HR tech investments: Some successes, still concerns
Adoption of new technologies is an ongoing challenge—even when the tech has obvious upsides.
Technology investments can get mixed reviews by HR leaders, often getting good marks for overall results, but with dissatisfaction sometimes expressed about using new tools effectively.
The PwC HR Tech Survey 2022 polled 688 HR leaders in the U.S. about the use of new technology. “The survey revealed that HR tech is delivering the goods overall by meeting expectations and creating value for both HR and the business,” the report said. “But the survey also found ways HR leaders could do better on encouraging technology adoption, choosing the right vendor partner, getting leadership buy-in for a truly cutting-edge tech transformation, and more.”
Adoption of new tech is always a challenge
The report found that adoption of new technologies is an ongoing challenge—even when the tech has obvious upsides. The findings suggest that fears of setbacks or difficulties in adopting promising new tech may drive some companies to hold off on adoption.
Related: 3 reasons HR is hesitant to adopt new technology
With the explosion of remote work, employee demand for new tech has been growing. The PwC report said that a focus on mobile options will help meet employee demand and making adoption more attractive to employees through incentives such as bonuses and time-off could be effective strategies.
The survey results showed that many employers have adopted tech around remote work, with 95% saying they either had already implemented or were considering a plan to monitor productivity or performance of remote workers
The report, however, cautioned about systems that monitor how often employees log in, saying that could result in gaming the system or busywork that could distract from more important tasks. Instead, the writers suggested, focus on the quantity and quality of output. Another strategy is tracking how often remote workers are interacting with others, which can give clues to overall engagement.
Another concern the survey found was with vendors—more than a third of respondents (36%) said they were likely to change technology vendors. The report suggested making sure that vendors can facilitate core functions and values of a company and making a thorough assessment of areas such as user experience, history of client satisfaction, and alignment with the customer’s culture.
Good news on using the cloud
There was good news in the area of cloud computing: survey respondents said that moving core HR applications to the cloud had met or exceeded their expectations in areas such as “greater HR control,” “saved money,” and “increased employee engagement.” Problems still remain with some areas such as data analytics, the study said.
“To succeed at cloud transformation, it’s critical to address cloud’s security and skills challenges early,” the report said. “Over one-fifth (21%) of HR leaders cited concerns over the security of critical HR data stored on the cloud as a top technology challenge. Recent ransomware attacks on cloud vendors may have further increased concerns. In a separate survey, chief human resource officers cited difficulties in attracting cloud talent (44%), retaining cloud talent (42%) and upskilling existing employees (40%) for cloud.”
The report recommended an emphasis on establishing and following security policies, providing training around best practices, and protecting sensitive HR data against both internal misuse and external threats.
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