How technology is revolutionising talent management

With the highly anticipated HR Tech Festival Asia 2024 set to take place from April 24-25 at the Marina Bay Sands Expo and Convention Centre in Singapore, HRM Asia delves into the evolving intersection of HR and technology. This powerful combination is no longer a luxury, but a necessity for organisational success in today’s ever-changing business landscape.

Leaders are buzzing about the transformative potential of AI and automation, not just for HR roles, but for driving overall business outcomes. As organisations navigate complex challenges, strategically integrating HR technology becomes a catalyst. It fosters agility, innovation, and efficiency within the workforce. The second part of this series explores the pivotal role of HR technology in unlocking tangible business value, propelling organisations towards sustained growth and resilience.

Read on to find out more…

Unlock the real business value of AI in HR

Joshua Secrest, Vice-President of Client Marketing and Advocacy, Paradox, “There’s lots of hype and buzz around AI and automation in HR tech, but the real magic is identifying the places where those categories of new technology can drive real business value and make an impact you can measure. If you can show your CFO or CHRO how AI saved the business money – by helping you reduce the cost to bring talent into the organisation, improve the efficiency of the people doing the work to hire those folks or keep the people you hire longer – then you’ll start speaking a language your executive team understands. That’s the key to getting buy-in and making it easier to push the needle on innovation in HR and recruiting.”

“The great thing about AI is that it can make your business incredibly adaptable and efficient – automating things that people used to do, like screening resumes for job requirements, scheduling interviews, answering candidate questions 24/7, and sending reminders and nudges to keep people moving through the process. Those things may seem small, but collectively they can have a massive impact on the speed, cost, and efficiency of bringing the right people into your business, as fast as possible. If you can do all of that more effectively and with less budget, you’ll have happier candidates, recruiters, and managers – and you’ll look like a business hero.”

Tech unlocks insights for a high-performance workforce

Justin Angsuwat, Chief People Officer, Culture Amp, “The role of HR is ever evolving and there is increasing pressure on demonstrating return on investment of people and culture initiatives. To do this effectively, we can use data and technology to be more predictive around people and culture and the impact that will have.”

“Using the right technology, we can understand where we have attrition risk, what’s motivating your top performers, what’s keeping people at your organisation, and much more. Synthesising and actioning these topics as early as possible can have a material impact on an organisation’s ability to shape and motivate their teams for long-term financial and overall performance. This evolution in technology enables the organisations that take advantage of it to create a competitive advantage by seeing around the corner on people and culture.”

Balancing human potential with AI advancements

David Jones, CEO and Partner, Mercer Talent Enterprise, “The future of work means that both human capabilities and new technology are both evolving rapidly, unlocking potential for greater productivity and positivity in the workplace. Employers focus on attracting, engaging, developing, and retaining the best talent, reducing cycle times, and customising the experience. This is secured by future-oriented assessments and open technology platforms focused on attributes which make a measurable difference in terms of growth mindset, comfort with ambiguity, resilience, courage, and grit amongst others.”

“In addition to promoting greater effectiveness, AI tools are elevating efficiency at a personal and organisational level. The war for talent continues to escalate with a technology-fuelled arms race, where both employers and employees are deploying AI applications throughout their candidate journeys and in the flow of work.”

“This promises potential for greater speed, democratisation and accessibility to talent assessments and development. The key challenge going forward is ensuring the winning combination of both quality and quantity of work, which can ensure fairness at work whilst providing enormous cost advantages.”

Harnessing HR tech for resilient growth

Kevin Fitzgerald, Managing Director, Asia, Employment Hero, “The Singapore SME Sentiment Report 2024 offers compelling insights into the transformative power of HR technology in today’s dynamic business landscape as 82% of business leaders surveyed express confidence in their growth prospects, reflecting an undeniable resilience despite facing rising costs and inflation. Central to this optimism is the strategic integration of HR technology, which has emerged as a key enabler for creating agile and adaptable workforces.”

“As the report highlights, digital transformation, AI, and automation are both the most significant opportunities (33%) and challenges for SMEs. This duality underscores the critical role HR technology plays in equipping organisations to navigate the complexities of evolving market conditions and shifting business priorities. With 36% of SMEs seeking increased access to technology and innovation resources, it’s evident there’s a growing recognition of how such tools can streamline operations, enhance strategic HR functions, and ultimately, enable swift adaptation to change.

“HR technology is not just about automation or efficiency: it’s about empowerment. It empowers organisations to respond with agility to the rapid changes in the market, align workforce capabilities with emerging business needs, and foster a culture of continuous learning and flexibility. The findings from the Singapore SME Sentiment Report 2024 showcase the pathway forward for SMEs aiming to thrive in an era of ongoing change, highlighting the indispensable role of HR technology in shaping future-ready workforces.”

Agility is the new success factor

Albert Liew, Managing Director, Singapore and Indochina, BIPO, “Technology fuels agility within teams and empowers individuals. Organisations utilising innovative tools that leverage AI and machine learning facilitate seamless collaboration, breaking geographical barriers and hastening decision-making. Cloud-based workforce management tools exemplify this by integrating technology and automation with HR data and insights.”

“By aligning technology with the business strategy, organisations can optimise workflows and gain real-time HR insights for precise decision-making while encouraging teams to collaborate regardless of location. These advancements, including self-service options, boost operational efficiency and champion a culture of innovation and adaptability, propelling organisations towards value-driven success. Embracing technology isn’t just about keeping pace; it’s about leading the charge towards a future where agility spells success.”

Hire worldwide, manage simply

Karen Ng, Market Lead Asia, Deel, “Deel’s all-in-one HR and payroll platform for global teams simplifies every aspect of managing a global team, from culture and onboarding to payroll and compliance. It helps streamline many of the HR functions into one platform and can scale up or down quickly, allowing organisations to be flexible and able to respond to constantly changing business environments.”

“Today, the HR tech stack can be complicated. From different payroll software for every region to multiple HR platforms for their mix of employees, some organisations have to use 16 different tools to make HR work. Deel’s HR platform handles all things global in one place. Hire employees, sponsor visas and run payroll through our Deel-owned entities worldwide. Get built-in compliant contracts, background checks, equipment, app provisioning and more. Get a one-of-a-kind worldview of data across your global workforce, plus we integrate with any tool so workflows can be customised.”

“The way we work is going global, with organisations hiring people distributed all over the world. But through HR platforms like Deel, building and managing global teams is simpler than ever.”

Tech tools unlock strategic workforce management

Gillian Woo, Director, Creative and Professional Services, Workforce Singapore, “Technologies such as robotic process automation and AI-powered recruitment or performance management tools serve as the catalyst for HR transformation, helping reshape HR roles. HR professionals can also take on higher-value functions, such as improved candidate matching to meet the organisation’s hiring needs, evaluating employee analytics to develop engagement strategies and conduct workforce capabilities building and career development to adapt to evolving workforce and business needs.”

“Through Workforce Singapore’s programmes such as the Human Resources Job Redesign Initiative and the Career Conversion Programme for Human Capital Professionals, employers can seek support in HR process re-engineering, redesigning of HR jobs to embed HR tech tools and reskill their HR professionals to acquire skills in HR data analytics, workforce planning or change management to achieve their business goals and enhance the career health of employees.”

Powering people for business success

Kanika Singh, Regional Director, The Gallup Organisation, “At Gallup, we believe, a successful combination for business success is people infrastructure enabled by technology infrastructure. Employees in an organisation are the drivers of business success and one of the core focus of HR technology needs to be serving as the analytics and advisory powerhouse to enable better decision-making on priorities for organisations. We incorporate this principle in our advice to clients every day where we help transform their organisation by transforming the experience of their employees at all levels. In this process, we utilise HR technology to provide leaders with deeper workforce insights, access real-time data, and drive faster action.”

“This can also go a long way in protecting the organisation against future risks and creating a culture of innovation and customer-centricity. Moreover, HR technology streamlines resource allocation and processes, boosting efficiency, and leading to targeted training programmes, mentoring initiatives, and talent development. This helps leaders navigate evolving market demands more effectively. By embracing HR technology, organisations unlock new levels of resilience in today’s market.”

“While that is true, we must remain mindful that while technology around us has changed, our human hardware – our emotional and psychological drivers – has not. We must use HR technology in a way that works for us while not erasing the essence of truly understanding our workforce and moving with the everchanging expectations of the workplace.”

READ MORE: Unlocking your workforce’s potential in a changing world

Learning culture fuelling workforce agility in today’s complex landscape

Craig Smith, Product Lead Business Agility for SoftEd, part of Skills Development Group, “Learning is the engine that fuels today’s organisations forward in a complex landscape, with HR and L&D being the key drivers in cultivating a workforce that’s both agile and adaptable through a learning culture of continuous improvement and skill development. We must enable our workforce to learn and innovate rapidly to keep pace with evolving needs.”

“At SoftEd, we assist and empower organisations of all shapes and sizes with customised transformation. We offer capability assessments and frameworks – including predictive diagnostics. We follow with personalised learning journeys and coaching to power upskilling that is targeted and industry-aligned. An approach that combines our industry experts and leverages technology provides a real impact and outcomes for the organisations we support in capability uplift.”

Why HR needs an entrepreneurial mindset

Dimitri Boylan, Founder and CEO, Avature, “The last decades have demonstrated that fixating on the future doesn’t move the needle regarding organisational success. After all, it is impossible to predict the future accurately. What organisations can and should do is understand the present and respond with agility as it changes – discover what is innovative in their context and do it.”

“But organisations can’t respond to changing market forces with software that doesn’t evolve. Instead, they need a continuously improving platform that unlocks the benefits of the Internet operating model, so they can leverage technology as offense rather than defence to design new products. Technology deficiencies can seriously block agility, but lacking a tangible vision can be a significant blocker, too. We believe that HR leaders who embrace entrepreneurship, have a firm grasp of the shifting work dynamics and use technology to create an evolutionary framework will be better equipped to outperform their competitors and successfully face their challenges.”

HR Tech Festival Asia 2024 is proudly supported by Achievers, Avature, BIPO, British Council, Cigna Healthcare, Culture Amp, Dayforce, Deel, Employment Hero, HireVue, Jobstreet by SEEK, Management Drives, Mercer Talent Enterprise, Paradox, Remote, SAP SuccessFactors, Software Education, The Gallup Organisation, the Tripartite Alliance for Fair & Progressive Employment Practices (TAFEP), WalkMe, Workday, and Workforce Singapore (WSG).

To find out more about HR Tech Festival Asia 2024, click here.