The war for talent may be raging on, but thatâs good news for HR tech startups. For yet another year, venture capitalists have poured money into deals to bootstrap the latest generation of vendors offering innovation software to support recruiting, talent management, onboarding and workforce management.
By the end of 2017âs third quarter, venture investment in HR tech companies surpassed $800 million across nearly 90 deals, according to George LaRocque, founder and principal HCM market analyst for LaRocque LLC in New York.
These include a few massive deals â Namely, an all-in-one HR platform, payroll and benefits services vendor for mid-sized firms secured $50 million in January; Yello, a talent acquisition firm raised $31 million in June; and Move Guides, a global relocation and mobility management company raised $48 million in July — which it used to acquire Polaris Global Mobility, a software company focused on ex-pat program management and payroll. And the big deals appear to be continuing in 2018, most notably with Degreed, the employee training platform, which secured $42 million in March.
The ongoing investment in HR tech is a reflection of the challenges companies face in finding and retaining top talent in this market, according to LaRocque. âThe continued talent gaps and super-low unemployment has created a skill shortage,â he said. These emerging software companies promise to ease some of these woes, which is appealing to customers and venture capitalists alike.
Human capital management systems are also easier to sell than other more complex workplace technologies, said Holger Mueller, vice president and principal analyst for Constellation Research. âEvery venture capitalist was once a manager, so they can relate to how hard it is to find and manage talent,â he said. They also likely remember how frustrating old HR technology was. âItâs one of the biggest advantages HR tech firms have.â
The ongoing demand for better and more innovative talent management software has created room for a lot of new vendors, especially those that integrate artificial intelligence, machine learning and other technologies that promise to disrupt the marketplace. âWe are seeing an uptick in AI across the board, in benefits, learning, recruiting and core HR,â LaRocque said.
Many of the deals are focused on the recruiting side of HR as companies struggle with market competition for talent. Mueller pointed to the constant pressure recruiters face to fill open positions and their willingness to try something new if it promises better results. âRecruiters may have two to three weeks to fill an opening,â he said. If their current software isnât helping them close that deal, they are quick to move on to the next one. Thatâs creating opportunities for companies to get a foot in the door and to prove their solution is better than their peersâ, he said.
HR tech vendors that serve small and mid-sized businesses are also popular, as more small firms seek vendors who cater to their specific HR technology needs. âIn the past, the small and midsized market was predominantly served by payroll and job boards, or watered-down versions of enterprise solutions,â LaRocque said. Now he estimates 98 percent of new HR tech firms focus on middle-market customers.
Bigger but Later
While interest in HR tech hasnât waned, the timing of the current deals and the companies receiving big investments has changed. Early on in this trend, VCs focused on young startups with big ideas and a few talented engineers. But todayâs recipients of venture capital are more seasoned. âThe hardest money to raise now is early funding,â LaRocque said. âThe larger investors want companies that are further along because they are safer bets.â They are looking for firms with an established customer base, strong workforce, and a few years of solid performance to win their attention.
This trend could signal a future slowdown in the HR tech marketplace as the next generation of start-ups struggles to secure the seed funding needed to get them going.
In the meantime, while having so many options can feel overwhelming, industry professionals should look at the bright side. âThere are so many opportunities to leverage new technologies to address talent issues that have been difficult to deal with in the past,â LaRocque said. And because these tools are primarily cloud based, they may be easier to access and integrate with existing HR systems. âItâs an exciting time to be in HR.â
Though to avoid wasting time with novelty tools that wonât add real value, he encourages HR leaders to stay current on the latest trends, read industry reports and talk to their peers before making an investment. They also should try not to be closed off to new ideas. âMany of todayâs talent management problems canât be solved using old software capabilities,â he said. âSo look at what is possible before setting rigid requirements for your next system.â
Sarah Fister Gale is a writer in Chicago. Comment below or emaileditors@workforce.com.
I once knew of company (not a client) at which its CEO would sit in his office all day and watch a bank of monitors connected to cameras all over the workplace so that he could track the productivity of his employees.
He even had one outside the bathrooms to record how frequently and for how long his employees were taking potty breaks. Needless to say, morale among his employees was not great.
Monitoring of employees has gone even more high tech. The Chicago Tribune reports that Amazon has developed wristbands to track worker hand movements as they fill and ship orders in its warehouses and distribution centers.
Employers have legitimate business reasons for tracking employee movements â e.g., enhanced operational efficiencies, improved customer service, securing accurate time records, and improved safety.
The counterbalanced risks? For starters, thereâs the creep factor. How much will your employees mind Big Brother tracking all of their movements, and how will it impact morale?
Additionally, there are some legal risks.
Privacy: Provided employees consent to wearing these tracking devices as a condition of their employment, there should not be any privacy concerns. Indeed, in Quon v. Arch Wireless, the Supreme Court suggested that employees may lack any reasonable expectation of privacy in employer-provided technological equipment. Yet, the law is not quite settled on these privacy implications. Moreover, state privacy laws may vary. Additionally, the more data you record, the more risk you take that such information will be compromised or targeted by hackers.
Medical Information: Tracking employee movements could reveal a host of medical information. Who visits the bathroom more could be pregnant or suffering from a bladder infection? Who smokes? Who visits the vending machine and eats unhealthy snacks? This information could be used, for example, by employers to discriminate, or by insurers to charge higher premiums.
So, what are some suggestions if you wish to use devices to track employee movements in your workplace?
1. Document your reason(s) for tracking to support your legitimate business interest.
2. Disseminate (and explain) an Employee Tracking Policy, which should describe the need for the program, the nature of the tracking device, the data you will be tracking, how you will use (and, more importantly, not use) the data, and how you plan to keep it secure.
3. Obtain employee consent before deploying the device.
4. Limit the data to those that need to know, to minimize the sphere of individuals who could learn or infer medical information.
5. Donât sell or otherwise disclose the information to insurers or other third parties.
And finally, call your employment lawyer. Cutting edge practices are always risky and should be vetted by counsel.
Jon Hyman is a partner at Meyers, Roman, Friedberg & Lewis in Cleveland. Comment below or email editors@workforce.com. Follow Hymanâs blog at Workforce.com/PracticalEmployer.
Biometric privacy lawsuits could be on the rise soon among employers.
You can hardly pick up a smartphone these days without reading about â and experiencing â how biometric authentication technology is changing our lives and businesses.
Finger and facial recognition have become so commonplace that you might not think twice before asking your employees to authenticate their time using similar technologies, especially because traditional punchcard systems can be inefficient and vulnerable to fraud or abuse.
But a recent spike in litigation illustrates the legal risks to introducing biometric authentication devices and practices to your business. More than 50 companies are now defending class-action lawsuits under the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act, or BIPA, which provides rules for the disclosure, retention and protection of biometric data, and permits any person aggrieved by a violation to recover $1,000 for each negligent violation and $5,000 for each intentional violation.
Texas and Washington have passed similar laws, and New York has a labor law governing the collection of biometric information, but unlike BIPA they do not create an individual right to sue.
BIPA governs âbiometric identifiersâ and âbiometric information.â Biometric identifier means âa retina or iris scan, fingerprint, voiceprint, or scan of hand or face geometry.â Biometric information means âany information … based on an individualâs biometric identifier used to identify an individual.â
To comply with BIPA, companies that collect or possess biometric identifiers or information must satisfy six statutory provisions.
Written policy. Companies must have a policy, âmade available to the public,â that describes their retention schedule and guidelines for permanently destroying the biometric data it handles. Importantly, the policy must provide for the destruction of a personâs biometrics at the earlier of (a) when the companyâs initial purpose for collecting that information has been satisfied; or (b) within three years of the personâs last interaction with the company.
Written notice. Companies must provide written notice to each person whose biometrics it handles, stating (a) that it is collecting/storing their biometrics; and (b) the specific purpose and length of term for the collection, storage and use.
Written release. Companies must obtain a âwritten releaseâ from each person whose biometrics will be handled.
Consent to disclose. Companies that disclose biometrics to third parties must, in most circumstances, obtain consent to do so.
Companies must store, transmit and protect the biometrics it handles in a manner that is both reasonable and commensurate with the protection it affords similarly confidential and sensitive information.Â
Do not use biometrics for profit. Companies must never sell, lease, trade or âotherwise profit fromâ the biometrics it handles.
Courts Interpreting BIPA
Though BIPA was enacted in 2008, it was not the subject of litigation until the past few years, and the most dramatic uptick in filings occurred in late 2017. The majority of those actions involve the same basic factual situation: a current or former employee is suing because they scanned their finger to clock in and out of work.
But the most important BIPA case so far, decided Dec. 21, has a slightly different context. In Rosenbach v. Six Flags, the plaintiff, Stacy Rosenbach, sued Six Flags Entertainment Corp. and Great America LLC under BIPA for scanning her sonâs fingerprints to verify his identity as a season pass holder. The Illinois Appellate Court ruled that a plaintiff âmust allege some actual harmâ to sue under BIPA, adding that â[i]f a person alleges only a technical violation of [BIPA] without alleging any injury or adverse effect, then he or she is not aggrieved and may not recover[.]â
The Illinois Appellate Courtâs ruling makes sense. First, looking to BIPAâs language, only a âperson aggrievedâ is permitted to sue, strongly indicating that a plaintiff must allege an actual injury. Second, from a practical perspective, the vast majority of plaintiffs acknowledge voluntarily scanning their own fingers. Even so, this decision is poised to have far-reaching implications, and it seems likely that the authoritative interpretation of âperson aggrievedâ will ultimately come from a future decision of the Illinois Supreme Court.
With all this in mind, what can you do to minimize the risk and expense that biometric privacy class actions pose to your business?
First, determine whether any biometric privacy laws apply to your business. This may require consulting with an attorney familiar with biometric privacy laws and professionals who understand your underlying technologies. Even if your business does not collect biometric data from Illinois, Washington, Texas or New York residents, consider whether it might in the future or whether similar laws may be adopted in applicable jurisdictions (Michigan and Connecticut are considering similar laws). Second, if biometric privacy laws apply, understand the requirements and get into compliance. Regardless of whether you have been sued, you will need to determine whether your existing policies and practices satisfy some or all of the biometric privacy legal requirements. For those policies and practices that are noncompliant, you will need to design and implement new ones. Finally, if you have been sued, then in addition to assessing and remediating compliance issues, your attorney will need to consider employing certain strategies inherent in these cases with the potential to reduce litigation costs and increase your chance of success.
The recent spate of BIPA lawsuits represents a coordinated effort by the plaintiffâs bar to catch corporate legal departments off guard. Nevertheless, it is less likely an anomaly than a sign of things to come as biometric technologies continue to pervade our personal and business lives. Companies would do well to assess their technological and legal options and vulnerabilities now and to maintain vigilance over this emerging field in the future.
Anna S. Knight is administrative managing partner and Patrick J. Castle is an attorney with Shook, Hardy & Bacon in Chicago. Comment below or email editors@workforce.com.
Human resources technology managers are hot commodities.
The most desirable are well versed on the latest cloud-based platforms and apps, but thatâs not all.
They have deep experience with project management. Perhaps more importantly, they also keenly understand the full life cycle of HR processes, from recruiting to succession planning â the better to direct staff in implementing new HR systems.
Theyâre on top of the critical roles that mobile and social play in recruiting new hires and engaging current employees. They can coordinate country-specific services with global HR systems. They know how to respond to the latest cyber security challenges threatening HR personnel. And, at a time when workforce analytics are becoming critical to organizationsâ overall operations, they collaborate well with other departments that rely on people-based data to direct business decisions.
The need for this new breed of HR technology manager isnât just at the top. Companiesâ quest for HR technology staff who can tackle the latest and greatest extends from HR information services department heads to mid-level systems analysts and entry-level workers who can maintain workforce apps.
Demand for HR talent with the right mix of skills, experience, project management and process expertise is strong enough in some parts of the country itâs driving up compensation. Alfonse Visco, HR director at Computer Generated Solutions, Inc., in New York, increased the salary for an HRIS coordinator position heâs trying to fill by 20 percent more from what he would have offered a few years ago, or âeven from one and a half years ago,â he said.
Other HR executives are using the carrots of better work, perks and work/life balance to make their HRIS job openings stand out. In addition to better work/balance, Anand Sampath, senior manager for HRIS at Boston Childrenâs Hospital, emphasizes the opportunities HR technology staff have at the 415-bed facility that they might not get elsewhere.
âIt could be projects and initiatives that help someoneâs career,â Sampath said. âThose are the kinds of things I try to offer, within reason.â
HRâs Digital Makeover Is Contributing to Demand
Interest in HR technology personnel with up-to-date skills has risen as more enterprises move from on-premise HR software to cloud-based services and smaller organizations graduate from Excel or paper systems to similar online workforce platforms. Itâs hard to name an HR function that in the past few years hasnât gotten , whether itâs recruiting and onboarding, team collaboration, training, performance reviews, benefits and wellness, engagement or managing contingent workers.
âOf all the companies ripping and replacing technology, the number one reason theyâre doing it is because they want it to be easier to use for employees,â HR analyst Josh Bersin said during a workforce technology conference talk last year. âWeâve moved from HR technology designed to automate processesâ to systems that encourage engagement to make employeesâ work life better, said Bersin, principal and founder of Bersin by Deloitte, Deloitte Consulting LLP.
The need for HRIS staff could be one reason that unemployment for HR jobs overall stood at 2.2 percent in December 2016 compared to 4.7 percent for all jobs in the country. LinkedIn, Indeed and Monster list tens of thousands of open HR technology positions at all levels. The Labor Departmentâs Bureau of Labor Statistics predicts overall positions for HR managers, including HRIS specialists, will increase close to 9 percent through 2024, compared to 7 percent for all occupations.
Overseeing Local and Global HR Technology
As companies pile on HR technology applications, theyâre looking for HRIS specialists with experience getting multiple platforms to work together. Thatâs no simple feat at a time when large enterprises use dozens of HR apps or more. Companies with global operations also need HR technology managers who can oversee centralized HR platforms for some functions, and country-specific ones for others. These same technology executives must stay abreast of HR regulations everywhere the business operates, and of the latest security safeguards worldwide.
At Computer Generated Solutions, the HRIS coordinator job Visco is filling is based in New York and primarily manages HR services for the companyâs U.S. workforce. However, the privately held enterprise software and outsourcing services provider is rolling out a global recruiting platform that country-specific applicant tracking systems will feed data into. The HRIS coordinator will need to ensure data from country-based ATS platforms is clean. âSometimes itâs hard to find someone with all those skills upfront,â Visco said. âYou need someone who has a spark, who can learn and has a will to learn.â
CGS, which maintains a 100-person HR staff for a global workforce of 7,500, digitized HR functions in 2008 and moved to web-based HRIS functions in 2011. In the past year, the company made a broader push into social media, security and cloud-based applications. Getting better workforce data and giving employees more access to people-related functions drove the changes, Visco said.
Five years ago, understanding how Facebook, Twitter and other social media platforms fit into recruiting or employee engagement would have been an afterthought on an HR technology managerâs resume. Now itâs a critical piece of the puzzle, Visco said. Today, social media use is so second nature for many younger workers âthe social aspect isnât difficult to find,â he said.
In the New York area, salaries for senior-level HRIS positions run from $80,000 to $120,000, said Tali Rabin, CGSâ senior vice president of HR. Along with technology skills, managers at that level also need to have âthe DNAâ to work well with people and to work at the fast pace that the company has adopted to keep up with digital-era changes. âAs I look back on my 20 to 25 years of experience, itâs totally different, even from the past five years.â
Despite competition for HRIS staff with the right skills, CGS has not had problems attracting prospects for entry-level positions, most likely because the job is based in New York, which has an abundance of potential candidates, Visco said.
HR Processes Vs. Vendor Apps
Boston Childrenâs Hospital is typical of organizations overhauling operations to be more responsive to customers â in their case patients â and employees, and to prepare for future growth. Upgrading HRIS is part of that, creating a need for HR technology staff that can help manage the process.
The hospital, which has 11,400 employees and a six-person HRIS team in its 90-person HR department, is just starting a major update of its human capital management setup. Existing systems, which are more than 10 years old, include on-premise software from Oracle PeopleSoft for core HR technology and IBM Kenexa Brass Ringâs cloud-based recruiting platform. They also include a cloud-based NetLearning learning management system from HealthcareSource.
The hospitalâs core HCM system will likely remain on premise but Sampath, the senior HRIS manager, said at some point he might look at switching to the cloud. Regardless, the hospital already uses enough other cloud-based HR technology that itâs critical for HRIS staff be able to collaborate with vendor representatives as services are being adopted and on an ongoing basis. âSay you have tickets the vendor has to resolve or you need them to be part of an initiative,â Sampath said. âThe actual work will be done by the vendor but (staff) has to explain what needs to be done and the timelines.â
When Sampath hires staff, as he now for an open HR systems analyst position, he prioritizes candidates that have experience with HR processes over candidates with experience on a specific vendorâs platform. Applications are easier to learn and run than they used to be, and platforms change all the time, he said. Itâs more important for a candidate to understand the workforce lifecycle from recruiting to open enrollment to retirement so they can connect the dots and be more effective in their role. âI can train people on applications,â Sampath said. âItâs hard to teach process and business functions if you havenât lived through them.â
Demand for HRIS analysts is so high, even prestigious workplaces like Boston Childrenâs Hospital, which is affiliated with Harvard Medical School and ranked nationally in 10 pediatric specialties by U.S. News and World Report, faces stiff competition. An abundance of opportunities in the Boston area is one factor, as is the need for smart HRIS personnel across industries. âWeâre competing with financial services and startupsâ for the same talent, Sampath said.
Historically, outside consultants for technologynology integration specialists or consulting firms were a steady source of job candidates. But videoconferencing, mobile apps and other technology have cut down the time HR technology consultants spend on the road, making them less interested in in-house jobs as they used to be, Sampath said.
Thatâs where being able to offer someone interesting projects, a positive workplace culture, and better work/life balance comes into play, he said.
Replacing Clerical Staff with Business Analysts
HR technology that gives employees direct access to payroll, benefits and other people-related services has rendered many HR clerical jobs obsolete. According to BLS forecasts, jobs for HR assistants, minus payroll and timekeeping, are expected to shrink 4.1 percent by 2024.
Some HR departments have responded by replacing HR administrator positions with jobs for systems analysts who implement and maintain HR technology apps, and collaborate on reports or projects with other departments.
The HR department within the Middlesex County, New Jersey, county government went through just such a transformation. Before 2013, the countyâs HR department used mainly manual processes. âIt was paper driven, with file cabinets all over the place,â said John Pulomena, administrator for the north-central New Jersey county, which has 25 cities and 825,000 residents and is the second largest in the state. âAny time an employee had a question they had to call the HR office.â
That year, the county rolled out a cloud-based HR platform, beginning with payroll, as part of a larger initiative to automate county services. The platform, from Unicorn HRO LLC, has a self-service portal so employees could look up things like how many sick days they had accrued on their own. It allowed the HR staff to function as business analysts and focus on more big-picture issues, such as types of benefits the agency should offer, Pulomena said.
After the switch, the county trimmed five positions from its 25-person HR department and moved from a 50-50 mix of clerical and skilled positions to mostly skilled work. For HR staff in clerical roles who couldnât perform in an analyst capacity Pulomena found jobs in other county departments that were a better match for their skills. Other people retired and or left the agency. âWhen we backfilled, we backfilled with people with skills we needed,â he said.
Today, the countyâs HR staff is split between a core HR office of 10 and HR personnel who are embedded in various county departments but meet regularly for training and other work issues.
The upgrade has been a boon for HR department staff, which is enthusiastic about the role theyâve played in making people-management processes more efficient and effective for the countyâs approximately 2,000 employees. âThey donât have to focus on data entry and sitting in front of a computer analyzing numbers,â Pulomena said. âThey can look at what we should be doing to enhance the experience of our employees.â
Michelle V. Rafter is a contributing editor in Portland, Oregon. To comment, email editors@workforce.com.
In the war for talent, programmers and software engineers are often seen as the ultimate prize.
Itâs easy to scan rĂŠsumĂŠs for degrees and universities, but how do you compare candidates who learned to code at a two-month boot camp or via YouTube videos?
These technical geniuses are considered among the most difficult talent to attract and retain, adding time and cost to the recruiting process. A 2016 survey from Indeed found 86 percent of companies face challenges finding technical talent, and they find that applicants often meet less than half of the criteria in their job posts.
Perhaps that is part of the problem.
Indeedâs survey also found that nearly a quarter of respondents still think an Ivy League degree is âvery importantâ when evaluating technical talent. Yet 90 percent of developers recently surveyed by Stack Overflow said they were at least somewhat self-taught, and about one-third thought formal education was not important to their career success.
With the soaring cost of four-year college tuitions and increasing number of low-cost boot camps and free online courses, aspiring programmers have a lot more options to learn their craft â some seen as more valuable than a traditional degree.
âYou donât learn to program in college,â said Bob Graham, co-founder of Event Temple, a venue management software firm in Vancouver, British Columbia. Graham taught himself Ruby on Rails, CSS, HTML and other programming languages using online tutorials and coding websites, and as a business owner he seeks out self-taught tech talent.
âSelf-learners also tend to be more passionate about coding,â said Graham. He finds these candidates are more up to date on industry news and new codes, and that they like to build things on the side for fun. âThey see coding as a lifestyle, not a job.â
Kieran Snyder, CEO of Textio, a Seattle-based âaugmented writing platformâ for recruiters, has a similar opinion. Like Graham, she taught herself to program and now actively recruits âcareer changersâ because they have more hands-on experience actually solving problems with code compared to their degreed peers.
âCandidates with computer science degrees are really well-versed in design theory,â she said. But unless theyâve had internships, they often struggle with the transition to a production environment. While self-learners lack the theory, they tend to be better at solving real-world problems because thatâs how they learned, she said.
Recruiting Self-learners
That is the kind of talent most companies want on their team, yet finding passionate self-starters can be tricky. Itâs easy to scan rĂŠsumĂŠs for degrees and universities, but how do you compare candidates who learned to code at a two-month boot camp or via YouTube videos?
To start with look at what they have done, not where they learned, Snyder said.
âA four-year degree is awesome, but it is not a skill,â Snyder said.
Textio asks candidates to include examples of how they changed direction in their lives or careers in their applications. âWhether itâs going back to school, learning a language or changing careers, it demonstrates a love of trying new things, which is important in a start-up,â she said.
At Event Temple, recruiters let the work speak for the candidate. His team reviews GitHub and Stack Overflow to see how candidates remain active in the coding community, and they search for examples of side projects, volunteer work with coding groups and online samples of their code. âWhen people teach themselves to code, they need to build things,â he said. Looking at the language they used and the problems they solved on these projects can provide great insight into their talents.
Snyder also suggests reaching out to local boot camps and code academies for recommendations. After hiring several students from ADA, a local coding school in Seattle, they began reaching out with suggestions of promising candidates. âThere are some incredible developers in these programs and once you show interest they will come to you,â she said.
Once recruiters narrow the list of candidates, they should test their skills by presenting them with coding problems that occur every day in the workplace to see how they respond, Graham said. âIf they canât talk through how they would solve the problem in an interview, they wonât be able to do it on their own.â He urges recruiters to include programmers in these interviews. âHR wonât know what questions to ask or what the answers should be.â
Companies may struggle to give up their vision of an Ivy League programmer, but expanding the search to candidates who learned on their own and can prove they know how to write great code can help them find better talent faster, Snyder said. âIf you focus on the skills not the degree, you can find great people for your team.â
Sarah Fister Gale is a writer in the Chicago area. Comment below or email editors@workforce.com.
Workforce editors Frank Kalman and Rick Bell note that rather than being a job-killer, the so-called robot revolution may actually create 21 million new types of jobs. Also, you wonât be alone if you check your work email on Christmas Day.
Some experts say AI could be a key tool in the future to help catch inappropriate behavior in the workplace.
The skills that robots have in the workplace are increasing rapidly from building cars to working factory lines to transcribing lengthy documents.
But catching sexual harassment in the workplace? It offers some intrigue to legal experts.
And considering sexual assault allegations in corporate America continue to occur with startling regularity, those experts say artificial intelligence could be a key tool in the future to help catch inappropriate behavior in the workplace. They quickly add, however, that such technology must work in tandem with HR professionals who can monitor and understand the data.
Silicon Valley is looking at ways to change the culture that is enabling sexual harassment and poor treatment of women in the workplace. California employment and entertainment litigation lawyer Eve Wagner, a founding partner of Sauer & Wagner LLP, a boutique law firm in Los Angeles, wrote in an op-ed on Law360.com that women have been empowered by publicly telling their stories.
She notes this cultural shift being seen around the issue is good, but told Workforce in a separate interview that there has been âa resurgenceâ of allegations. Although companies are considering artificial intelligence, or AI, to solve the problem, there are several factors to look at before it can work successfully, she said.
âA lot of companies now are implementing [AI] monitoring software,â Wagner said, adding that the reasons could be numerous â checking an employeesâ job satisfaction, productivity, behavioral issues and potential harassment and retaliation. âItâs a newer trend and has not been tested out nationally to see the scope because obviously this infringes on peopleâs feelings of privacy.â
Itâs a hurdle that attorneys and employers must be most aware of, one that changes depending on each stateâs privacy laws. In California, Wagner said the privacy laws are stricter and state mandates are in place to bar employers from getting employeesâ social-media passwords and GPS locations without consent.
Theoretically, the Electronic Communications Privacy Act of 1986, which prevents the government from monitoring electronic communications of individuals and businesses without consent, could protect employees, but Wagner said that once employees sign employee handbooks, they generally give consent to employer monitoring. Although most workplaces donât actively check employee communications, she said just knowing that companies have the option is an unsettling feeling for the employee.
âIt can create a stressful, demoralizing environment, even if it turns out that itâs not legally an invasion of privacy,â Wagner said.
AI also brings into question the data it could uncover and what HR needs to do about it. Sheryl Simmons, chief human resources officer at Maestro Health, said the data AI uses to potentially find inappropriate behavior must be balanced with a personâs work. More importantly, she said companies must have best practices and analysis in place for how to use the data before relying on it. Determining its relevance and if its findings should be pursued is how it can help the HR field in a more efficient way, without throwing massive amounts of data to sort through.
âSmarter should always mean more strategic, and that is where AI is going to free up resources,â Simmons said, adding that she sees AI being helpful not only for catching sexual harassment but also in recruiting, benefits, onboarding and management.
AI expert and principal analyst Ray Wang is passionate about technological tools and how people use them. As the founder and chairman of Silicon Valley-based Constellation Research Inc., Wang works with companies to make technology better assist their business strategy and future success. He said AIâs aid in the workplace will show trends on communication and office culture comfort by recording data through technologyâs natural language processing engines, which examine sentences and analyzes them for different types of patterns.
âAs people start to pick up these patterns, you are learning culturally what are acceptable situations,â Wang said. âWe are seeing these tools emerge as a way to help folks figure out what are normal types of communications.â
Wang said AI will yield false positive results at times, so the goal is to improve the precision of those false positives by looking at the patterns the data brings in and knowing when to use automation versus manual intervention. He is confident AI will be a major tool for compliance and regulatory requirements and will be a rising trend culturally and corporately.
Silicon Valleyâs recent bouts with sexual assault allegations have tainted the tech hubâs image, and Wang said the area is being scrutinized because of it. Despite this, he sees many tech companies using AI tools to catch inappropriate behaviors that would otherwise go unnoticed.
âThere are definitely abuses happening but there is a witch hunt going on in the Valley at the same time,â Wang said.
AI use will only grow in the workplace and outside of it, and attorneys agree that HR will need to be prepared on how to handle the data. Marko J. Mrkonich, an employment law attorney with Littler Mendelson in Minneapolis, said it is too soon to see case laws based on AI catching sexual harassment in the workplace.
Wagner added that such cases could make their way to federal courts, but both lawyers said the data does not necessarily catch physical harassment if it is only looking at electronic interaction in the office.
âRealistically, right now the most prevalent use of analytics is still in the recruiting and selection processes than it is in the workforce management process,â Mrkonich said. âThere are all sorts of areas where data analytics have the potential to help drive better behavior and better decision-making.â
Ariel Parrella-Aureli is a former Workforce intern. Comment below or email editors@workforce.com.
Back in 2014 the Associated Press started using automation software to write quarterly corporate-earnings reports.
This software, known as Wordsmith, is able to produce 3,000 such stories every quarter, which, according to the AP, is a tenfold increase from what its writers and editors were able to produce in the same time period.
By employing automation software to churn out corporate earnings stories, AP journalists are able to dedicate more time on reporting and breaking news. Journalism may not be the only traditionally white-collar field to be affected by automation if software expert predictions are correct.
Automation software â as well as artificial intelligence and machine learning â is on the brink of becoming ubiquitous in offices around the world, taking the repetitive, transactional work out of many traditional white-collar jobs, including many manual functions of human resources roles.
In short, jobs once thought to be immune from automation are likely to be transformed by it within the next 10 years. As automation software begins to creep into more businesses, the role of HR is set for a major transformation. In fact, the Society for Human Resource Management labeled automated HR one of its âNine HR Tech Trends for 2017.â
âI think there are two ways to think about the implications for HR: How does the department operate, and how does the HR function report to the rest of the enterprise?â said Michael Chui, partner at McKinsey Global Institute, a global management consulting firm.
According to Carolyn Broderick, a member of SHRMâs HR Tech Expertise Panel, HR departments have their work cut out for them when it comes to workforce automation.
âI believe HR has a role for planning in the future. Jobs will have to be redesigned. Certain jobs are going to be enriched if mundane tasks are going to be automated,â said Broderick, who is senior HRIS analyst at Mount Sinai Health System in New York. âHR has to consider how humans and machines will work together.â
The Wave of Automation
Automated labor often leads to dystopian thoughts of a future where humans in the workforce are rendered obsolete by robots. However, the automation of tasks is nothing new for the American workforce, even in traditionally white-collar sectors. Spell checkers, Excel formulas and out-of-office replies are simple examples of automation already in use that make office jobs easier.
Most occupations have the potential for some automation, and itâs estimated that about half of all the activities people are paid to do in the worldâs workforce could potentially be automated by existing technologies, according to a recent report from McKinsey.
âWhat this says to us is that there is a wide-ranging scope of automation technology, which, over time, will affect every role,â Chui said. âNot just workers who earn lower wages, but MBAs, JDs or MDs. We find the potential for automated work in many occupations.â
The difference between automation already in use and the automation revolution many experts predict is that new advances in artificial intelligence and machine learning are able to automate tasks that were thought to be too difficult for a machine to do accurately.
In other words, it was more efficient, quicker â and ultimately cheaper â for a human being to do them.
âI can automate a lot of things like email, for example,â said Jason Hite, founder and chief people strategist at Daoine Centric, a Virginia-based HR consultancy. âItâs just a ping and an echo. But the difference between automation and artificial intelligence and machine learning is that an email is now read by an AI algorithm. The email you get back is now responding to you with an answer to the question you asked. Youâre getting a tailored response.â
Speed and efficiency have always been among the main drivers behind automation in the workforce, as it allows for increased productivity. The same holds true for the current economic climate.
âAutomation of activities can enable businesses to improve performance by reducing errors and improving quality and speed, and in some cases achieving outcomes that go beyond human capabilities. Automation also contributes to productivity, as it has done historically,â the McKinsey report states.
Itâs possible that automation programs could displace highly skilled jobs in the distant future. But in the near future, the jobs most susceptible to automation are those in manufacturing, accommodation and food service, retail trade and some middle-skill jobs. These jobs share certain commonalities such as physical activities in highly structured and predictable environments, as well as the collection and processing of data.
âThere are certain jobs involving data prep or data entry that will be affected. People spend an awful amount time scrubbing data,â Broderick said. âWith automation taking over that process, folks can spend more time analyzing data and writing about it. There are already programs that can do that.â
When it comes to HR, Hite said there will be opportunities to automate many transactional tasks and noted that some forward-thinking companies have already started to do so. As an example, he pointed to companies using smart devices to help keep track of employees on leave.
âThere are a number of companies that have already integrated with Amazon Echo. As a manager, you can ask it, âHow many people are on leave today?â â said Hite, a 2016 Workforce Game Changer. âThereâs no need to call HR about that anymore.â
Experts predict the adoption of automation technology will push HR in new directions, drastically transforming the departmentâs role within organizations, especially when it comes to artificial intelligence and machine learning.
Itâs an Automated World and HRâs Just Livinâ in It
One of the benefits of automating transactional HR tasks is, like AP using Wordsmith to allow reporters to focus on breaking news, that HR departments can focus on activities that bring value to the organization. By adopting sophisticated automation technology with artificial intelligence, HR will have the opportunity to focus more energy on the employee experience.
For example, a benefits expert will no longer need to spend time answering emails with simple questions about the companyâs benefits packages. That person can set up a chatbot, which is a computer program that conducts a conversation via auditory or textual methods. The chatbot would respond with the correct information while the employee gets to focus on the analysis of how workers are using the organizationâs benefits packages.
âThe creative part of benefits will need to be handled by humans,â Broderick said. â âWhatâs the message?â âHow do we tailor it and change it?â and âHow will people react?â There should probably always be some kind of human touch point in HR communications. Every company is different, every culture is different. I donât really see that being taken over by a computer.â
Similarly, automated recruiting programs would allow companies to improve the human element of their talent acquisition processes.
Currently, 82 percent of job seekers are frustrated with an overly automated recruiting experience, according to a Randstad U.S. report released in August. While automation has seemingly created a problem for organizations, it has also created an opportunity for HR to develop a solution that makes the recruiting process more enjoyable for job seekers. In fact, 82 percent of job seekers said the ideal interaction with a company is one where innovative technologies are used behind the scenes and come second to personal, human interaction.
âEven if parts of recruiting can be automated, there are certain things that canât be replaced. The grunt work can be automated. Entering data about candidates, if thatâs automated, recruiters can be more strategic on selecting the best candidates,â Broderick said.
Whatâs more, automated recruiting technology may help organizations stay compliant with hiring laws since, theoretically, bias and emotional decisions could be removed from the recruiting process. However, Broderick said that would only be true as long as the process, which was first developed by a human, is free from bias to begin with.
Hite agrees with Broderick on this point.
âIf the data is bad, the output will be bad. Thatâs why we need to start thinking about where this is going,â he said. âI think this is really going to be a big moment for HR. Itâs going to test whoâs leaning forward.â
Change Management
Perhaps the biggest opportunity for HR related to automation technology is managing the change that will take place within organizations. On one hand, processes in place will need to be evaluated and possibly revamped in order for the benefits of automation technology to be fully realized. Furthermore, HR will need people to create communication strategies related to automation changes. And strategies to train â or even re-train â employees to use these new tools will need to be developed.
âChange management is going to be huge,â Hite said. âItâs going to force HR to look at the end user. I really think the break point will be when HR starts to understand how these advances will improve the lives of their stakeholders. If it only complicates the end userâs life even a little bit, thatâll be an issue.â
Higher productivity is a clear benefit of a more automated workforce. However, as organizations stand to gain from this impending technological shift, HR will also need to plan for the negative impact that a portion of the workforce will ultimately endure.
Max Mihelich is writer in Chicago. Comment below or email editors@workforce.com.
China Gorman will lead the Unleash HR technology conference in the spring.
When human resources leaders talk about China thereâs a fair chance theyâre referring not to the Asian nation but to China Gorman, the one-time Great Place to Work CEO, former Society for Human Resource Management chief operating officer and longtime industry thought leader, adviser and speaker.
HRN, a European-based event organizer thatâs behind a fledgling U.S. HR technology conference, is counting on Gormanâs strong personal brand and deep industry connections to boost its presence stateside.
The outfit tapped Gorman Oct. 23 to manage its North American operations, including helping it rebrand and run its second U.S. conference. The event, once known as HR Tech World and rebranded as Unleash as of Oct. 24, is set to take place next May in Las Vegas.
In building its American operations, HRN is going head to head with the existing HR Technology Conference. The LRP Publications-run event all but created the HR technology exposition phenomena when it kicked off its first gathering 20 years ago.
HRNâs focus on the future of work and unique programming separates it from existing conferences, Gorman said. âThis isnât our parentsâ HR tech conference, thatâs for sure,â she said.
An HR Technology Conference spokeswoman declined to comment.
The rival conferences hope to appeal to HR practitioners at a time when companies are using more cloud-based services for payroll, benefits, performance, learning and other aspects of people management. At the same time, venture funds are pouring an unprecedented amount of capital into HR technology startups.
The trends, along with a low barrier to entry for software-as-a-service providers, have led to an explosion of workplace apps, and to new platforms for helping HR technology departments navigate available options. Close to 500 vendors exhibited at the HR Technology Conference in mid-October, which also took place in Las Vegas.
AI Works was among the nearly 500 vendors at this year’s HR Technology & Exposition conference in Las Vegas. (Photo by Rick Bell)
The past few years also have seen a proliferation of HR tech blogs, review sites â including some with crowdsourced reviews â and other content devoted to assessing HR technology. HR executives need help understanding how HR systems can help them innovate instead of succumbing to thinking of them as a âsilver bullet,â said HR tech consultant Nov Omana, chief executive and co-founder of Collective HR Solutions Inc.
Today, information on whatâs available comes in many forms, including news sites, webinars and whitepapers. âTech conferences are getting less attendance by buyers and more by vendors, especially startups looking forâ partners, Omana said. âWe need to change how we seek knowledge on technology and what it can do for us, and it wonât be through conferences.â
Economic and other trends make it critical for organizations to focus on their people, not just when theyâre at work but in their personal lives, and HRN and its founder Marc Coleman get the repercussions that has for HR technology, said Jason Averbook, co-founder of workplace consulting firm LeapGen, and a speaker at previous HR Tech World and HR Technology Conference meetings. âWe live in a world where the focus must be on the workforce, the changes required to service a new workforce and everything needed to unleash that workforce to reach its full potential,â Averbook said.
Technology is just part of what Unleash will cover, Gorman said. Of equal importance is helping organizations understand the changing nature of work and its impact on business growth, competition, budgets, innovation and people. âUnleash will focus moving forward with people at the heart of everything we do,â she said.
Gorman will work for Unleash part time from her home base in Las Vegas. âI see myself as a rocket booster for the Unleash team,â she said.
She remains a director at for-profit companies Motivis Learning and Swedish-based Universum Global, nonprofits Human Resource Certification Institute and Jobs for Americaâs Graduates, and continues as a member of Kronosâ advisory board. Sheâs also continuing as managing director of the Future Talent Council, a startup members-only group on talent and the economy.
From 2013 to 2015, Gorman was chief executive of Great Place to Work Institute, the San Francisco management consultant that teams with Fortune magazine to produce the annual âBest Companies to Work Forâ list series.
She was SHRMâs COO from 2007 to 2010 and before that held management positions at several outplacement and HR services firms.
Michelle V. Rafter is a Workforce contributing editor in Portland, Oregon. Comment below or email editors@workforce.com.
They argue that inappropriate emoji use might lead to misunderstandings and harassment liability.
You may want to look into having a custom set of emojis defined for use throughout the company (and leave out the easy to misinterpret emojis, like the winky face, tongue out, kissy face, or racially diverse options). Itâs not that some emojis are inappropriate on their own, but the context makes a big difference. Also, if an employee is not fluent in emoji, they might misunderstand what they are saying, or being told/asked, if an emoji is used. Using the wrong emoji could be seen as evidence of a hostile work environment, discrimination, or sexual harassment. As such, if you are going to allow the use of emojis, you may want to have training available to employees on what the emojis mean.
They are also corporate killjoys. (And we wonder why people canât stand lawyers.)
This might be silliest thing Iâve read in a long time. Most employers already have an emoji policy. Itâs called your harassment policy. You do not need a separate policy to forbid your employees from using what is becoming an acceptable form of communication. Heck, even courts are starting to use emoji in opinions.
We can have a healthy debate over the professionalism of emoji use in business communications (like this one). Indeed, according to one recent survey, ânearly half (41%) of workers use emojis in professional communications. And among the senior managers polled, 61% said itâs fine, at least in some situations.â My sense is that your view of this issue will depend on a combination of your age, your comfort with technology, and the age of your kids.
As for me, I use emojis all the time, even at work. Email is notoriously tone deaf. Itâs easier for me to drop a ? into an email to convey intent than to tone down my sarcasm.
In other words, ?. Emojis are ?, and its perfectly fine to ⤠them at work. â
Jon Hyman is a partner at Meyers, Roman, Friedberg & Lewis in Cleveland. Comment below or email editors@workforce.com. Follow Hymanâs blog at Workforce.com/PracticalEmployer.
