From privacy to return on investments: Top HR tech myths debunked

"Only 50% of companies are successfully executing on their digital transformation strategies despite demonstrated efforts and investments,” says a recent study by Wipro. The study points to a crisis in leadership. And although companies are aligned with the theory of digital transformation, they face challenges with the practical implications due to the myths surrounding technology.

Companies assessing new products are often confronted by a range of new solutions. In the process, they also encounter popular myths. In this article, we take a look at some of the popular myths associated with using HR technology systems. 

Technology is meant to enhance and not hamper human interactions. As new age technologies invade our lives (and not just the workplace), more and more interactions and communication will happen through technology. Effective use of technology can significantly increase the human interactions and will also increase the effectiveness of the interactions. The need for travel across continents, cross cultural differences and managing interactions across different time zones can almost be eliminated using effective technology. 

Organizations, however, will need to be mindful of the kind of technology that they are providing to their employees. Specifically, in the HR space, the right technology can significantly improve human interactions while retaining the unique cultural aspects of enterprises. Artificially intelligent, insightful talent platforms which have embedded social platforms are known to enhance the human interactions across the globe. 

Data is the new gold. Data protection, therefore, is the biggest threat that the enterprises face. In today’s hyper connected world, even the employees realize the vulnerability of data and are very particular about how, when and where their data is being used. As in the case of customers, Organizations owe employees the protection of their data. Having an impermeable data protection mechanism is of utmost importance for the organizations to safeguard their talent. 

85% of the reported data breach is caused because organizations fail to apply the relevant patches to their applications in time.  Modern cloud technology absolves organizations of this requirement and therefore significantly strengthen data protection.  Oracle’s autonomous cloud technology goes a step ahead in making sure that the threats are self-detected and self-corrected. HR Organizations must make sure that the applications being used are on cloud and have the best in class security layers built in.  

Businesses are faced with disruptions constantly and any investment must be deployed very judiciously. Having the return on investment on all technology investments clearly articulated is an important consideration. The good news is that we can quantifiably and qualitatively measure the return on HR Tech investments. Oracle’s Cloud platform-based SaaS applications provide solutions that are faster, cheaper and better. 

Organizations large and small can bring down their real cost of managing HR processes by leaps and bounds. These platforms are also free of any hidden or upgrade costs. The other aspect of ‘return on HR tech’ investment is about the efficiencies and effectiveness such systems can bring. Time to hire, quality of hiring, employee engagement, employee retention, compensation budgeting, manpower modeling all aspect of strategic HR see multiple benefits accrue to the organization post digital HR transformation. 

Having a customer grade digital HR experience is not a choice but a success imperative for the modern day enterprise. While it provides effective systems and process to efficiently manage HR, for smaller organizations it can provide much needed strategic talent advantage. For organizations, where ‘scale’ is limited, HR technology can help in maximizing the impact of a limited HR team. By using modern talent acquisition technology, smaller organizations can create a much better employer brand. 

Social recruitment can allow such organizations, with limited resources, to tap into and create unique talent pools. Digital onboarding can take the experience of a new employee to world class levels. Employee and manager self-service tools enriched by the smart use of AI and machine learning can bring the much-needed efficiency and curacy in managing the human capital in any organization. Lastly, the cloud-based technology make it a level playing field for smaller organizations by bringing in the most sophisticated technology at a cost that any organization can bear.   

It is a big myth that knowledge of IT is required to use HR technology. The modern cloud platforms today provide applications that are simple and intuitive to use.   HR practitioners can now make changes to workflows and applications that required months of coding by the IT teams earlier. Oracle new experience design center takes the configurability to an entirely different level. Organizations can experience a true agile methodology in managing their businesses by leveraging HR technology.  Embedded with machine learning, these artificially intelligent systems can provide actionable insights on its own that were earlier unheard of. And all this without any knowledge of IT.