innovative methods to connect with employees, store data, and evaluate employee productivity. From recruitment, training, and development of employees, HR technology solutions only aim to improve internal functions, maximise benefits, reduces problems, and achieve organisational goals.

With that in mind, let’s now explore how harnessing technology can improve HR activities.

1.Smarter Way of Recruitment

Gone are the days when job seekers and HR recruiters used to connect via letters and calls to fix a personal interview. Now companies have multiple options to post openings and connect with prospective job seekers.

For example, HR recruiters can post on job sites like LinkedIn and Indeed and share job details. A potential job seeker can directly apply through the site or visiting the given link, making the process fast and convenient.

Although this reduced the time a recruiter spends on attending phone calls, and screening paper resumes, it was challenging for the recruiters to find an employee fit for the job role. But thanks to technology, with automation and artificial intelligence (AI), it became easier for recruiters to screen qualified resumes.

Automated screeners can detect and compare the candidates’ resume skills with the necessary job skills and sort out the best resumes from the lot within seconds. Some companies also use robot interviewers for the initial interview rounds to determine the candidate’s suitability for the job role.

2.Ease in Storing Data

Often the HR department ends up with more data than they can manage. Thankfully, with technology, HR no longer has to maintain files after files on different employees.

Since today everything is digital, you can store a considerable amount of data in software for quick and easy access. For example, the HR recruiters and managers can store employee data, office data, and other confidential documents in one single location and have them password protected.

Also, storing data in software makes it easier for the HR department to find relevant documents without any fuss and reduces paper use, thus reducing wastage and saving trees!

3.Simplifies Communication

One obvious advantage of adopting technology is quick communication. The HR department has to maintain effective communication with employees through different mediums – be it emails, text, or messaging tools.

Many companies use messaging applications or online forums such as Slack and Basecamp to interact and exchange files with the team and employees.

Let’s say the HR manager wants to share important information regarding COVID-19 with the team. S/he then can directly drop mail from the forum to the respective departments. This way, everyone in the organisation can save time and stay updated on the new guidelines or happenings in the company.

4.Effective Data Analysis

Performance management is an integral part of HR duties. The HR professionals are responsible for collecting and monitoring employees’ performance data, gathering feedback from the supervisors, and facilitating employee reviews.

Employees’ performance assessment may be a long, time-consuming task, but extremely important for promotion and increment. Every company has specific criteria that the employee needs to fulfill and become efficient at the job. And analysing an employee based on those criteria can take up a lot of time, delaying other HR activities.

Luckily though, technology has resolved this problem for the HRs. Tools and software programs can help track employee performance, monitor reports, and give timely reports, making the process less time-consuming.

However, since these are technical tools, the chances are that there could be some error in judgment. So, the HR assignment help specialists should use the latest tools and countercheck the reports, you know, just in case.

5.Boosts Efficiency & Promotes Career Development

No doubt there are downsides to using technology, but at the same time, you have to acknowledge that technology improves work efficiency. Whether screening resumes or writing an HR assignment, technology can help organise work and save time.

Using technology, HR can now carry out all administrative tasks without spending hours locating different files – be it drafting quick messages, making edits, and doing calculations.

With technology solutions, HRM specialists significantly track employees’ performance, take necessary actions to improve productivity, and design training modules for career progression.

Employee management tools allow HR managers to keep track of performance targets, recognition, promotion, and so on, ensuring that the management doesn’t forget its promises to the employees.

6.Quick Onboarding

Onboarding plays a critical role in the hiring process as it affects a new employee’s perspective of the organisation and its employees. Therefore, HR has to improve the process using innovative methods and technology.

Automated welcome letters, guides, virtual tours, or quick greetings through chatbots can facilitate the process and make onboarding much more welcoming and interactive for the new joiner.

Proper Safety Measures Are Mandatory

It’s no surprise that there are countless safety concerns in a company’s HR department. Storing your data on the cloud or other online devices can welcome major security threats. Therefore, the company must take necessary security measures before implementing tech solutions in their system. For instance:

  • All data files should be password protected to safeguard them from malware or third-party intrusion.
  • HRs should change the system credentials periodically.
  • Anti-malware and firewalls should be used and upgraded from time to time.
  • The company should train HR employees about security threats and ways to avoid compromising data safety.

Conclusion

Technology has brought many unprecedented changes in the HR department and made employee management more organised, efficient, and less time-consuming. However, security threats and chances of inaccuracy are two major downsides of HR technology solutions. Moreover, since machines (as of now) don’t have human-like decision-making abilities, human supervision is still crucial. Therefore, it is also vital that the HR department take the necessary security measures and train the employees to understand the pros and cons of working with the latest technology solutions.