The second and third quarters of 2024 were quite eventful in the HR tech space. Phil Strazzulla, founder of Select Software Reviews, recently conducted a webinar to highlight some of the top insights and trends – including some best practices for buying technology in the current market, the implementation of next-gen AI within HR tech, and what exactly this means for customer service and success in the 21st century.
Joined by Trent Cotton, Vice President of Talent and Culture with Hatchworks AI, as well as Matthew Karp, HR Tech Customer Success Leader with Wilya, the trio touched on several key areas.
Watch the full event recording here.
Strengthening Analytics & Reporting
Businesses are finally starting to understand the importance of comprehensive data analytics and clear, relevant reporting. Although we’ve been firmly rooted in the Information Age for decades, much of the recent interest in analytics and reporting was spurred on by the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Most companies were just not prepared from a data standpoint. So I think that It's a very big driving force.” – Trent Cotton
Organizations saw how quickly an outside disruption can affect their day-to-day operations. According to Statista, nearly 22% of small businesses in the U.S. experienced a negative impact on their overall business. In contrast, less than 2% of U.S.-based small businesses think that COVID-19 had a positive effect. Now that our nation has, for the most part, recovered from the pandemic, businesses are trying to turn their negative experiences into positive ones – and many are doing it through data analytics and reporting.
Not only are more people becoming familiar with analytics and reporting, as most have seen various dashboards, charts, and graphs highlighting the spread of COVID-19, but many companies started using analytics in new ways during the pandemic. Creating predictive models to assess their needs for protective equipment or to determine how many employees they’ll have available for future assignments are two examples.
What to Look for in ATS Analytics & Reporting
“For applicant tracking systems, it's very similar to what I would look for in a sales management system. I look for the pipelines. I'm really big about the funnel.” – Trent Cotton
Experts suggest finding an ATS (applicant tracking system) that has the ability to analyze statistics throughout various stages of the recruitment pipeline. Proper analysis of these stats will help your HR staff prepare for their future needs. For even better results, try to find an ATS that features native forecasting functionality.
Many businesses are starting to integrate AI into their daily operations, too, including during their recruitment phase. Depending on the integration, a next-gen AI tool can reduce a six- or seven-step recruitment process into one or two simple phases. In fact, approximately 85% of employers that already use AI or automation agree that it saves time and/or increases efficiency.
Making the Pivot to Next-Gen AI
Small, medium, and large businesses are all starting to make the pivot to next-gen AI systems in one way or another. Although some are hesitant to embrace fully AI-powered platforms, many have come to appreciate the hybrid AI model.
ChatGPT-4, for example, can easily be programmed to display job candidates based on their individual qualifications. It can also assign different percentages to the various elements of a candidate’s resume, such as their academic qualifications or their skill set, and rank them accordingly. However, it still requires a human to actually review the selected candidates and make the final decision.
Using AI to Automate Menial Tasks
You can go through the time and effort of creating a comprehensive list of standard operating procedures (SOPs) for your team, but it’s useless if your team doesn’t actually use the SOP repository in the first place.
With next-gen AI systems, including ChatGPT-4, it’s possible to create a fully automated chatbot that is capable of answering their common questions – all while maintaining a highly secure data warehouse of SOPs and other useful information. Instead of having employees bog down their team leaders with redundant questions, they can simply ask the chatbot to do the research for them.
Tools like ChatGPT-4 are also useful during the client discovery phase. Instead of combing through their entire website, one can simply load their site into an AI platform to scrape the important details. While this used to require an expensive, off-the-shelf solution, most businesses will be able to achieve similar results with one of the affordable AI platforms that are already available today.
“I can bring their entire website into ChatGPT. I can scrape the website. I can throw in their data.” – Matthew Karp
Best Practices for Buying HR Tech
The second and third quarters of 2024 also saw the emergence of some common best practices for buying HR tech. Considering $2.2 billion was invested in HR tech within the first half of 2024, it’s safe to say that these best practices could save your organization significant money while ensuring that you get the exact solution that you want.
- Ease-of-use: HR software should be accessible and easy to use. If you’re buying HR tech on behalf of a client, it’s critical that you find software that their team is able to use. While it’s one thing to find a solution that you know how to use effectively, it’s a totally different ballgame when it comes to buying HR tech for someone else.
- Cost savings: Whenever possible, try to determine the costs you’ll save with the new HR software. This makes it far more likely that you’ll gain the support of managers and executive-level stakeholders.
- Productivity: Modern HR tech is meant to make our lives simpler. With this in mind, try to find a solution that will have a tangible effect on the HR team’s day-to-day productivity.
- Pain points: Find an HR tech solution that addresses as many different pain points as possible. Again, showing how the tech will have a tangible benefit to the organization is the key to gaining the support of the entire team.
Selecting the Right Vendor
When buying HR tech, it’s critical that you take the time to select the right vendor. The traits outlined in the section above can be applied to many different vendors, so this is easier said than done. Thankfully, there are some best practices you can implement here, too.
- Does the vendor solve my specific problem? Apart from addressing smaller pain points, the vendor you choose should ultimately be able to solve the biggest problems you have, too.
- Can I trust the vendor? While choosing a new vendor does have some advantages, most companies looked for a trusted vendor that already has an established reputation for HR tech.
- How much does the vendor’s HR tech cost? Not only is it important to find a vendor that matches your budget, but it’s also important to find one that offers fair, competitive, and consistent pricing. Consider any upfront costs as well as recurring costs as these can really start to add up over time.
“For me, I've bought over a million dollars worth of HR technology at this point, from LinkedIn recruiter seats to ATS’ to everything in between. And I think a couple of the best practices for me are one, you want to have at least two vendors. Ideally three at most five that you're looking at.” Phil Strazzulla
Phil covered his second best practice by saying: “I create a spreadsheet and the columns of the spreadsheet here the vendors and the rows are my criteria. I'd probably get six or seven key criteria. Maybe it's Integrations. Maybe it's workflows.”
Best Practices for Implementing HR Tech
Businesses are also following some common best practices when implementing HR tech. These practices make it easy to streamline the entire implementation process while helping the implementation team avoid work fatigue and burnout.
- Start with a presentation: Hold a brief presentation at the beginning of the implementation to clarify the process, highlight the benefits, and answer any questions the team might have.
- Provide training throughout the implementation: Don’t leave the team up to their own devices. For best results, you’ll want to deliver relevant training throughout the implementation process.
- Incentivize the process: Offer some incentive to build morale. Monetary rewards, bonuses, and gift cards are always appreciated.
- Gamify the process: Not only can you incentivize the implementation process, but you can turn it into a fun game and create some friendly competition amongst your team.
- Involve the naysayers: Including the naysayers in the process is a great way to demonstrate the value of the new HR tech while also letting them know that you do have the company’s best interest in mind.
“Even if I don't need them, I want some of my biggest naysayers with me. I want them helping me to implement it because if I can get them on board, then selling the rest of the organization is going to be incredibly easy.” – Trent Cotton
Moving on From Legacy Systems
Unfortunately, many businesses are still struggling to move on from the legacy systems that are holding them back. In many cases, it comes down to convincing the CEO of the value of modernization.
“You can present the best thing possible but you still need some external pressures. Maybe I need to think about who is influencing the CEO. How do I get them on board to really make this a solid decision?” – Matthew Karp
Strategies like holding presentations and incentivizing the process are great ways of getting buy-in from the implementation team themselves, but these strategies won’t be so effective when it comes time to gain the support of the CEO and other organizational leaders.
In cases like this, you often need some external validation – like the approval of an investor – to make your argument for upgrading the current legacy system and, in some instances, even this isn’t enough.
Maximizing the Value of Your Technology Stack
For many businesses, Q2 and Q3 of 2024 was all about maximizing the value of their technology stacks. In many cases, this all starts by looking at the financial needs of the organization. If you already know where you want your revenue or profitability to be, it’s rather easy to work backward and figure out the technology you need in order to make that a reality.
“You’re just talking about dollars and cents. How do we get revenue to the place? How do we get the profits to the place we want?” – Matt Karp
This information can also be used to help gain the support of the organization’s CEO and other stakeholders. By setting realistic goals and establishing some key performance indicators (KPIs) as a way of gauging the progress toward those goals, it’s easier to get the CEO on your side.
Bottom Line
Now that businesses have had time to resume operations after the COVID-19 pandemic, many are looking to increase their tech spending in general – and HR is a great place to start.
