New Emerging Tech in HR: What the Future Holds for Our Industry

We are nearing the end of the year already, and this new decade is barely just beginning. This year alone we have seen events that will go down in the history books, but we’re just getting started with the changes that are to come for the HR field. 

With every new decade, there are always great leaps forward in technology that changes how different industries conduct business. With new technologies on the horizon, the HR field is ripe for change and advancement. 

This week we wanted to look at four big new technologies that are coming to change the HR industry, and how your business can stand to benefit from adopting some of them. 

1) 5G   

We start this list off with one of the biggest advancements that are expected to roll out throughout the 20s, 5G connectivity. Imagine a future where you could inspect a factory without having to step foot into it, having an uninterrupted HD video call on a train with zero latency, or managing a store where smart shelves tell you what inventory needs to be ordered based on various sensors and weights built into them. 

With the fifth generation of the cellular wireless network, these advancements are possible and are being planned to be implemented into the workplace in the near future. 

5G is reported to be able to transmit gigabits of data per second rather than in megabits, approximately 100 times faster than existing 4G networks. 

5G is also able to support more devices on a network than 4G networks. Something that will be useful as more things are expected to be able to be connected to the internet in the future. With the Internet of Things (IoT), you could have a multitude of sensors that would report back to you a mass amount of data without having to utilize miles of cables to be connected. 

This technology’s implications for HR means that employees truly can work from anywhere they want, no longer being bound to home offices or anywhere with Wi-Fi. On top of this job training can be expected to transition into the virtual space with virtual reality and augmented reality. While some companies have played around with virtual training in the past, the increased data and bandwidth capabilities of 5G make VR and AR more possible. 

The potential for this technology is exciting, but it still has a ways to go before it becomes more mainstream. For now, you can read this guide on how 5G works and how it stands to change different industries to get a better idea of what the future holds. 

2) Artificial Intelligence 

Artificial Intelligence may seem like it is currently just your “smart” assistant on your phone or something out of a science fiction movie, but AI technology is advancing quite rapidly and could stand to change the HR industry. 

Currently, AI tech is already used in 88% of companies globally in some way for HR, with 100% of Chinese firms and 83% of U.S. employers relying on some form of the technology according to consulting firm Mercer’s Global Talent Trends 2019 report.  

The biggest advantage that AI brings to HR is the ability to intelligently process large amounts of data utilizing machine learning. Like:  

• identifying the best candidates for a position based on publicly available data like social media profiles. 
• Using chatbots to look up company information like policies or benefits 
• Providing recommendations for employee training 

• Screening and assessing candidates during the recruitment process 

Just like the current consumer version of AI like Amazon’s Alexa or Apple’s Siri, AI is here to make HR easier on businesses by doing jobs that would normally take dedicated teams to accomplish. 

The technology is young but has the potential to be a huge industry disrupter in the future. Mercer’s survey found that nearly three-fourths of executives globally predict some kind of industry disruption in the next three years, with more than half expecting AI and automation to replace 20% of jobs. 

3) Self-Service Technologies 

The use of AI in HR leads us to our next future tech on our list—self-service technology. In human resources, we have lots of repetitive tasks that we need to do. Answering the same questions from employees about benefits, recruiting the right candidates for positions, or managing employee schedules. 

This is where HR leaders are now adopting employee self-service (ESS) and manager self-service (MSS) tools to help improve service, reduce labor costs, and shift job responsibilities from HR to employees, managers, and job candidates. 

More and more industry vendors are offering these technologies as HR solutions that bring convenience to employees and employers. By reducing the clerical work in HR, self-service technologies allow HR teams to focus on more strategic aspects of the business while employees can better control things like job postings, 401(k)s, and schedules. 

Unlike some of the other benefits of the technologies on our list, self-service HR is here and growing. According to the 2018-2019 Sierra Cedar HR Systems Survey, 78% of respondents said that they are currently using ESS applications in their organizations, with some 68% of respondents saying they use MSS tools in their business. The survey respondents were HR, information technology, and operations leaders from 1,636 small, medium, and large organizations around the world.  

This technology has the ability to change how we think about HR, by completely putting the transactional aspect in the hands of the employees. How this will impact jobs in the HR industry remains to be seen, but the promise of more dynamic teams and increased productivity is enticing.  

4) Data Privacy 

Our last technology has been prevalent for most of the last decade, but still stands to be a big game–changer in the HR industry in the next decade—Data. More specifically data privacy and how we handle data will be gaining a bigger focus in the next ten years with data-privacy laws like the General Data Protection Regulation and the California Consumer Privacy Act. 

HR professionals will need to start developing a fine line between how employee data is utilized in the business and adapt to changing privacy laws when they start to take effect. More and more people are expecting greater transparency when it comes to how their data is handled, and almost all of the technologies on our list rely on big data to work effectively. 

This challenge will all depend on how federal, state, and local governments respond to privacy concerns, so it is best to keep an ear to the ground when it comes to this news. 

These technology trends are going to make big waves in the HR industry, so it’s best that you put your company in a position to take advantage of new technologies when they become available. Intelligently deploying new tech to help your business is what can give you a cutting-edge advantage over your competitors. 

Are you looking for new technologies to implement into your HR strategy? solveHR can help your business gain the edge it needs with our HR experts who are trained in implementing modern solutions for your business. Contact us today so we can make HR easy for you!  

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Written by: Matthew Muriel

Meet Matthew! Matthew is our content writer and has been working with us for a year. He enjoys working for SolveHR because it allows him to practice his copywriting and allows him to build experience in his fledgling career. Matthew studied at the University of Texas at San Antonio and earned his degree in English with a concentration in Professional Writing. He values learning new processes in the HR industry and then conveying those ideas to the company’s clients. When he isn’t working, he enjoys reading nonfiction, with his favorite book that he recently read being The Gene by Siddhartha Mukherjee. If he could go anywhere in the world he would travel across the United States and visit all of the national parks.