HR Technology Trends In 2019

Author Rob Sicat Date Aug 09 2019

The recruitment landscape continues to change because of the advance of the internet as well as the low unemployment rate. Businesses need to adapt to these changes to attract the best candidates.

Since 2018 and going into 2020, the HR industry, is looking to meet these challenges with technology. HR technology trends have emerged that will disrupt the way traditional recruitment is done. 

Current trends affecting human resource management

Modern teams must utilize these HR technologies not only to source the best candidates, but also to retain them in the workplace.

Recruitment marketing HR trend

In 2019, HR teams will focus on using marketing tactics to boost their recruitment, including nurturing and sourcing different qualified individuals.

This approach helps narrow the gap between the growing number of vacancies and less qualified candidates. As part of recruitment marketing, the HR team must focus on company branding, so the organization’s reputation is protected, allowing them to become the employers of choice.

A study by LinkedIn found that around 75% of people looking for jobs research a company’s brand before applying. This means that employer branding is becoming more and more crucial.

Social media is another transformational HR trend that HR departments are using regularly. Social recruiting means building a brand on social media platforms to attract the right candidates.

If you want to find out how five companies are nailing it with social recruiting, click here to read our blog.

Artificial Intelligence [AI] HR technology trend

AI is a growing technological trend across different industries and HR is no exception.

Companies have access to more data than ever before and using this information and machine learning helps to identify the best candidates and the different techniques that will keep employees engaged. A key aspect of AI is to automate manual and repetitive tasks, so a business operates on a more efficient basis.

When it comes to AI, Fountain’s modern recruitment platform is valuable in various aspects of the recruitment life cycle. For example, it uses AI to communicate with all applicants – irrespective of the number – from the time of submitting an application to arranging an interview.

This AI capability enables businesses that hire at scale – for example on-demand companies – to manage hundreds or even thousands of applications at one time without having a negative effect on the candidate experience.

To find out how AI and automation helped to reduce the time to hire of the Turas Group by more than 50%, click here to read this case study.

Pre-boarding is becoming a regular HR practices trend

Pre-boarding is a growing HR practice where employers aim to integrate new hires before they officially start with a company. It includes reaching out to them using emails, phone calls and invitations to meetings.

Fountain helps with pre-boarding and onboarding by providing one secure portal to send your new hires the relevant information they need. First, you can send your new hire their contract that can be signed with our integrated third-party electronic signature vendor, HelloSign. Additionally, after the candidate has signed the contract, you can forward important information, like company handbooks and policies, ahead of them coming to the office. This enables your new hire to get a head start even before they begin the official onboarding process on the first day in the office.

After successfully pre-boarding your new hire, use this free checklist to implement a successful onboarding process.

Modern Hiring Software is an important trend in HRM

Modern hiring software platforms enable employers of different sizes, including franchises, to source and recruit applicants. They’re mobile-first and AI -driven to attract the right candidates. They also provide in-depth analytics to the HR teams to ensure that recruiting and hiring objectives are met.

Fountain is hiring software for the modern workplace in 2019. Candidates are increasingly impatient and want to get hired as soon as possible. With Fountain’s technology, the hiring process is not only more efficient, but also more cost-effective.

Migration of HR systems to the cloud is a key HR trend

According to Price Waterhouse Coopers, 73% of survey respondents said they have at least one HR process hosted in the cloud, which includes HR management systems. Another 26% of the survey respondents advised that they had plans to move their core systems to the cloud over the next three years.

Moving core HR systems to the cloud makes sense because this is the way that most industries and HR technology are going. This can take considerable amounts of effort and expense, especially for large organizations with complicated requirements. However, moving key systems to the cloud will save time in the future.

Cloud technology has been around long enough to be proven to work so, in 2019, more HR teams and companies as a whole will take the plunge and move their key systems to the cloud.

Video interviews are a growing HR technology trend

Video interviews are a HRM trend that will continue to grow in 2019.

There are so many benefits to using this technology, including reducing the time and cost to hire. Video interviews ensure objectivity since all candidates will answer the same questions.

Video interviews are especially helpful for millennials and post-millennial generations that are comfortable using technology. This technology portrays your company in a good light as your applicants will see that you’re ahead of the curve.

Click here to find out more about how to plan, structure and execute a one-way video interviews and how using Fountain can help you to carry out video interviews with ease within one simple portal.

Mobile-first is a digital HR trend

Since most people have a smartphone these days, it makes sense for HR technology to capitalize on this trend.

People are now using their phones for everything, including applying for jobs. Therefore, a key digital HR trend in 2019 is mobile-ready job applications.

It should be easy, efficient and quick for candidates to make applications for a vacancy using their mobile phones. If this isn’t the case, then these applicants will end up abandoning the process and you could miss out on quality candidates.

Fountain is a mobile-first platform built for the new generation. Our technology ensures that both HR teams and candidates can carry out every single sourcing and hiring function via mobile phones. This means applying for jobs, sorting out the best candidates, arranging interviews and everything in between.

Click here to see Fountain’s full features.

Talent management is a current trend in human resources

With employees increasingly tempted by different job offers, companies now realize that they have to invest heavily in their employees if they want to succeed.

HR technology is being used to engage employees and get them to buy-in to the company mission. This current and future HR trend will see that traditional performance reviews will be replaced by a more dynamic system, which includes constant feedback.

With HR technology, businesses can play a more active role in allowing employees to be accountable for their work and career development. Using technology to boost the performance feedback function means that employee engagement will be improved, especially when combined with data analytics. A company can study data to decide which skills are necessary for the future to ensure that the workforce is prepared.

Gig mobile apps are another future digital HR trend

The number of contingent workers in the US continues to grow. As this number grows, so does the number of mobile apps that can give work to on-demand workers.

There are gig mobile apps for every industry and walk of life. On-demand workers can find gigs for anything from pet or house sitting and moving furniture to renting cars.

HR Automation Trends

AI has been useful and efficient in terms of transforming talent acquisition.

However, robotic process automation aims to change the manual processes done by HR. It will reduce any tasks that are time-consuming such as employee onboarding, so new hires can spend more time getting ready for their jobs instead of sitting with the HR department.

In short, robotic process automation will help a significant amount of HR executives because repetitive tasks, like creating new employee records and entering them into a database, will be done more efficiently.

Recruitment marketing software is one of the latest trends in HR technology

Recruitment marketing software enables the switch from attracting active candidates to attracting passive candidates. This includes making the most of writing the best job ads and boosting the employer’s brand. As a result, job ads will be more engaging, personalized and down-to-earth than traditional ads.

Augmented writing becomes an important trend in HRM

Augmented writing tools help to get rid of bias in job ads.

For example, Textio reviews the content of job ads and job descriptions to look for phrases or words that suggest or imply the employer would prefer a certain demographic, like age, gender or ethnicity.

Textio uses technology to collect a large amount of data from different job ads to build a database of words or phrases that could have a negative impact on people from certain groups. After the words have been identified, Textio will provide suggestions for smart alternative phrases, so the employer can expand the reach of their adverts to get a wider pool of applicants, increasing the application conversion rate.

Learning and development HR trend

This HR technology trend in 2019 is aimed at keeping the best employees.

Learning and development benefits from technology because training is done digitally with technology like augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR).

Learning and development technology is moving away from only teaching traditional hard skills required for a job and is now focusing on developing employee soft skills, in particular emotional intelligence, negotiation and collaboration.

The HR technology trend in 2019 will be for learning and development to be increasingly gamified, so employees are incentivized to complete their training to the best of their abilities. This means they’ll receive incentives, like points, badges and prizes, for completing training and receiving the highest scores.

Resume Screening Software is fast-growing HRIS trend

Recruiters spend a large amount of time screening resumes manually.

With AI-based technology and an applicant tracking system (ATS), resumes can be screened in a fraction of the time it would take manually. ATS is also more accurate and scans and filters resumes based on the criteria specified by the HR department. It suggests the candidates to go through for manual screening.

ATS as an HR technology also helps to build a talent pipeline as candidates who aren’t qualified for a particular role will be kept in the database to be approached at a later date for a more suitable job vacancy.

Online Skills Assessment Continue to transform HR processes

To ensure that your business hires the right candidates, ensure that applicants have the skill sets they say they have.

This is where online skills assessment technology comes in. This could be a part of the hiring process, so you have the information at your fingertips before making a decision. For example, Fountain integrates with key online skills assessment platforms, like Traitify. You have the ability to choose the skills you want your candidates to be tested for right through our platform. This assessment will enable you to decide whether a person is right for your company.

The above list of HR technology trends in 2019 is meant to transform how recruitment and employee engagement takes place. One of the most crucial trends is utilizing modern hiring software to boost efficiency and get the right candidates.

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About the Author

Director, Product, Wave

Rob Sicat

Rob is an experienced product and design leader and currently the head of a Fountain team that is building hiring tools for the future. He has spent the last decade working with startups of all sizes across product management and design.