My recent posts have been about best-practice vs. best-fit and especially their application within HR. Technology was one of the areas where I was clear that a best-practice approach suffices. I am not going to change my view on that. However, would like to argue that specifically in technology, one should look outside of what is happening in HR to what is happening in real-world technology. And that for the first time, HR could be ahead of the curve? – what do I mean by that?
When you think about HR technology, there are a few visible trends that all HR technology firms are going:
- automation
- going digital
- analytics
I believe there is no doubt that this seems to be the future. And I have to say that I am not against that future. I just believe that we should be more differentiated around it. The current view (and I am happy to have a conversation around that) is that in these three topics, you see the future of HR technology. Probably right – question though is, if this is also the future of HR?
Ahead of the curve?
Before going further into that topic, let’s have a look outside of HR. Let’s have a look into consumer technology – in the end, all of above HR technology trends are based on consumer technology trends.
Automation: In HR technology, the trend is really towards more automation and integration. Get things done in the background and without human intervention as much as possible. We have seen similar trends in consumer technology a few years back. We went to all integrated systems and software – there was an App for everything on your iPhone or Galaxy. However, if you look into consumer tech now, you see that the trend is fading – actually reversing. People are going back to non-integrated technology in certain areas. If you think about photography for example, the hype in the recent years was to have it all on your phone and within apps. All integrated end-to-end. However, this is clearly changing with the current trend to separate cameras. Back to specialized products in hardware rather than all in software, back to distinct products and hardware specialization. Sometimes even to analog photography.
Going digital: Going digital seems to be the only idea, the only way to go down for all of HR – probably for all of a company if you see the trends and measures in technology. And again, consumer technology led the way to this path. Probably, there is no real way out of this – and probably there should not be a way out. However, a bit more differentiation should be applied. And again, consumer technology leads the way. What was the most significant product on this years globally biggest Consumer Electronics Show (CES)? – it was an analog audio device – actually a record player. A vinyl record player – and it was most favored around the younger generations.
Analytics: HR analytics, workforce analytics will bring us the insights to lead and manage the organization of the future. Predictive analytics are the solution of all of our issues – if you have a look into the HR technology trends and marketing, this is what you read. And again, this is based on consumer electronics. Many of the analytics products in the HR space are based on consumer editions like amazon or Netflix have developed and are using. The same algorithms used in these consumer based technology is driving HR technology. Now, interestingly, there are some consumer companies that believe to be ahead of the curve and are using something new: human curated playlists or recommendations. Apple is one of these – and the claim and believe is (which was so far not proven to be wrong) that there are specific topics, where the human analytics and understanding is superior to technology. And the success of this seems to prove them right.
Now, these are just a few examples that I currently see in play. You can argue any of these, but you cannot deny the fundamental shift in consumer behavior and technology. It is of course, not a shift back to the ancient time – but it is a balancing act from “all digital” to “digital where it is good, but analog where it is still superior”. I believe that this is the right move to do in consumer tech – and also I believe this is the right thing to do in HR tech. We are currently not on the road to the balance, but to all digital in HR tech. Let’s be for one time in HR ahead of the change curve and go now to the balance rather than needing to invest and roll back in a few years from now. Our workforce seems not only to be ready for the balance, but demands it (younger people buy vinyl, prefer curated playlists and buy themselves discrete products rather than all integrated tech). In my next blog I will play out what this exactly means for HR. But until then – any thoughts from the audience?
Chief HR Officer 