Improve Work Performance with These 10 Types of HR Tech

With workforce environments constantly changing, it’s critical that companies keep up with the latest HR tech to help frontline employees perform at their very best. HR departments are in a unique position. With the right combination of company culture, paired with cutting-edge HR tech, human resource departments can improve overall morale while helping the business run more efficiently.

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The development and integration of HR tools lays the foundation for successful employee engagement. Providing proven HR tech best practices and enabling company-wide adoption of new tools is at the heart of what we do at Beekeeper.

That’s why we’re sharing 10 of our favorite HR tech tools for 2020 that have the potential to maximize employee performance and make a big impact on your company’s ROI.

1. Employee Engagement Tools

As businesses transition to a digital workplace, employee engagement is becoming one of the defining workplace challenges for HR departments worldwide. For frontline workforces, engagement strategies are crucial given that only a mere 13% of frontline employees are actively engaged at work.

According to results from the Work Institute’s 2019 Retention Report: Trends, Reasons and A Call to Action, businesses lost over $617 billion to employee turnover last year.

Compared to 2010, costs associated with voluntary employee turnover have nearly doubled from $331 billion.

At the current trend, that number could be $800 billion by 2023. Based on results from the Work Institute’s report, a small investment in employee engagement strategies can have a considerably positive impact on business.

For example, the number of employees who leave a company will decrease 37% if their company ratings shift from poor/fair to excellent. This equates to $555,000 in savings.

Additionally, 21% fewer employees will leave a company if their ratings for growth and development move from poor/fair to excellent, amounting to $315,000 in savings.

Given these results, it’s evident that investing in HR employee engagement activities is worth the cost.

One of the best ways to increase employee engagement is to develop a two-way digital communication channel where frontline workers can communicate instantly with management and each other at any given point during their shift.

HR tech, like real-time messaging, enables communication between HR teams and employees. This improves work performance because:

It reduces the amount of time employees spend waiting on responses for questions relating to company policy, logistics, product information, or anything HR-related.
Employees are able to receive instant communication through customized mobile security and notification settings, which is especially critical during time-sensitive situations, like answering a customer’s question.
Corporate and frontline team members are brought under one digital roof, which allows employees to affirm each other’s performance and build camaraderie.

Hear from RHW’s COO Chandler Thayer on why implementing Beekeeper has resulted in increased employee engagement, and has saved the company time and money.

2. Digital Onboarding

In addition to ongoing HR employee engagement activities, HR tech also saves teams time and resources during the onboarding process.

Using an integration like BambooHR, you can automatically sync users with Beekeeper. Once new employees receive their credentials to access the Beekeeper app, your HR team can then use HR chatbots to answer frequently asked questions from new hires.

This helps employees quickly understand your company culture and values. Onboarding documents that introduce employees to the roles and responsibilities of each department make a great addition to any modern HR communication strategy.

3. Paperless Scheduling and Payroll

For shift workers, keeping track of their work schedules can be time-consuming and confusing. With HR tech integrations, employees at all levels of the organization are able to easily access their schedule digitally.

Using HR tools to go paperless saves your HR team the headache of hardcopy files and print-outs, as well as having to mitigate countless emails about W2 forms and other HR communication processes that can be easily automated through mobile HR tools.

Below is an example of how a chatbot is able to quickly provide answers to employees, reducing the amount of time and effort they’d otherwise have to spend searching or inquiring with HR.

As an example, Beekeeper Marketplace integrations like UKG Pro offer a cloud-based solution for this, helping your HR department automate payments and enabling employees to digitally retrieve pay stubs.

4. Employee Feedback Surveys

When your HR department is tasked with keeping workplace satisfaction levels high among frontline and corporate employees alike, one of the best ways to continually measure employee satisfaction levels is by leveraging mobile employee surveys to garner feedback.

Beekeeper offers this HR tool to help take a quick “pulse” on company morale. By automating the process through digital HR tech, your HR team is freed up to simply analyze the responses, instead of having to also process and tally the responses. This empowers your HR department to deploy surveys frequently, paving the way for a constant stream of HR communication that will keep your organization humming along smoothly.

5. Brainstorming and Ideation Tools

Working smarter, not harder, is the ideal way to stay competitive. And one way to do this is to build a culture where your employees are encouraged to contribute ideas for improving the company. This can be especially empowering to those on the frontline because they interact with customers directly and would have a keen sense on how to improve areas like customer experience.

In order for employees to feel safe and supported in offering their honest opinions, HR tech can provide a platform where feedback is contributed anonymously. In addition, employees can upvote the ideas of their colleagues. That’s why Beekeeper partners with Innovation App, a tool designed to help employees share and submit suggestions.

Designed as a forum, ideas are posted and employees are encouraged to vote for their favorites by way of allocating points to the best submissions. The app then ranks the top submissions at the end of each voting round. Not only does the app help your employees feel more connected and empowered, it also encourages creative problem solving skills.

6. Employee-Driven Performance Reviews

Truth be told, most employees don’t jump for joy when the yearly performance review comes around. It can be a common source of anxiety for many, not knowing whether you and your manager evaluated your work in the same way.

One way to avoid the stress and anxiety is to use a performance management system that’s employee-centric and encourages continuous feedback. Research shows that 84% of employees want regular check-ins with their managers and rate these sessions as important. With HR tech like Appraisd, employees have an opportunity to receive regular constructive feedback, and managers get to improve their coaching skills.

A performance management system creates a space for open dialogue and transparency on how an employee is evaluated. This then helps employees feel more empowered and engaged in their roles, knowing where they are excelling and the areas for improvement.

7. Employee Referral Programs

A job feels less like work when you’re doing what you love with people you respect and enjoy. So, being able to help your company by referring your friends, family and anyone else you know is a win-win for all involved. In addition, many companies will tie in a bonus for any referral that gets hired.

One type of HR tech designed to facilitate employee referrals is Intrro. By accessing your employees’ network (for example, LinkedIn), the tool uses machine learning to identify the best matched candidates to the roles that you are looking to fill. The process is highly beneficial because:

It helps to identify above-average applicants
Thanks to the warm introduction facilitated by the tool, candidates are 46% more likely to respond
It improves employee retention
Employee referral programs can reduce cost of hiring by up to 75%

8. Internal Communications

Excellent internal communications is essential to creating a strong foundation to improve work performance and morale. Having an open flow of information with your employees helps them stay engaged, informed, and empowered. All this leads to better productivity, and attracting and retaining good talent. When you have an effective internal communication system, employees are able to quickly find the information they need to do their jobs, which ultimately saves everyone time and money.

Beekeeper’s mobile communication platform was specifically designed to meet the needs of frontline workforces. With features like newsfeed-style streams, 1:1 and group messaging, campaigns, read receipts, etc., you can ensure your communications are being read and that everyone has digital access to all the people, processes, and systems they need. Work gets done faster with less frustration and less time is wasted looking for information.

9. Internal Training

If your business has a high turnover rate for customer-facing roles, such as retail, call centers, or seasonal work places, having an efficient internal training system is vital to keeping employees up-to-date with company procedures and product details. HR tech like learning management systems provide a dedicated channel for this information.

It’s a great way to make employees feel valued and set up for success, right from the beginning of being hired. Beekeeper has teamed up with Coursepath as a way to provide employees with easily accessible online registration and training. For HR teams, it enables them to create new training, update old ones and share across departments, regardless of location or time zone.

10. Microlearning

For many businesses, staying competitive also means being agile. One way to do this is to provide employees with a quick and easy way to access the most up-to-date information during time-sensitive situations. For example, your business may be having a sale on a specific product, so frontline employees need details about the sale in order to communicate effectively to customers.

MobieTrain has joined forces with Beekeeper to offer these microlearning opportunities. With this type of HR tech, employees are able to access content for on-the-spot learning. Additionally, this format improves knowledge retention through personalized, gamified learning paths and built-in retention algorithms.

Happy Employees Create Successful Businesses

Regardless of your type of business, the secret to success is your employees. They are your brand ambassadors, source of market intelligence, and best recruiters. That’s why implementing efficient HR tech tools can help you improve your bottom line, strengthen your corporate culture, and attract and retain top talent.

Your employees will respond positively when they feel valued, empowered, and in control of their career path. In the end, you’ll soon see that an investment into HR tech provides great returns in increasing employee performance.

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