Top HR tech trends for the Year of the Pig

About the Author

Kartik Krishnamurthy is the Managing Director of Asia at Cornerstone OnDemand.

Earlier this month, Chinese families and friends from all around the world ushered in the Lunar New Year.

During this festive season, one thing always rings true for us all — whether you’re a firm believer or skeptic, it’s near-irresistible to check out your zodiac predictions.

With the Pig making its mark for 2019, I had a quick chat with my friends about what this signifies in Chinese tradition and found that it’s a symbol of good fortune.

In line with this, I took a moment to reflect upon some of the key trends in the HR landscape over the past year, and the kind of ‘good fortune’ that we, too, can expect to see.

Experiences over careers

With a generation increasingly led by millennials, a key (and growing) workforce trend is to seek constructive, engaging and enjoyable work experiences.

For many, this means striking a balance between success and value beyond paychecks — where they are well-equipped with the tools to learn and grow.

According to a survey conducted by Gallup, 59 percent of millennials prioritise continual work-related learning opportunities when applying for a job.

Fostering a consistent work-learning culture is important, but we also need to acknowledge that knowledge content has changed drastically over the years.

In this respect, businesses ought to leverage the developments we’ve seen in digitisation and AI to transform traditional classroom models and make learning far more personalised, curated and refreshed — which is perfect for re- and up-skilling employees in the workforce today.

In short, access to lifelong learning enables people to be better employees, thereby enriching themselves and their employers.

Evolution of the HR professional

Automation is becoming a reality, regardless of whether businesses or employees choose to partake in such shifts.

Contrary to the disquieting buzz on AI eliminating jobs, the integration of emerging technologies is, much rather, expected to create at least 21 million new roles within the next 15 years.

With the coming influx of job opportunities, imagine the thousands of resumes talent acquisition professionals will have sift through to hire for a single role!

Fortunately, the same digital tools that allow the creation of new jobs are also applicable to the hiring process.

Through AI, complex data can be collected and sieved through more efficiently, allowing candidates to be holistically accessed. Essentially, a once painstakingly-lengthy process will be effectively solved by bots.

Strategic investment

Despite Singapore’s position as Asia-Pacific’s leading technology capital, many businesses often overlook the relevance of investing in HR tech.

Technology has simplified many of the processes that exist in the industry today.

In placing strategic investments into subscription-based HR software, personnel will not only be able to their shift focus to other, more productive tasks; but showcase their businesses at the forefront of innovation — equipped with holistic management strategies to engage and manage top talents.

Additionally, aligned with the benefits of other subscription-based technologies, companies can now save on the hardware and software of keeping everything ‘on-site’.

 So, what can you take away from these trends? While the future of work may be — at times — unpredictable, it isn’t random.

With technology being the common thread that’s upending all existing industries, the HR sector should take an active role in understanding how current and next-generation technologies, when combined with evolving demographics, will shift our norms.

Companies and their HR teams can prepare themselves by continuously learning and adapting. This can simply come in the form of regular, open discussions about the latest HR tech trends or tools within the landscape.

I think it’s about time for HR personnel to play a crucial role in not only envisaging our future workforce, but also move their enterprises towards the right direction.

So, my question to you is this — will you lead, or follow?