Digital transformation is empowering everything – right from offering superfast ATMs to intuitive apps – to encourage collaboration across different ambits of organizations to changing workplace experience. These disruptive changes will have a cohesive impact on organizational processing, paving the path for the emergence of new workforce that is going to be extremely mobile, diverse, and demanding.  In the same way, HR department is ramping up its digital outreach to develop the best out of its potential.  The human resources technology market is considered as one of the fastest growing segments. A smorgasbord of hi-end technologies, tools, and systems is already in place to take up this transition.

A report by CB Insights reveals that HR industry has received more than 2 billion dollars in the year 2015 to fuel the growth of new tools for recruitment, learning, feedback, planning, employee engagement, and performance scanning. The change is revolutionary. And, it will change the way HR industry renders its routine and core business tasks, and force them to stay abreast with emerging trends in order to get the requisite work done.

Let’s glean through some of the evolutionary changes:

New enterprise systems will take over the traditional HRMS: The potential and capabilities of cloud computing does not need any word of publicity. It indeed has become a reality. Market trends reveal that, as the HR apps gear up for smart devices, the adoption of cloud-enabled HR software will increase. Interestingly, there are millions of employees embarking on cloud-based HR systems to leverage financial and performance benefits. Companies across the globe either have switched to or are planning to replace their core HR systems, and as a result, adoption rate will be soaring high in next 2-3 years. They are partnering with potential market leaders, who have the capabilities, and whose roadmap best aligns with their business initiatives.

Thanks to cloud for providing easy-to-use systems! It has provided businesses an ability to serve varied business tasks, starting from payroll and HRMS to talent management and employee communications.

On top of that, third-party recruitment and job posting vendors, such as LinkedIn and Indeed, will also gain edge and help in taking your recruitment to an unprecedented level. As these platforms are cloud-powered and have their presence for more than five years – they can be trusted upon.

Talent Management: Talent management is not a new concept that has evolved in a year or two. The need for holistic solutions to manage today’s smart workforce is on the rise.  Legacy systems create a host of issues, such as data silos, inefficient processes, low adoption rates, and compatibility issues with advanced software versions. Here, adopting advanced talent management system that fosters global workforce can help in addressing these issues.

Employees are burning all their energies to get promoted into leadership at a much faster rate, and it will be no wrong to say that worlds of recruitment, performance management and training are now being driven by the employees. To cater to such escalating requirements and improve the employee experience, a swathe of tools, such as feedback apps, social networking tools, pulse tools, etc. are available in the market. These innovative tools help in automating conventional approaches and provide a new lens for companies to connect, collaborate, and share feedback. Trust me, if you are not aware of such tools, or not stepping into this new world, you will repent (or can be) in the list of left outs.

Let’s glean through some of such tools that will help companies to grow:

• Performance management & goal setting tools
• Employee recognition & sharing tools
• Employee feedback, pulse surveys, and feedback tools
• Wellness management, physical activity management tools
• Goal management & goal transparency tools
• Integrated team management tools
• Knowledge sharing & video learning tools
• Analytics tools to take better insight into data
• Employee check-in & location management tools

Established, growing, and even startup organization are now brining well-developed systems that can help in them balancing the work life of their employees. They are leveraging tools that allow their employees to join health-related challenges, track their fitness, and connect with their health care providers. More and more vendors will come forth to develop such exercise equipment and devices to cater to this demand.

Apps Integration to Increase: We are living in an application-centric world, aren’t we? Right from booking a ride to ordering groceries, we have plentiful convenience to meet our personal and professional goals in no time. Applications have changed societies and our lives to a larger extent. A large number of HR applications have been developed and many are yet to come that will bolster peer to peer collaboration into the system.

If you have not started to re-energize your HR technology, it is not too late to get started now. Many of such technologies and tools can add value to your HR system and drive transformation.  So, ignorance will act as growth cutter. And, yes, no one wants to witness that.

Analytics solutions to go Mainstream: Business intelligence and analytics are the most emphasized solutions, embraced by businesses nowadays all across the globe. Analytics strategies allow organizations to take quick insights into current and past data and market trends, so that they can make the best decisions for their business. As of now, a majority of organizations has embedded predictive analytics to know how much growth they can expect in the approaching year, and what strategic impact it can have on their bottom-line. Now, you are most likely to see recommendations instead of dashboard. (Do you realize, Facebook suggests you to add people you may know? That is with the help of an analytics tool.) Analytics experts are becoming a part of HR teams to drive greater levels of performance, and curtail fraudulent and compliance defilements.

Strategist suggests that every HR organization should have an analytics team. Those who do not have will not be able to be to understand their employees’ behavior, trends, and needs. Analytics will become integral for HR organizations in 2016 and beyond.

To keep up with employees expectations and to progress, it is the time for HR organizations to recount their strategies and embrace disruptive technologies. The way you design, communicate and share, and the tools you utilize – will differentiate a leading firm with the laggards.