Back in the 1980s’, it was okay for a hiring manager to take the CVs they received for the open role and go over them by hand. Today, it’s a different picture. With more than hundreds of applications for a single role, recruiters had to find a way to use technology to scale their selection process so they started using applicant tracking systems.
This is just one example of how employees use technology every day in the workplace to process data, communicate, or make decisions. The impact of technology made quite a change in the way employees conduct their business on an everyday basis.
But then problems started to happen— you had one application for recruiting, another for learning, and one for performance management, and so on and so on. … and soon enough, employees felt lost in all the technology. Not only that, but the data got lost during transitions of data from one platform to another.
Try explaining to your candidates that their application was lost within your system and you will understand what a bad employer brand looks like. Similarly, try to describe to an existing employee why their training, goals, or employee profile may be missing details and see how long it takes before they are looking for work elsewhere. But the solution to this problem isn’t to stop using technology— it’s to integrate it. Technology can help us drive productivity, engagement, and agility but we need to be smart about using it.
The three ingredients that drive engagement, productivity, and agility
There are three tech ingredients that you should integrate into your workplace to drive engagement, productivity, and agility.
Integrated talent management
Integrated talent management is the management of traditional HR functions such as recruiting or onboarding in a way that:
- Keeps the communication language consistent in terms and language.
- Creates a streamlined flow of data from one sub-HR function to the other (no duplicate data or lost data).
- Aligns with the business strategy of the organization.
Integrated talent management resolves the issues by tying talent strategy and planning to corporate strategy. The result is that the recruiters are going to be more in sync with the talent needs required by the corporate strategy. You will hire the person because the corporate strategy needs a person with a specific skillset to fill that role. Beyond recruitment your talent practices will align to corporate mandates for learning, goals, and performance that enable succession and compensation.
If you don’t have integrated talent management, you will soon enough find yourself in a place where your left hand won’t know what your right is doing— hiring managers recruiting people whose skill sets don’t match the strategy of the organization. Integrate talent management to increase the effectiveness of your talent pool and resources, and drive engagement and productivity in your company.
Business dashboards
Every business can benefit from good business dashboards. They are truly essential tools in every company. Business dashboards can come in multiple types such as:
- Analytical dashboards. These dashboards help you analyze, organize, collect, and gain insight from data— like a mental map for a book. They are crucial for every business that wants to make data-driven decisions and gain insight from collected data.
- Operational dashboards. These dashboards help you monitor and manage operations and they usually have a shorter time frame, often being in real-time.
- Strategic dashboards. These dashboards monitor the long-term strategy of a company and they focus on only a couple of critical factors of success. They are mostly used to align the company’s strategic goals and track performance company-wide.
Collaborative workspaces
Since employees are no longer required to work in the same physical space, companies had to become innovative when it comes to collaboration. So they started creating centralized workplaces that are not physically connected, but connected by a tech platform that does a couple of things:
- Ease of access. Everyone in the company can access it and it’s easy to do it. With a single username and password, the employees save time and can use it to be more productive. Also, a centralized dashboard and single interface allow for a decluttered workplace where employees can easily change tasks and follow what’s happening.
- Simplified tasks. Teams can check the centralized dashboards and create workflows for their teams that all team members can follow with ease.
- Real-time feedback. The collaboration on a single workspace allows the team members to share their work (via links or other apps) with other team members and their managers for approval, feedback, or an action that’s needed.
Why integration is a new way forward
The integration of systems and tech allows for collaboration, visibility, and gives ease of access to employees. Technology isn’t a problem when it’s properly integrated into your workspace and the three things you should take notice of are integrating talent management, business dashboards, and creating a collaborative workspace.
