The events of the past year, spearheaded by the COVID-19 pandemic, have changed the world of work massively. The business scenario is marked by wide-ranging uncertainty, and HR leadership needs to support company employees in this situation.
What this has meant for HR leader roles is a need to reimagine conventional HR approaches and strategies. There is an urgent need to conduct two-way conversations with members of the workforce, to listen and respond to their concerns. This is critical for engaging, supporting, and retaining talent.
How has the pandemic affected employee engagement?
Since the onset of the pandemic, a large section of the workforce has moved from an in-office scenario to remote work, creating significant distance between employers and employees. In this situation, leadership in HR has intensified its efforts to engage with employees in order to maintain clear communication as well as keep up productivity, motivation, and growth.
What role does HR tech play?
HR technology has been a great aid in this endeavor, allowing employee needs to be better heard by businesses as well as helping businesses in their strategic endeavors to be more agile, responsive, and to grow more.
Useful tools include platforms for ‘employee success’ (such as Peakon ApS). They help to take employee feedback and convert it into actionable insights. The advantage for employers is that they can develop a proper strategy to listen to employees, and that the strategy is highly targeted and well-integrated.
How does HR technology help in engaging employees?
HR leadership can leverage HR tech in many ways. It helps employers to get a pulse of employee sentiment in real time, and use that to create an ongoing system of feedback and personalized access, along with prescribing actions to address the issues at hand.
The mission of leadership in HR is to create a positive workplace for employers and employees, and HR technology is very useful here. The right tools maintain a focus on employees and mines their responses to get insights that can be leveraged in the pursuit of rapid growth and change. Proper deployment of technology and analysis of insights could truly transform the work of human resources and the management of an organization. The aim is to not just stop at feedback but to find a resolution to issues and problems.
What are the benefits of HR tech in engaging employees?
HR tech essentially enables employers to leverage employee data to better focus their engagement efforts. This results in significant improvements in employee productivity, employee retention, and talent development, along with improving their interactions with company leadership. Users get a continuous listening platform with a look at the employee experience, productivity, and sentiment in real time. Employee insights can be uncovered and leveraged to improve intra- and inter-team connections as well as organizational strength and resilience. This is invaluable in boosting employee engagement and improving the performance of the organization.
In what situations is HR tech useful?
Given the events of the past year and the huge uncertainties of the immediate and extended future, the need for technology in HR is undisputable. Staying on top of the pulse of employee sentiment is intrinsic to the productivity and engagement of workers, and can help solve many problems. These could range from onboarding surveys that alert managers or other relevant departments about problems, or feedback on processes in tax or payroll that could incrementally improve such processes.
