Three disruptive HR technology trends which could take off in the next five years

1. Social engagement and collaboration

Historically an HRMS was a system of record to produce headcount reports and take care of HR back office tasks. As employee and manager self-service came on the scene more transparency was enabled but it was still seen as ‘HR’s system.’

Recommended reading: find up-to-the-minute HR technology with our extensive and independently-compiled HRMS vendor directory.

New features and functionality are changing that perception as the new generation of HRMS start to look and feel like social media websites facilitating contact with colleagues and linking to other platforms and systems. In the coming years we’ll look to an HRMS to be a go-to tool for social engagement, integrating HR tasks into an employee’s daily activities instead of being a one-off activity, like logging in to view a paycheck. Your HR teams will need to be ready to support this changing way of thinking about the HRMS.

2. Rise of mobile

In recent years mobile HRMS functionality has become a strong HRMS trend with employees, managers and HR power users able to perform HRMS tasks easily and conveniently on their mobile devices. Vendors have responded by building more transactions and tasks bit by bit, replicating features found in the HRMS.

‘Mobile first’ is becoming a common expectation in areas such as sales, marketing and retail, where more efforts are placed into creating mobile apps than into traditional computing technology. This trend is anticipated to make it into the HRMS space and will challenge traditional thinking about how HR delivers services and information.

3. Big data

Traditional HR departments have used industrial psychology and tests to try and identify great leadership skills and to fast track potential high performers. Much of this work is manual or on a one-to-one basis so only suitable for higher levels due to the cost.

Big data in the HRMS challenges this old way of thinking by bringing together various data points such as financials and social data. It then correlates it with core HR data like peer reviews and employee engagement.

Self-assessment data can be used via the HRMS to provide a whole picture and to allow for in-depth data mining. Data profiles of existing leaders can provide insight and take the guesswork out of future leader identification by looking for similar data profiles. Big data requires strategic planning and staffing to be effective, so make sure you're ready.