Paycor, a Human Capital Management company, have released the results of a survey they have conducted about the present and the future of HR.
The nationwide study - conducted by Harris Poll - surveyed 500 HR professionals and C-suite executives and was undertaken to understand how HR leaders in small and medium businesses saw the future of the industry in five years and how they could prepare for changes.
Approximately half of the HR and business leaders who were surveyed believe that many core HR functions will be automated by 2022. Whilst being optimistic about their businesses in 2018, 45 percent are apprehensive about recruiting and retention of staff. The two major concerns they have are finding the right people for the job and then keeping them motivated.
The survey also reveals that small and medium size businesses will focus more on using information that can be interpreted quickly and used to drive business decisions and help solve challenges without widespread vetting from the leadership.
Experts stated that Initially HR technology was built to guarantee conformity - but that is rapidly changing.
Karen Crone, Chief HR Officer of Paycor stated:
"Most people embark on a career in HR to make a difference, but many get stuck in the administration.” She added "HR technology wasn't built to make HR's job easier or to give HR time back to focus on people. Over the next five years, look for the most successful teams to embrace technology and focus more on performance."
She added: "Armed with the tools to add more strategic value, HR leaders will be able to evangelize a holistic approach to the entire employee life cycle—from hiring and on-boarding through career development, learning and training—so they can spend less time on the administrative work that has kept HR in a box and more time enhancing their company's people power."
According to the survey, 82 percent of respondents say ‘soft skills’ will become more important as HR becomes less administrative and 47 percent expect their roles to become more data-driven strategic. By 2022, HR professionals predict that their teams will have three top priorities - training and development; employee morale and employee retention.
Stacey Browning, President of Paycor stated:
"As technology continues to disrupt the HR status quo in ways big and small, it's critical that small to midsize business HR professionals are able to minimize their focus on administrative tasks and achieve a more strategic position in their organizations."
The survey report indicates that HR leaders are gearing up for the challenge - but many HR leaders will find it difficult to invest in the necessary tools to assess data as they could be obstructed by cost, especially if they are unable to power new technologies - and new systems are unaffordable.
Karen Crone stated:
“HR leaders should start small……they do not necessarily need a system to look at data in new ways. Take attrition data, for example. We often look at the monthly rate or voluntary versus involuntary, but what about other factors?”
She added, “Just by stringing together data that is seemingly unrelated, you might find a meaningful pattern for your business."
