Technology needed in every aspect of HR, say experts

The human resources (HR) function should harness the power of rapidly evolving technology for every aspect of workforce management, instead of limiting it to just maintaining payrolls, according to experts.

"Technology is available with the vendors in India. However, most organisations limit the usage of technology in HR only to payroll related activities," HR expert and author Jason Averbook told PTI on the sidelines of a Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) event here.

He said that technology is needed for enhancing the workforce experience and making it interactive, engaging and simple, to analyse performance, not once a year for appraisal but every month to measure productivity, and for data analytics.

"There is an opportunity for companies in India to do things differently by redesigning the entire process. They should first think what they want to achieve and then find the technology. Companies should not copy but think differently to leapfrog," he added.

SHRM CEO Achal Khanna opined that while Indian companies are using technology in HR, the question is how productive they are.

"Through technology, data is available, but how it is used or interpreted by the companies is the issue," she said, adding that technology should be customised to suit the needs of different companies.

Career Builder General Manager (sales) Sameer Yousuf Farash said that there are different technologies for dealing with different aspects of HR, but there is a need to consolidate them in order to simplify the process.

Adoption of the right technology in HR is not high in India, he said, adding that companies need to know their priorities.

There is a huge opportunity in the organised as well as unorganised sectors, like real estate, for optimally using technology in HR to derive maximum productivity, he said, adding that there is a shift from laptops to mobiles in the field of technology utilisation.

"The shift in use of technology is going in the right direction. About 65 per cent job seekers in the organised sector are using mobile handsets while applying or searching for jobs," he added.