Fixated by the Forecasts or Tracked by Trends- HR Tech in 2022 and beyond
2021 is winding down after a pandemic induced turbulence. Now we are in December and the holiday season is on its way. But it is a season of predictions, forecasts, and the look ahead into future. Media is replete with reports most often authored by influential thought leaders, consulting firms and notable industry publications, on forecasts and predictions on just about everything which should concern us. The idea of planning, in bringing the future to the present, is guided by, to do something about it NOW.
HRTech is no different.
In here the quote of the notable futurist Alvin Toffler becomes apt — “The future always comes too fast and in the wrong order.” It could not have been truer given the uncomfortable grapple we are all having with the pandemic for the last 2 years. Could anyone predict this? If this prediction failed, it would be reasoned out that this is an “one in 100 years event” referring to the Spanish flu of 1918. However, the fact of the matter is all predictions or forecasts for the coming year are being pivoted on the pandemic and its aftereffects.
HRTech is no different.
Any believable prediction of the future would be wrong, and any correct prediction of the future would be unbelievable (credit: Yohji Yamamoto). Predictions were made in the end of 20th century, that by 2013 that we would have flying cars and self-cleaning windows. But by then all we had is the surprise emergence and the subsequent stranglehold of social media which, was beyond the reach of the forecasters.
So, acting on prudence, there will be a strict avoidance of the words “prediction” and “forecast” and we will lean on the word “trend” which could be more manageable and accurate.
As practising HR professionals, would understand and strive to make stakeholders aware of the trends and how together could be ready to address the same.
So, what do the reports suggest?
As an exercise, the review of the published reports on HR Tech were binned under: Thought Leaders/ Research & Consulting firms and Digital Media Platforms; and the HR Practitioners.
Thought Leaders in Human Capital Management (HCM) like Josh Bersin are of the view that with the tight job market, the importance of smart recruitment (referred to as “Talent Intelligence”) with the aid of AI based technologies to match, predict and select talent would go mainstream.” Talent Mobility” within organizations, would be facilitated through upskilling and reskilling, so micro learning through in-house academies would play a key role. Hiring will be for skills and not for jobs. Talent acquisition would require the need to create the employer brand by keeping the focus on employee well-being which in other words emphasises the significance of employee engagement and experience and saying so leveraging the omniscient social media.
Research and Consulting firms like Gartner have taken a different approach. What is refreshing in the report: “Top 5 priorities of HR Leaders in 2022” is the recognition that mapping Business Priorities to the corresponding HR Priorities would distil the priorities in HR Tech. The point that has been highlighted is the organizational need for skills-based and not role-based talent management. The downstream HR Tech investment will be in tools and technologies for skills- development. Naturally, talent acquisition and talent mobility would depend on these as downstream impacts.
Digital Media Platforms like Unleash (formerly HRTech World) have highlighted the emergence of the “hybrid” workforce and the need to have zero touch and robust cloud-based provisioning to meet the infrastructure need. Another key point highlighted by HR Brew (a social media platform focussed on HR Tech) has given the spotlight to the importance of employee experience oft mentioned as a two-way conversation between employer and employee. This is no longer nice-to have but a must-have particularly in areas of productivity and collaboration. These platforms have mentioned that metaverse could radically change HR with the ideas of fully digital meetings powered by extended reality, in the manner AI could enable the smart hiring adhering to diversity, equity and inclusiveness.
Dyed-in-the-wool HR Practitioners have been a bit more holistic and cautious in their views. The complexities posed by the hybrid workforce and the corresponding need for cyber security, the multigenerational work force, the need for revision in employee engagement, the documentation of the experience within and outside the cloud platform and meeting the specific needs of millennials constitute the building blocks for the Future of Work. Skills development and internal mobility of talent within the organization is being seen as a definitive trend. Practitioners have not yet called out in their assessment, the possible radical shift which would take place with metaverse, as technology adoption would be in a wait-and watch mode for them.
So, what pattern is now emerging?
One can see a definitive pattern as we try to get a sense of the trends presented by Thought Leaders, Consultants aided by Digital Media Platforms one side and the HR practitioners with enterprise cloud platforms on the other
Thought Leaders and consultants have whipped up the frenzy for the adoption of extended reality (courtesy metaverse) for Talent Acquisition. It is good to keep a watch on this leading-edge, consultant-driven development. The consultants would be keen to see the benefits being derived so that technologies like metaverse with extended reality go mainstream with a justified Return on Investment. It may seem at this moment to be a solution looking for a problem but one could be proven wrong.
On the other side of the spectrum, the traditional HR practitioner have been a bit measured in their approach. Pandemic induced transformation in the workforce as a hybrid workforce, the need to concentrate on employee engagement through frequency of interfaces and with well-integrated and perfected Performance management tools; Rewards and Recognition are the key focus areas.
So, the common themes are:
1. Management of the hybrid work force -brought about by the pandemic and the need for its robust and secured provisioning
2. Employee Engagement and Experience — Driven by the remote work and the fallout from the need to have a two-way communication between employee and employer. Applicability of metaverse is a bit farfetched now.
3. Technology enabled Talent Acquisition including aspects of Diversity and Equity — driven by AI and ML
4. Talent Mobility –Effected through upskilling and reskilling with investments in in-house Learning and Development
One last observation: The relevance of enabling technologies like Blockchain, as a distributed, decentralized public ledger in HR process does not come up in any of the reports. A leading software company has mentioned that it is still in its infancy but there are use cases which have been highlighted with respect to background verification process as an use-case.
Also, “The Great Resignation” was simply more newsworthy than its collateral Talent Acquisition.
Given that CHROs are getting business focussed, the need for these trends is to be driven by business priorities and not be stand alone, divorced from business outcomes. Otherwise, these reports will be incomplete in their approach. The emphasis on the HR Practitioners as the partners in the business growth, would help in a tighter definition of trends.
Hence, trends need to be meaningfully identified, introspected with benefits derived, and prioritised per business to get the practical and timely returns.
-Somjit Amrit
