In its latest research report, “Transforming Employee Experience: A SWOT Analysis of 500 Human Resources Departments,” isolved surveyed HR managers, directors, VPs and chief people/HR officers to learn the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats facing their departments after a year marked by extreme changes to the workforce due to the global COVID-19 pandemic.
At the core of an HR team’s ability to serve distributed teams is their technology stack. Of their top reasons for switching HCM systems, security issues, undergoing a digital transformation project and service issues were ranked the highest. Equally telling are the top opportunities HR leaders noted. Consolidating multiple HCM systems, employee engagement and being able to recruit from anywhere due to remote workplaces were ranked among HR leaders’ biggest opportunities for this year (all tied at 20 percent).
KEY STATS
- 42% of HR leaders will invest in an HCM platform this year
- Employee-review sites such as Glassdoor and Indeed ranked highest among HR leaders’ most valuable recruiting tools. Only 18% ranked their recruiting and hiring software as their most valuable recruiting tool.
- 51% of HR leaders are considering switching HCM platforms in the next year. Of their top reasons for switching, security issues (20%), undergoing a digital transformation project (15%) and service issues (14%) were ranked the highest.
- 48% of HR leaders expect recruiting to be more difficult in 2021 than previous years.
“There isn’t an HR leader around who doesn’t want access to the latest tools and technologies to serve employees in the way they expect based on their consumer experiences,” said Amy Mosher, chief people officer at isolved. “The pandemic exposed so many gaps in a company’s digital readiness and the survey data shows that organizations are now prioritizing investments in employee experience to close them. One way to improve that experience is by reducing the number of technology tools in place in favor of a single system of truth for both the HR admin and the employee.”
On average, the majority of HR leaders (55 percent) use 1-5 different HCM software systems and nearly a third (29 percent) of HR leaders use 5-10 different systems. Companies with 501 employees or more are the most likely to use over 10 solutions to manage HR. Despite the disparate technology, there are other threats to contend with like how employees will respond to further COVID-19 measures. The majority of organizations (44 percent) will mandate that employees get the COVID-19 vaccine in order to return to work. Other key findings include:
- HR leaders ranked remote work environments, stressed employees, overworked employees and negative attitudes among the top threats facing a positive company culture.
- Forty-eight percent of HR leaders expect recruiting to be more difficult in 2021 than previous years.
- The top-three threats facing talent acquisition in 2021 according to HR leaders include the remote-work environment brought on by COVID-19 (40 percent), hiring freezes due to COVID-19 (27 percent) and competitors with larger budgets (16 percent).
- The top-three threats facing talent retention in 2021 according to HR leaders include the remote-work environment brought on by COVID-19 (33 percent), increasing employee experience expectations (14 percent) and competitors with larger budgets (14 percent).
“To negate these challenges, HR leaders need to get to the root of understanding what employees need – moving away from wellness apps and shorter zoom meetings – and toward enhanced flexibility, technology, training and transparency to support and build trust among the workforce,” said Mosher.
Get full access to all the survey data by downloading, “Transforming Employee Experience: A SWOT Analysis of 500 Human Resources Departments.”
