What your company’s HR toolset is missing

Pipplet spoke with Rachel James, Marketing Director at Applaud, and asked how HR technologies are changing the recruitment process?

“Expectations of HR technology continue to rise. Employees and applicants alike expect their work tech to provide the same seamless experiences that they are used to as consumers and when it doesn’t, it instantly provokes feelings of frustration and dissatisfaction,” James responded. “Applicants are judging their potential employer from the first interaction they have, which in many cases is the application experience. If this is an easy, intuitive process you can expect the perceptions to be vastly different to if it is a clunky, time- consuming experience.”

Are there any clear trends you can identify with HR’s use of digital tools?

“Earlier this year, we produced the 2021 Digital Employee Experience Trend report, based on a survey of 150 senior HR leaders. One clear trend that came out was a move towards hyper-personalized digital experiences. Today, less than 10% of organizations offer this, and in a world of full-time hybrid workers, this will drastically impact their engagement. With employees working in the office or remotely, on different days, or with various working patterns, a one size fits all approach to HR no longer works. These HR teams must ensure their organizations take a tailored approach when it comes to keeping remote working employees motivated and engaged.

“Although HR is keen to reap the benefits of personalization, a significant level of IT input is required to implement, connect and manage these tech-enabled solutions. This has historically been one of the biggest challenges holding back adoption, with many organizations relying on outdated tech, which provides less value.

“However, we are now seeing an uptake in low and no-code applications - where less IT expertise is required, which is helping to break down the technology barriers for non-technical people. This enables organizations to set-up, use and update technology much faster. In fact, Gartner reports that by 2024, low-code and no-code applications will be responsible for more than 65% of app development activity. By removing IT barriers from enterprise technology, users can build powerful, personalized regulatory compliant applications.”

Post-COVID-19, are businesses looking to expand their market reach internationally? Is language proficiency higher on the HR agenda than it has been in the past?

“One of the key impacts of the pandemic for HR leaders is the opening up of the talent pool. The move to remote working as the new norm removed geographical barriers when it comes to recruiting the best talent. With any major change additional measures and checks need to be taken to maintain quality standards. Language proficiency may fall into this category.”

What challenges do HR face when integrating language proficiency testing systems into the digital tools they use?

“Some advanced video interviewing tools can make some assessment on spoken language proficiency.  From a broader perspective, you want tools that are easy and fast to integrate and can work in an environment of constant innovation where mini tools are swapped and changed all the time, with these (video interviewing tools) being an example of that.”

Are businesses taking steps to further integrate HR technology with other areas of their enterprises?

“When it comes to integrating HR technology with other areas of the business, there needs to be a clear purpose for doing so. Despite the fact that the HR technology market is undergoing significant growth with new vendors and solutions coming to the market all the time, Forrester reported earlier this month that 75% of HR Leaders are planning on expanding or upgrading their existing solutions - focusing on getting more value out of what they currently have rather than adding additional systems into the mix.”

How do you see HR technology evolving into the future?

“We’re seeing a trend in HR technology towards more consumer-grade solutions. Employees are expecting the same experiences at work that they have when shopping on Amazon or choosing a song on Spotify: fast, easy and intuitive. To achieve this HR leaders will need to focus on integrating the existing systems in their tech stack and hiding the complexities that go on behind the scenes.”

In a post-COVID-19 business landscape it’s clear that recruitment will change. Enterprises that want to thrive post-pandemic will need to refocus how they locate the highly skilled people they will need to help them communicate with what will increasingly be a global audience. The language of business is now multifaceted. Having an HR toolset that includes comprehensive and accessible language proficiency assessment is now imperative.

You can schedule a meeting with us to find out how Pipplet can effectively integrate comprehensive language skills testing into your recruiting processes.