Transformation within HR teams is often talked about, but many overlook the role software has to play in accelerating change. HR leaders will often be tasked with implementing transformation briefs from above. Leadership changes can trigger organisational redesign, while external pressures (such as those posed by the rising cost of doing business) can prompt leadership to look at new ways of running the business. HR teams will generally be tasked with looking at how to put these new approaches into practice.

Just as important is transformation within the HR departments themselves. As businesses evolve, their teams must also modernise – and that means keeping up with the shifting demands and expectations of both the HR team and wider business.

Harnessing the power of software can help accelerate the pace of HR transformation by providing deeper insights, generating in-depth reports, and even suggesting routes forward.

Using software to support reporting

Whether mandatory or not, many HR teams will be tasked with looking at different types of reporting throughout the year. Gender pay gap reports, for example, are a legal requirement for businesses in the UK and Ireland with more than 250 employees.

Software can support this in more complex ways than simply helping to crunch numbers – although it can, of course, help here too.

Achieving even representation within an organisation can be a significant challenge. Many businesses experience a gender pay imbalance, along with a diversity imbalance, and discrepancy between earnings based on socio-economic background/family profile.

Without clear and accurate data on the current picture at their company, HR teams can do little to effect meaningful change. By bringing in other measures such as diversity pay gap reporting at regular intervals (and not solely to comply with legislative requirements) HR leaders can develop an even clearer picture of what is truly happening and then proactively find ways to address any imbalances.

One of the key barriers to accurate pay gap reporting (and subsequent strategic approaches to closing these gaps) is accessing and evaluating the data needed to drive change. Some software options, include built-in diversity workflows to support engagement and gain a measure of sentiment which gives hard data a narrative.

Supporting employee engagement

Employee engagement is typically high on the agenda for the HR managers we speak to here at Advanced. As it’s so closely linked to productivity and employee retention, engagement is a key marker for many people management teams.

Taking a modern approach to engagement is key to improving the metrics associated with this initiative. Software can provide prompts for feedback and discussion, and will record topics of conversation, agreed next steps, and timescales, so that performance management conversations can be scheduled regularly.

Moving towards this continuous engagement model halts the old-fashioned approach of annual appraisals, whereby employees might spend a large proportion of their year working in silos, without any feedback or attention being paid to their feelings and levels of engagement.

By introducing software that makes these sentiments more accessible, HR teams can begin to build a culture where employee-manager conversations are part of the ongoing narrative. If all parties have access to technology to facilitate this, it then becomes about building good habits to make conversational behaviours a regular part of the day to day.

Supporting development throughout the business

Getting a clear picture of where your stand-out performers are within the entirety of the business can be tough. In order to identify rising talent and ensure it is nurtured properly, HR teams need a clear sight of the landscape.

Using software to manage the rollout of meaningful conversations, pay reviews, and ongoing feedback really levels the playing field. All employees, regardless of their department or manager’s style, will be assessed in the same way. By leveraging the data that these programmes provide, HR teams can then identify top performers quickly and effectively.

Not only does this help build an impressive talent pipeline, it also empowers the organisation to build a distribution curve for rewards based on output. This is a critical step in embedding a culture of trust, as employees can clearly see their rewards directly reflect their efforts.

Meanwhile, software can also support in identifying talent shortages and skills gaps. Your team can then focus on building a recruitment strategy or training programme that addresses this, supporting the HR team’s overarching objectives and helping employees to feel empowered in their continuous learning journey.

Harnessing the power of AI

There will be few businesses that are not already exploring the ways AI can enable transformational change. In fact, many will already be using this new technology to support their growth objectives.

One exciting way AI can help in this sense is by standardising and enhancing the employee feedback process.

Feedback can be an incredibly valuable tool for personal and professional development at all levels of an organisation, when communicated effectively. However, implementing feedback processes that are standard throughout a business, while ensuring all team members have the same opportunities/experiences, can be tricky.

There are lots of barriers to standardising feedback. Managers have differing styles, time is a sparse commodity, and different teams approach feedback in a range of ways. Whatever reasons there are for not achieving consistency throughout a business, AI can offer a solution.

This is something we have recently launched in our HR products at Advanced. Our AI extension allows managers to input feedback in a draft or bullet pointed form, to be edited and standardised by AI before being reviewed for final sign off.

This helps in a number of ways – firstly, by alleviating some of the barriers to regular feedback by making the process easier and less time consuming. More importantly for HR teams, it helps them to level the experience of all employees. Feedback can be given in a regular format regardless of the manager or team in question, helping both the employee experience and the HR teams and managers monitoring performance issues.

There are many ways software can enable HR transformation and help to grow and retain the talent within your organisation. HR teams will undoubtedly be aware of the complex issues faced by their business, and they are often tasked with looking ahead to find new solutions that will help the organisation operate more smoothly.

In the face of a turbulent economic climate, businesses are looking for solutions that help to steady the ship. Our most recent research* indicated that as many as nine out of 10 CEOs expect investment in new technology (including adaptive AI, sustainable tech, neurotech, applied observability, and digital immune systems) to be on the agenda for 2024. HR teams should act now to ensure their interests are reflected within this.

Modern HR teams must embrace the solutions offered by technology if they are to deliver real change within their organisation. Without software, the hours associated with mapping and analysing data are prohibitive.

When used correctly, software can empower HR teams, managers, and employees to be more productive, while waving goodbye to the administrative roadblocks that act as a barrier to transformative change.

*The Advanced Business Trends Report 2023/24