In a digital world characterized by increasing transparency and the growing influence of millennials, employees expect a productive, engaging, and enjoyable work experience. ‘It’s not just an expectation, it’s also a request. Without it, it’s harder to retain employees. In the United States alone, workers are leaving their jobs in record numbers and studies show that voluntary turnover exceeds 15%. Therefore, human resources must focus on more than just employee engagement and culture, they must develop an integrated focus across the entire employee experience, bringing together the entire workplace, human resources, and management practices that they affect.
Technology allows HR employees to spend more time on strategic work, which often provides a better employee experience, making the company more competitive. New processes are simplified every day. Technology can automate manual and repetitive administrative tasks. Processes such as submitting an expense report, requesting and approving a dismissal, signing the employee handbook, and so on, are just a click away from all employees. Successful gains from increased productivity lead to greater engagement with end-users and HR. For the HR specialist, the work focuses on strategy, where it used to be more transactional.
What Menard is saying is that HR people tend to see technology as a solution. While the technology is certainly being used in this way, you need to focus on why the solution is needed and what results it achieves. It’s very easy to get confused by all the technical noise we hear. Terms like artificial intelligence, robotic process automation, machine learning, and chatbots are just a few of what most HR professionals often hear.