HR Tech: Are You Tapping the Right Opportunities to Enhance Your Employee Experience?

Amid the changing workplace dynamics and rising employee expectations, today’s HR leaders need to reconsider their current technology portfolio. The harsh truth is that a traditional human resource management system (HRMS) is no longer enough. And, adding more disparate and complex systems to the mix is not a solution. Taking such steps only adds to tech spend and user adoption woes. Organizations could use a comprehensive platform focused on the employee experience (EX) that makes “work from anywhere” a pleasant reality.  

Workplace playbooks are being rewritten. Hybrid is the new way to work. The in-office culture appears to be losing its relevance, with almost 87% of employees wanting to work remotely at least half-time, according to McKinsey’s 2022 American Opportunity Survey.

In the post-pandemic work world, flexibility is a key employee expectation. The challenge for employers is to stay connected with employees throughout the workday without giving them online meeting fatigue. When it comes to organizational priorities, employee experience rules the roost.

How employees communicate, collaborate and connect will drive organizations to enhance productivity, foster workplace culture and, most importantly, retain talent. Employee experience is primarily defined by technology and workplace tools used by the organization. According to a recent Qualtrics research report, only 30% of employees say their experience with their company’s technology exceeds their expectations. It is time to rethink!

HR Tech’s Influence on Employee Morale

Business leaders often ignore common HR tech areas that can impact employee morale, as they do not understand how they much these aspects would affect their workforces and supervisors. These include:

•    Time tracking: Time tracking is one of the basics of workforce management. However, almost 60% of organizations still use traditional attendance systems such as hardware based or manual spreadsheets. While spreadsheets involve significant manual effort and time leakages, on-premise solutions offer zero transparency to employees after they have punched in and they do not work well for remote or on-the-go workforces. Also, most of these time-tracking systems do not directly feed into payroll, leading to manual back and forth between employee and relevant teams. It is important to switch to a system that is fast, flexible and accessible at any location. This will not only save employees time in clocking attendance, but will also give complete visibility to the employees and supervisors in real time. This makes the start and the end of the day easier and happier for every employee.

•    Employee productivity management: Most productivity systems stop at task boards or timesheets that are only meant to keep an eye on quantity of work accomplished by employees. However, being employee-centric is much more than mere productivity tracking. You need productivity systems that foster transparency, trust, recognition and, most importantly, make a workday simpler and prioritized. A smart productivity management system can keep everyone aligned without requiring too many physical or virtual meetings or follow-ups. Additionally, simple features like linking task completion to automated time sheet completion or giving instant recognition on completion of a task before time or as per highest quality can go a long way in boosting the employee morale. Technologies like artificial intelligence (AI) and natural language processing (NLP) can tell if work is done as per quality norms, without requiring supervisors to manually go over the work reports— thus saving their valuable time for more strategic tasks.

•    Employee recognition: Most organizations have employee rewards and recognition mechanisms in place to recognize employees’ workplace successes and milestones, which could range from simple emails to celebratory reward portals or apps. While recognition in any form is always welcome and keeps employees motivated, when received timely it can take the outcomes to a whole new level. Further, any appreciation works best when done in public. With a remote workforce, it is important that recognition systems gives instant visibility to a larger audience so that peers and other teams can also react and acknowledge the success of the winner. This will work wonders toward enhancing team bonding and self-motivation.

•    Collaboration tools: Since the start of the pandemic,  organizations of all sizes have become organized in building collaboration mechanisms. Employees are actively using calls, chats and remote data sharing, which is all good news. However, one area that employees and business leaders alike should take notice of is security. You need to ensure the collaboration tools are keeping your conversations and data safe and “just for you.” Also, aligning collaboration tools with attendance status of employees will save many unnecessary connects.

While organizations are willing to invest in EX technology, it’s complicated. A recent Forrester study showed that 60% of organizations spent more than $100,000 in EX-related technology in the last year, most of them being around employee collaboration and communication solutions, upskilling opportunities, company data/information, performance management and mental well-being. They plan to increase that investment by 16% in the next two years.”

According to the same study, “86% of businesses said they feel that their technologies are helping employees work better, however only 47% of employees feel the same way.” Adoption of employee experience tools is the biggest hurdle faced by business leaders. Mostly, employees do not see value of these tools, especially in giving them flexibility to work remotely. Another reason hindering employee adoption of these tools is that they find too many separate and complex tools or apps, which is difficult for them to use on a day-to-day basis.

A Balance Between Integrated Tech and the Human Touch

Organizations need to move to a comprehensive EX platform that provides access to everything needed to be successful on daily basis in the hybrid or remote work model. To accomplish this, various HR and EX elements need to be seamlessly integrated with each other to develop an employee-centric culture. By reducing the number and complexity of technology tools, and by keeping them relevant to business key performance indicators, organizations can facilitate adoption of technology and drive engagement and productivity.

Choosing an integrated EX platform is not simple. According to a PwC report on technology at work, employees still value the human touch. Hence, organizations need to pay close attention to what their people want and choose their EX tech investments carefully. It is critical to understand what EX looks like from employees’ perspective. It is important to know what to digitize and what to manage via human interactions.

“When it comes to designing communication strategies within the organization, most employees prefer face-to-face interactions,” the same PwC study notes. Similarly, half of the employees prefer that HR tasks like scheduling work or time offs or enrolling in benefits be primarily digital and not face-to-face.

At the Core: An Integrated EX Ecosystem

An organization’s goal should not be a tech-enabled workforce, but a happier, connected and productive workforce.

Most current HR tech systems are falling short in terms of managing the new work habits and norms. The biggest gap is they are not employee-centric. They get the work done but do not make employees happy. A disengaged workforce could be detrimental to company culture and business outcomes.

In the new work-from-anywhere world, it is important to keep employee experience at the core. Today, businesses need an integrated EX ecosystem that aligns with employees’ expectations and work routines. Keeping employees engaged, connected and collaborative across all touchpoints without overwhelming them with disparate and complex tools is the lynchpin of an organization’s success.