Ben Eubanks
Principal Analyst
Lighthouse Research & Advisory
What’s the single most dramatic shift you see happening in the HR tech space today?
The biggest shift is in artificial intelligence applications, but not the ways most of us would expect. The real value in AI and algorithms isn’t just in automation. There’s value there, but the real benefits come in augmenting the humans within our organizations. Put it this way: think about the best recruiter in your entire organization. AI technology can help all of your recruiters perform at or near the level of that high-performer, dramatically improving the quality of your talent acquisition function.
In acquiring and implementing new technologies, what’s the one or two most common mistakes HR organizations make?
One of the biggest mistakes HR leaders make when implementing new technology is assuming or expecting the technology to make up for incorrect or broken processes. Adding a layer of technology simply means you’ll be more efficient at what you’re doing, whether those decisions are correct or not. I’ve yet to meet an HR leader that wants to be highly efficient at making the wrong decisions, so iron out your processes and get them to the point where they need to be before jumping in with a new application.
How can HR leaders best make the business case for HR technology investment?
The value of HR technology isn’t in some amorphous metric such as employee engagement. HR leaders need to speak the language of the business and understand the key measures of their specific industry and company, then align their business case for HR tech with those specific factors. For instance, manufacturing firms may prioritize productivity and safety, so the HR team should identify solutions that support those elements. On the other hand, healthcare organizations care about patient experience and nurse retention, so HR leaders should look at how to connect those particular dots with the solution they’ve identified. By making these specific connections, they can more easily get the budget approved and get the technology in place to increase their impact on the business.
