{Zoom In: HR Tech} Adopting Tech in a Fast Changing Corporate World

An expert´s view of how HR tech is rising in a corporate world that is going back to values and integrity.

The world of corporate business is changing. Even before the pandemic disturbed the traditional ways of recruiting, managing people, or even searching for a job, the very core of corporate culture has been changing for a while now.

As Robert Chesnut, founder of eBay’s marketplace trust and safety system and the general counsel and chief ethics officer at Airbnb, says in an HBR article, “We are now in the midst of an ethical revolution. Leaders are increasingly held accountable for poor behaviour, and companies are pushed by employees, governments, and customers to step up and adopt a multi-stakeholder approach that serves social purposes as well as investor demands.”

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Keeping this is mind, now that technology has entered processes like HR, what can we expect from the corporate world. How does the new technological interventions help in driving business results and how that helps in building a strong customer interface?

The Tech Panda spoke to Karunjit Kumar Dhir, Co-founder of SCIKEY Market Network, an AI and automation-based platform for companies and jobseekers. Dhir says that today, talent isn’t just looking for a profit-earning company but also one with integrity.

It is not about just profits anymore, and only the organizations that have a proper narrative around the ‘triple-bottom line’ – profit, people, and planet — are the ones that are delivering the best shareholder value and can attract the best of the talent

“A significant change today is that most organizations and world leaders are going back to emphasizing the strong foundation built around great values. The superficial charm of glamour and fancy positioning is being challenged by fundamental values, ethics, social responsibility, and purpose. It is not about just profits anymore, and only the organizations that have a proper narrative around the ‘triple-bottom line’ – profit, people and planet — are the ones that are delivering the best shareholder value and can attract the best of the talent,” he says.

He further states that in a fast-changing world, with much ´noise´, until and unless an individual, an organization, or a brand is not clear in the message that is to be delivered to the target audiences and how it is to be delivered, chances are it will be lost as a part of this noise, dampening customer interface as well as business results.

“It is no longer about mere passion, but a much larger purpose that is making this world a better place in every sense possible. And, in the context of talent and performance, all this is possible in a practical sense only when, at an individual, group (team), and an organization level, there is a proper alignment of aspirations, values, and beliefs. And, the three most important factors that affect these aspirations, values, and beliefs are the ego, habits, and eco-system noise,” he adds.

How Tech Helps HR

Stepping into the midst of this is HR tech, and as is always with technology, we must use it responsibly and cautiously. So, how can investing in HR technology improve recruitment and talent management?

Investing in HR technology in recruitment and talent management can help employers in various ways, ´right from improving efficiencies, cost-optimization, improved data-driven insights to an amazing user experience leading to user delight´

SCIKEY uses technology and data-enabled insights and analytics to predict key drivers with a direct impact on business, like employee engagement, employee satisfaction (now happiness), predicting attrition, enable succession planning, change management, organization development, and performance management.

As such, Dhir says that investing in HR technology in recruitment and talent management can help employers in various ways, ´right from improving efficiencies, cost-optimization, improved data-driven insights to an amazing user experience leading to user delight.´

HR Tech and Investment Behaviour

Beyond a doubt, the pandemic has been a wake-up call for businesses to involve technology in HR, giving rise to high investments. As per Deloitte, the HR technology marketplace is a US$ 400 billion market globally, with investor interest in this sector steadily growing globally. According to Dhir, it will continue to attract investments.

Since the pandemic hit in 2020, we are seeing a steady convergence of health, mental-being, mindfulness, employee happiness and even stress management or lifestyle fitness into the larger HR-tech space

“In fact, it will attract a lot more new investment than ever before with the emergence of new business models, emerging markets, technology advancement, and very interesting business models exciting investors to rethink their investment thesis,” he predicts.

Until 2019, most of the investments in HR-tech were around a few key sub-verticals like recruitment-tech, learning-tech, employee engagement-tech, and self-service tech.

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“Since the pandemic hit in 2020, we are seeing a steady convergence of health, mental-being, mindfulness, employee happiness and even stress management or lifestyle fitness into the larger HR-tech space,” he explains.

He also informs that another big area that is garnering investor interest is the solutions around talent marketplaces, talent mobility, and enabling remote work.

“So, the whole gamut of the traditional HR-tech is now getting a lot more contemporary, evolved, and widespread, where it has become more of work-tech now,” he concludes.