I don’t know if you ever had the life-shaping experience of scraping yourself as a kid, and when you showed your parent, they responded with, “Awe, you’ll be alright, just rub a little dirt on it.” Half joking, and half serious to the fact that you’d be okay, just add some dirt to the wound with the knowledge that “every little thing, is gonna be alright.” Shout out to any Bob Marley fans out there.
Today’s business environment can leave you with plenty of cuts, scrapes, and bruises. And while we may not be talking broken bones and stitches, we deal with fines, lawsuits, turnover, loss of productivity, and financial consequences that affect a lot of people.
Specific to the role of human resources in today’s business, there are numerous compliance challenges from onboarding to FMLA tracking, Open Enrollment, and more. There’s plenty of room for mistakes, and the inevitable bumps and bruises that come with the territory. However, many of these pain points can be dealt with efficiently, and even cost-effectively, maintaining compliance, while bolstering employee engagement, productivity, and retention. And it can all be done with less manpower, diminishing the number of hours required of HR professionals and managers to keep up with the demands of every HR process, while actually getting more work done. Who doesn’t want to get more work done with less effort?
And so, maybe it’s time to rub a little HR Tech on your HR compliance challenges:
RECRUITING
From the moment a candidate enters your funnel, communication begins. Chatbots can be leveraged to communicate with potential candidates, pushing content that requires responses from candidates, giving the employer much needed information on any mobile device from anywhere wifi is accessed. This information can be used to determine next steps for the candidate, while giving real-time feedback to the candidate. Additionally, artificial intelligence can be utilized to scan numerous resumes, assuring that human bias is minimized, in an attempt to find qualified candidates.
ONBOARDING
Once a candidate has been found, the next level of the process requires a comprehensive onboarding process that assures the new hire is properly assimilated into the culture of the company. Proper documentation is essential for compliance. By utilizing I-9 E-verify or software to manage Visa expiration, intelligent automation can drive the process, assuring that all the documents are filled out correctly, and in a timely manner. This same automation can push out necessary health care forms to assure that enrollment into health care plans and coverage meet local, state, and federal regulations.
Record-based systems create gaps, leaving your company at risk for compliance violations. The use of PDFs, email, file sharing, and other documents may be an improvement over paper trails, but they still lack the needed reminders that can be automated by content-centric systems. Additionally, a tremendous amount of time is needed to update record-based systems to assure accuracy and compliance.
By leveraging today’s HR Technology, intelligent bots can streamline the process of pushing needed content to both employee and employer, assuring that everyone knows what needs to happen and when. Next steps are taken, only when the previous step has been accurately fulfilled. This technology assures that gaps are removed, risk is mitigated, and compliance is met. It also assures needed predictability in processes so that each employee has the same process. Content-centric systems that run on AI allow the process to repeat over and over again, while also providing proof of compliance.
PRODUCTIVITY
Ultimately, today’s HR tech creates an expansion of productivity. Beginning with HR itself, technology allows more work to be done without the constant oversight of human talent. It also frees up HR managers and leaders to focus on the human elements of the job like leadership, communication, vision casting, listening, and shaping culture.
But productivity also moves throughout the organization for all employees. Required and needed training can be implemented via HR Tech, assuring that employees are educated and informed on everything from specifics of their job, to training on important topics like sexual harassment in the workplace. By using technology, these programs assure what is being taught, and also allows for comprehension tests from employees. Timestamps show when the employee watched, and the tests assure levels of comprehension. This not only benefits the employee, it also protects the employer. All of these happenings are recorded, maintained in the cloud, and easily accessible to prove compliance if needed.
RETENTION
To make the complete life cycle of the HR function, today’s HR Tech helps in the overall retention of top talent. From recruiting, to hiring, to productivity, technology can now be used to measure actual, quantifiable, productivity of an employee. With technology able to guide the processes of communication from the beginning, employees can have a consistent flow of information and communication that assures they are heard in what they need to be successful. When a company is able to hear what their employees need to be productive, and then take the steps to deliver what is needed, employees feel valued, and are naturally engaged. Employees who are given the space to innovate, help the business find solutions, and these are the employees that stick around because they are recognized for their contributions.
There are a lot of places you can get bumps and bruises along the business highway, and no one is immune. HR has a unique journey that varies for every person within every company. If you’re feeling the pain from some of your HR processes, maybe it’s time to rub a little HR Tech on it. Don’t worry, every little thing is gonna be alright!
