How HR Execs Are Already Using AI and Preparing Their Organizations for Broader Adoption

In HRchat episode 681, David Creelman and I speak with Jonathan Bergdahl, Rachel Wong and Vimal Sharma. In this discussion, we gain practical insights from those who are leading the way and supporting their organizations, from the starting line, and discuss how they are leveraging AI at present, and how they are preparing and supporting their teams and organizations to implement AI effectively in 2024.

Tune in and Discover:

• How is ChatGPT utilized in daily work and how does it enhance efficiency beyond just saving time?
• How are organizations currently leveraging AI capabilities, and how are they preparing to effectively utilize advancements in AI technology?
• How can HR professionals support employees in adapting to this new technology?
• Advice for HR professionals who are beginning their journey with AI.

About our Guests

• Jonathan Bergdahl leads the Global Talent Operations function at EssenceMediacom, based in the UK. He is a senior HR operations leader who always seeks to learn about the latest technologies which can enable himself and his colleagues to do their jobs better! Jon currently works in the digital advertising sector, with prior experience that includes the legal, retail, and market research sectors.
• Rachel Wong is the Vice President, Total Rewards & HR Technology, at Symcor Inc.  Over the past 18 years, she has held various positions in HR and Total Rewards, across a number of industries, with experience successfully implementing HRIS systems, redesigning incentive plans, and leading corporate-wide compensation and benefits projects.
• Vimal is an experienced HR executive and the Vice President of Human Resources for the Canadian division of WIS International. Vimal Sharma leads all aspects of the people strategy and operations in Canada. She is a member of the AI Steering Committee at the enterprise level and currently partners with stakeholders to determine the short and long-term role AI will play within internal HR functions and assess the associated risks.

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In the second episode of our new AI-focused series, David Creelman and I investigate some key ways that large HR vendors are utilizing new forms of AI.

Joining us this time are Mike Bollinger, Ben Zweig, and Jarik Conrad.

Mike Bollinger is an accomplished executive with 20 years of industry experience. He has deep technology and HCM domain skills including strategic workforce planning, communications, change management, team building, business case development, and leadership. In his current role as Vice President of Strategic Initiatives with Cornerstone, Mike is responsible for internal research as well as strategy development around outcome-based goals. In 2020, Mike helped found, and currently manages, the Cornerstone People Research Lab (CPRL), whose mission is to generate data-driven discoveries about the world of work today and identify emerging trends that will give rise to new work models.

Ben Zweig is a prominent figure at the intersection of Data Science and Human Resources. With a PhD in Economics specializing in Labor Economics and Economic Development from CUNY Graduate Center, he has a strong academic background. Ben’s expertise extends to Natural Language Processing, Labor Economics, Human Resources, and Occupational Transformation. Notably, he spent several years as a Managing Data Scientist at IBM’s Chief Analytics Office, where he utilized Natural Language Processing (NLP) to develop data-driven solutions for businesses. Currently, Ben serves as the CEO of Revlio Labs, an organization that supports the convergence of Data Science and HR. The company focuses on applying data-driven methodologies to enhance workforce management and adapt to the changing job market.

Dr. Jarik Conrad, EdD, SPHR, SHRM-CSP, NACD.DC, is vice president of the Human Insights team at UKG, which consists of former HR practitioners, business leaders, and consultants who are distinguished experts in the HCM field and uniquely qualified to help leadership teams reach their organizational goals. With an acute pulse on industry trends, best practices, and technological innovations, Jarik and his team serve as liaisons, trusted advisors, and thought leaders who help to shape HR industry conversations and direction.

The post Mike Bollinger, Ben Zweig and Jarik Conrad: How HR Tech Firms Are Using AI appeared first on The HR Gazette and HRchat Podcast.

In the first of a special mini-series focused on AI in the workplace, David Creelman and I consider how AI is impacting the workplace. Joining us on the HRchat podcast is Avi Goldfarb, the Rotman Chair in Artificial Intelligence and Healthcare and a professor of marketing at the Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto.

Avi is also Chief Data Scientist at the Creative Destruction Lab, a faculty affiliate at the Vector Institute and the Schwartz-Reisman Institute for Technology and Society, and a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research.

Avi’s research focuses on the opportunities and challenges of the digital economy. Along with Ajay Agrawal and Joshua Gans, Avi is the author of the bestselling books Prediction Machines and Power and Prediction.

He has published academic articles in marketing, statistics, law, management, medicine, political science, refugee studies, physics, computing, and economics. Avi has testified before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee on related work in competition and privacy in digital advertising. His work has been referenced in White House reports, European Commission documents, the New York Times, the Economist, and elsewhere.

Questions for Avi include:

• You have been studying AI for a long time; well before its advances garnered the attention of the general population. Is anything taking you by surprise with the current advances?
• You have talked about AI automating prediction in ways that we had only understood humans could do well/reasonably well previously. Can you explain this for our audience?
• You have an interesting (and hopeful) perspective that AI may become more of an equalizer across professions than past advances have been, can you tell us more about that?
• Can you provide your thoughts on how long it will be until we see broad sweeping changes in work and how it is organized?
• With your extensive work with entrepreneurs on the bleeding edge of new technology, what advice do you have for those on the other side of the equation: those who are making recommendations and purchasing tech for their organization. How should we balance not being left behind with appropriate diligence?

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Compare navigating today’s HR landscape to embarking on a challenging puzzle-solving quest, where each piece must fit perfectly. A misplaced move can lead to obstacles. However, with Workday and Workday integration, it’s like having a skillful puzzle master by your side. Integration provides a complete picture, ensuring stability and security as you conquer HR challenges with precision, much like assembling a complex puzzle.

Think of Workday as the lighthouse that illuminates your business’s path through the foggy waters of modern enterprise. With its versatile tools and capabilities, Workday serves as a guiding light, leading your organization safely through the challenges of HR, finance, planning, payroll, and more. Just as a lighthouse steers ships away from perilous shores, Workday integration helps companies navigate the complexities of HR data and chart a course toward prosperity.

Although Workday provides an extensive array of features, numerous HR departments prefer specialized HR applications tailored to their distinct requirements. These applications encompass applicant tracking systems (ATS), background check systems, payroll, and benefits management tools, all of which require seamless communication with Workday. This necessitates the need for Workday integration.

Each app that an HR department uses holds a unique purpose and contains invaluable information for the organization, but the information within each application rarely translates coherently with another. An HR department with disconnected apps is like a continent consisting of countries unable to communicate with one another due to language barriers. For HR departments to function at their optimized potential, their HR apps should be able to share information harmoniously. Data integration bridges the gaps in communication between disconnected HR apps. Like a translator between countries that speak different languages, data integration introduces an efficient way for the two entities to effectively communicate and share information for the first time. 

As data integration eliminates repetitive data entry, HR professionals no longer need to manually reenter data from Workday to another HR app, streamlining workflows. Data integration facilitates the smooth data flow between applications and enhances efficiency, accuracy, and security. This seamless exchange of information between apps streamlines HR processes and promotes precision.

Discovering 11 Vital Workday Data Integrations

HR data integration specialists at Flexspring revealed the top 11 Workday integrations, which have the potential to revolutionize how HR professionals leverage the capabilities of Workday.

Workday with an ATS

1. Job Requisition Data from Workday to your ATS
2. New Hires from ATS to Workday
3. Application Statuses and Attributes

Workday with Candidate Assessment Apps

1. Workday Applicants to Candidate Assessments
2. Workday to Background Checks

Workday with Payroll Apps

1. New Hires from Workday to Payroll
2. Employee Updates from Workday to Payroll
3. Foundational Data from ERP to Workday
4. Time Tracking to Workday
5.  Workday to Benefits 
6.  Benefits to Workday

Let’s uncover the specifics of some of these integrations:

Workday with an ATS: 

With integration between ATS and Workday, onboarding new hires becomes a breeze. As soon as the hiring manager initiates the “new hire” process in your ATS, Workday springs into action, effortlessly generating a fresh employee record complete with vital information like name, address, social security number, and salary. Data gracefully flows between the two systems, achieving seamless synchronization.

Through integration of application statuses and attributes, any alterations or revisions made to job applications in either your ATS or Workday are harmoniously synchronized. Think of it as a bridge that binds the two applications, guaranteeing that recruiters and hiring managers can track the entire talent acquisition journey effortlessly. There’s no more need to juggle between systems – you have everything you need at your fingertips, simplifying the recruitment process.

Workday with Payroll Apps: 

When you integrate new hires from Workday into your payroll system, envision the integration as a skilled interpreter bridging the gap between two systems that speak different languages. Integration removes delays and confusion. Workday swiftly communicates all the essential details about new hires necessary for processing payroll. 

Data integration automates a range of tasks, encompassing onboarding, background checks, payroll updates, and benefits management. Automation not only conserves time and resources but also guarantees data accuracy. For a comprehensive examination of all 11 Workday integrations, you can delve deeper into the details at Flexspring.

“With integration, we’ve saved countless hours by avoiding manual administrative tasks, allowing us to focus on recruiting. We don’t have to think about the integration—it just happens!”  — Jeremy Schwartz, Corporate Recruiter, M3

How You Can Benefit From Workday Data Integration

When Workday seamlessly integrates with other systems, a multitude of benefits unfurl, opening up a world of opportunities for HR professionals.

Accurate Data 

The integration of Workday with other systems establishes a fortress of unwavering data accuracy. Consistently precise employee information effortlessly travels through multiple systems, eliminating errors stemming from manual entries. This seamless and dependable communication eradicates the potential for data entry discrepancies, forming a foundation of trustworthy data.

Increased Efficiency 

The capabilities of Workday integration facilitate a smooth data flow, preserving your valuable time and resources. This empowers you to direct your energy toward engaging strategic initiatives that supercharge your organization’s growth and prosperity. Brace yourself for an unprecedented surge in productivity!

“Our Workday to ADP integration is a major key-stroke saver. It saves our HR departments a ton of time.” — HRIS Manager, Global Manufacturer

Protected Data

Workday integration serves as your reliable protector, safeguarding sensitive information like a vigilant shield. It bolsters data security in HR workflows by minimizing accounts, eradicating duplicates, and mitigating the risks associated with manual data entry. Data integration securely fortifies employee records and payroll information. HR teams can breathe easy, assured that confidential data remains in safe hands.

Marvelous Data Analysis

Workday data integration enhances your analytical prowess and forms a cohesive perspective of employee data. With data integration, you’ll unveil concealed insights, identify emerging trends, and make confident, data-driven decisions. Let Workday data integration become your asset for achieving greatness in data analysis!

Rewarding Employment

Workday integration liberates employees from the constraints of manual data entry, unlocking a realm of fresh opportunities. HR professionals can fully immerse themselves in strategic endeavors, fostering a culture of accomplishment and satisfaction. Prepare to leave the monotonous tasks behind and embrace a workplace brimming with fulfillment and purpose.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the integration of Workday and HR applications is not just about connecting systems; it’s about empowering HR departments to thrive. It’s about ensuring data accuracy, streamlining processes, enhancing security, and enabling data-driven decision-making. Workday integration is the bridge that connects HR operations, providing a path to efficiency, accuracy, and success in the modern HR landscape.

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A push and pull has long existed between employers and employees when it comes to pay. Employers have historically exhorted employees not to share their pay with other employees—sometimes even sanctioning those who did. On the flip side, employees have long lamented that “when you keep your pay secret, you keep it low.”

A Move Toward Pay Transparency

Then in 2021 things began to change as Colorado became the first state to mandate transparency in pay as a means of improving pay equity. Since then other states have followed; although today only one in four employees work in a state with these mandates.

In addition, the issue of pay transparency is really broader than simply sharing pay ranges or rates. Employees also need to know how these pay ranges are established, how companies decide what individual employees are paid, who gets pay increases, and why. Ultimately, of course, what they’re concerned about is whether pay is consistent and equitable and how the payroll system shows it.

Employees Want to Know: “What About Me?”

Pay is personal. Employees naturally wonder: “Am I paid fairly compared to my peers?” “Am I paid fairly for the work that I do and the value I bring to the organization?” “What do I have to do to get a pay increase?”

Answer those questions honestly, openly, and effectively and you’ll go a long way toward building a climate of transparency and trust that can boost engagement—and retention. Fail to answer them, or demonstrate through your actions that what you do isn’t aligned with what you say, and you’re likely to lose that trust, lose engagement, and fall prey to the great tsunami of turnover that many companies have been experiencing.

Steps Toward an Open Climate Related to Pay

Unfortunately, despite legislation demanding pay transparency (today one in four U.S. workers is covered by a law that mandates that salaries be posted in log listings), Gartner reports that fewer than one-third of employees believe they’re paid fairly and only 34% think their pay is equitable. If that’s the case in your organization, a quick calculation can tell you what percentage of your employees may be at risk for seeking jobs elsewhere. Worse, the employees who could most successfully do so likely represent your best and brightest.

So, what should you be doing to turn this around and boost those percentages?

• First, evaluate where you’re at. Conduct a pay equity audit to determine, objectively, how your pay practices stack up across positions and employees in those positions. Augment that pay equity audit with an employee poll or survey to determine how employees perceive pay equity.
• Next, communicate and take steps to close any gaps so that equity can be achieved.
• Finally, make your pay practices clear and transparent—not just through a one-time announcement, but through ongoing communication about what you do, why you do it, and how it affects individual employees. Make sure managers and supervisors are knowledgeable and prepared to address these questions when they hire, evaluate, coach, and counsel their employees.

Pay equity and pay transparency have always mattered to employees. Historically, though, for employers they’ve been optional. That’s rapidly changing. Now is the time to take steps to ensure that your pay practices are open, fair, and widely and continuously communicated.

Authored by Robert Sheen, CEO, Trusaic

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In HRchat episode 617, we ask if HR pros get the potential of AI to transform the world of work. Listen as we discuss the realities associated with the increased adoption of AI in the workplace and ways HR pros can prepare and adapt to the changing ways we work.

My awesome returning guest is Lila Nazef, Vice President of Sales & Marketing (North America) at Neocase, a Saas platform for automating HR Service Delivery.

Questions for Lila include:

• Let’s start our conversation about the impact of AI on businesses by hearing your experiences. How is the increasing use of AI at Neocase changing the ways your team works?
• What would you say to those who fear AI will replace the work of HR?
• Can AI and deep language models do a better job than humans?
• Do HR pros still struggle with how AI will impact functions over the coming years?
• How is AI disrupting HR processes?
• What are some key considerations when evaluating HR technology partners that incorporate AI?
• How can AI transform such HR operations as employee relations?
• How can HR adapt and future-proof itself for a work environment that includes AI?

Lila will be a virtual speaker at the Oct 4 Norwich AI Summit, co-produced by the team at HR Gazette. Learn more here.

About Neocase

Neocase is a pioneering Saas platform for automating HR Service Delivery. Their clients use Neocase to achieve faster time to value through reduced implementation costs and make real productivity gains by reducing the time spent on administrative tasks through processes automation and workflow efficiencies. Their HR digital platform includes collaborative Case Management, Business Process Automation, Electronic Document Management, Personalized Knowledge Base, Self-Service Portal, Pre/Onboarding, Transitioning, and Off-boarding workflows and Analytics. Delivered in the cloud and leveraging the latest technological innovations, the Neocase® solutions integrate with core HR platforms including Workday (Certified Partner), SAP/SF, Oracle, Talentsoft and other third-party applications to achieve seamless user experience and automation.

We do our best to ensure editorial objectivity. The views and ideas shared by our guests and sponsors are entirely independent of The HR Gazette, HRchat Podcast and Iceni Media Inc.   

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This year has seen an onus placed on HR professionals and business leaders to understand and plan for the implications of generative AI and deep language models. In HRchat episode 608, I sit down with Tim Whitley, Director of HR Technology at Oklahoma State University.

Tim says his passion lies in exploring the convergence of technology and HR, recognizing its transformative potential to elevate HR from a functional necessity to a strategic powerhouse within organizations.

Listen as Tim sheds light on the significance of generative AI and deep language models in reshaping HR practices. By skillfully integrating humans and technology and investing in essential HR tech competencies, says Tim, organizations can better position themselves for success.

The Rise of Generative AI and Deep Language Models

Over the past year, generative AI and deep language models have surged to prominence, transforming the way HR operates. Tim highlights that these technologies have redefined how HR teams manage processes, engage with employees, and make data-driven decisions. The ability of AI to analyze vast amounts of data and generate insights has revolutionized HR practices, driving efficiency and strategic decision-making.

The Impact of the AI Revolution on HR and HR Tech Professionals

Tim predicts that the AI revolution will profoundly impact HR, particularly in the realm of HR tech. By leveraging AI-driven tools and platforms, HR professionals can automate routine tasks, such as recruitment, onboarding, and performance evaluations. This boosts productivity and allows HR teams to focus on more strategic initiatives, like talent development and employee engagement.

Integrating Humans and Technology

One critical challenge facing organizations today is to strike the right balance between humans and technology. Tim emphasizes the need for seamless integration, where technology complements human efforts rather than replacing them. HR leaders should invest in upskilling their workforce to utilize technology effectively, ensuring a smooth transition towards an AI-powered HR environment.

Key Skills and Competencies for HR Tech Newcomers

For those venturing into the HR tech space, Tim recommends honing specific skills and competencies. Data analytics, machine learning, and proficiency in HR software are essential areas to focus on. Understanding the needs of both HR and technology is crucial for success in this domain.

Future Challenges and Opportunities in HR Tech

Looking ahead, the HR tech sector faces a host of challenges and opportunities. Tim foresees the need to navigate ethical considerations around AI implementation, ensuring data privacy and unbiased decision-making. On the flip side, there are promising opportunities to leverage AI for personalized employee experiences, predictive workforce planning, and improved talent acquisition.

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The HR department is integral to any business organization. HR specialists boost the company’s success by using their skills to guide business owners toward strategic management decisions. They also help a company find talented employees and develop realistic compensation structures to retain workers without compromising business profitability.  

However, you might not achieve business growth if you still complete tasks manually in your HR department. For that reason, you should consider investing in HR software. This involves installing an innovative tool into your business systems to help automate HR tasks, minimize manual steps, and promote operational efficiency.  

Your HR managers can benefit from using top HR software in many ways. They include the following:  

Time Saving

HR processes are one of the business areas that does numerous operations, especially if done manually. HR managers must spend several hours daily working on pay slips, computing pay as you earn taxes, and handling files. It even becomes worse when one wants to find a single receipt or document from piles of files. One might be unable to do things simultaneously, resulting in operational delays. 

As noted earlier, HR software helps automate all the processes in the human resource department. A task manually done in a whole day or several hours can now be completed in seconds. Because the software allows one to store documents online, HR managers won’t spend time responding to employees’ queries. Anyone who wants to access any HR department information can do so via shared information. HR managers can also save time and centralize their focus on other important matters like strategic planning. 

Productivity Enhancements

HR software is one of the most effective technologies in boosting the productivity of HR managers. In modern business, company workers must always remain productive to contribute to the company’s competitive edge among industry peers. That’s true since more output means enhanced revenues and profits.  

Companies across various sectors are shifting to digital solutions to increase their overall productivity. Installing HR software is one of the ways enterprises achieve their digital transformation. It lets HR managers complete tasks more efficiently. It also helps create a centralized location where all HR staff can communicate to enhance collaboration and decision-making. That goes a long way in boosting productivity.  

Easy Recruitment

When a company advertises for a job position, there is a high possibility for HR managers to receive thousands of applications. Sorting all those applications and conducting interviews can be overwhelming.  

Fortunately, an HR automation tool can be used in the recruitment process. It helps scan all the job applicants to determine their suitability regarding the position advertised. It ensures that only suitable candidates are shortlisted before the interview date, and HR managers will only deal with the most suitable job applicants for the position. That helps them save time and increases the chances of hiring the right employees.  

Data Protection

HR documents contain employee and company data. Mismanagement of these files may hurt the growth of a company. That is why HR documents should be stored in a secure place.  

Several things may threaten the security and safety of physical documents. For instance, if a natural disaster strikes a business premise, such documents might get damaged, which means losing critical information.  

Aside from that, unauthorized personnel can easily access the physical HR department in the office. This makes your company susceptible to data theft and breach. So, how can HR managers enhance the security and safety of their documents? They can achieve that by using HR software. 

With software, HR personnel can store and access documents over the internet. So, they won’t be worried about natural calamities and unauthorized access since they’ll share files only with authorized individuals. HR software also has built-in security features like encryption, which lets HR managers encode files before sharing them with employees and other stakeholders. It helps in enhancing a company’s cybersecurity strategy. 

Employee Learning

After onboarding, HR managers must continuously train the hired employees to keep up with the company’s regulations and industry trends. But that task can be overwhelming if done manually.  

HR software is always integrated with learning management systems. HR managers can use these solutions to engage with employees through continuous training. And that helps create an engaging workplace to boost the overall company’s productivity.  

Takeaway

Leveraging technology is one of the most effective ways to promote an organization’s operational efficiency. It ensures tasks are completed on time to save resources. Investing in HR software is among the ways businesses transform digitally. As this article highlighted, there are several benefits of HR managers working with HR software. You can take advantage of these benefits and consider having HR software for your organization.

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How to Assemble a Development Team for a Startup: Top Advice

Less than a third of startups survive the so-called “valley of death”, most of the companies fall apart within the first three years. There are many reasons for this, and one lies in the employees and software development team: not everyone is ready to fight for business development selflessly.

In order for the company to work like clockwork, it is important to assemble a good dev team for a startup. We tell you how to do it: what is included in the training, what employees to look for, and what to do with them later.

Draw the Structure of the Company Before Assembling the Team

It is advisable to do this in two ways:

1. The first is the MVP, or minimum viable model: the team you need to get started. It can consist of several people, and that’s fine.
2. The second is what the company will be like in a year. Usually, new positions are added to the starting structure, and more specialists are required.

The structure will change, sometimes several times a month: this is the specifics of startups. But it is needed to understand what kind of specialists to look for at the first stages of development.

Choose the Right Nearshore Employees

In a good startup dev team, specialists are competent, responsible, and motivated to work for the benefit of the company, and in the end, lead it to success. Nearshore development here is the best model for hiring employees. You can read what is nearshore Software Development from the Turnkey Labs to make sure it matches your needs. It is not possible to experiment with positions and build entire departments, so it is better to immediately look for suitable employees.

Hire Experienced Professionals, not Interns

Beginners without experience can be paid less, but:

• they will have to be taught – you will spend time on it instead of leading;
• the price of a mistake is too high – a conditional newcomer can drain the entire advertising budget and not bring customers, because they do not understand how marketing works.

It is better to hire those who are qualified in their field and know exactly what to do. Then you will not teach them, but they will teach you.

Consider the Expectations of Specialists From the Work Front

You can hire a hypothetical person who worked at Google and still fail. The thing is in his expectations: those who worked in large corporations are used to having a long-term marketing strategy, entire departments can work on tasks, and there is a fixed budget for everything.

In a startup, plans and budgets change quickly, and one specialist does all the work in a particular area. Someone who worked in a large corporation may not be able to cope with the responsibilities. Or such a front of work will reduce motivation – in the end, this will lead to the fact that a person will leave or will work “in a slipshod manner”.

The golden mean is important: hire the best who understand what to expect from a startup. Ideally, experienced professionals who have already worked in successful startups.

For a startup to develop, it is important to hire people who believe in its success and will do everything for the company. It is difficult to find such people, but if you can, get dedicated like-minded people who do their job responsibly and help you find fresh ideas.

Authored and supported by Netpeak Outreach Department – netpeak.net

The post Tips to Grow a Team of Developers appeared first on The HR Gazette and HRchat Podcast.

How HR Can Help Make a Bigger Social Impact

My guest in HRchat episode 515 is George Dolatly, President and Co-Founder at ImpactWayv, an impact-driven social media company offering an app that serves as a digital marketplace for corporations, non-profits, NGOs, and individuals to come together to engage, inspire, and collaborate on social impact.

ImpactWayv can also be a great tool for companies to showcase CSR initiatives and a barometer by which the public can hold companies accountable.

Questions For George Include:

• How can the ImpactWayv platform bring together businesses, NGOs and individuals with the purpose of engendering social good?
• How is ImpactWayv different from other social media platforms?
• How can ImpactWayv benefit both HR and CSR initiatives? Is there a quantifiable value add?
• Can ImpactWayv serve as a useful recruiting tool for HR departments?
• What is the response you have received so far from users of the app?

About ImpactWayv, Inc.

ImpactWayv is a social impact media and technology company, consisting of thought leaders and doers from across the business, nonprofit, and technology sectors. ImpactWayv was created to disrupt and transform the worlds of business and philanthropy through technology to advance universal social good.

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To better manage a business, you need the help of technological tools to give you a better grasp on making decisions for your company’s growth. It’d be very challenging to rely on trust alone, especially with handling personnel. Tracking their attendance is crucial to determining how they perform in your organization. 

In the United States, the peak for team member absenteeism is usually during the flu season. But this could change as the world gets exposed to various elements affecting health in the workplace. Additionally, health care costs in the country are rising. In 2019, a team member’s annual health care cost was at USD 13,000 and was expected to increase to USD 13,700 the following year. Today, employer-sponsored healthcare coverage is one reason people consider looking for a company to work for.  

There are instances where you may feel that an old attendance system might be doing its job in assisting you in making decisions for your organization. But there are crucial signs you need to watch out for that could tell you that it’s time to take a shift.  

If you decide to change your business time and attendance system, it would be best to consider Egress-sys.co.uk and the like. They provide the best time and attendance solutions to fit your organization’s needs. 

Moving forward, here are the signs you need to look out for to know it’s time to change your current system: 

Rising Incidents Of Health-Related Absenteeism 

With software integrated with very detailed attendance features that could trace the reasons for team member absences, you can quickly determine if there are members of your team that’s been lagging in productivity because of health reasons.  

When Output Vs Personnel Hours Don’t Match 

Old attendance systems might not have the updated features that could check productivity most accurately. Personnel hours and work output all come to play in measuring this. You might perform personnel schedule forecasting incorrectly if your productivity percentage is questionable. 

When this constantly happens in the workplace, you might spend too much on personnel without seeing enough output from them. This has a psychological effect on the entire team; they might think it’s alright to sit around doing nothing.  

With an attendance system that measures productivity accurately, you can be sure that all team members perform their tasks on the time they are scheduled to work.  

Low Team Morale 

If your old attendance system can’t identify top performers in company attendance, your employees might think their hardwork isn’t being recognized and feel discouraged from giving their all with their jobs. 

An attendance system that can easily show who consistently goes to work on time and who didn’t have an absence for a specific period can be awarded an incentive and be recognized. This kind of incentive system will boost the entire team’s morale and push them to work harder and be present for the job they signed up for. A motivation program like this could spell the success of your organization.  

Low Customer Satisfaction 

For customer-facing tasks like in the retail industry, the personality and attitude of a team member are crucial in dictating the satisfaction of your customers. Suppose you consistently get negative feedback from your customers because of staff behavior. In that case, it might be time to look closely at the roster of staff being deployed on specific days and times you always get this kind of bad feedback.  

An efficient attendance system will give you a rundown of who was deployed in various areas or departments of your massive retail store so you can identify to whom you’ll provide constructive feedback. This is crucial in correcting and reinforcing behavior in the workplace.  

Identifying those who need more coaching with customer service will be essential in elevating the delivery of customer satisfaction in your store. And rewarding those who consistently provide stellar service will set an excellent example for the rest of the team. All of these can be easily identified with an attendance system in place.  

When Your Bottom Line Is Decreasing 

When your bottom line shrinks due to personnel costs, even when you feel like you’ve been making appropriate adjustments, your attendance system might not give the proper computation on labor hours and output. An attendance system that can be scaled to adjust to your growing needs could be your solution.  

Your organization might be introducing new products that could affect your productivity. In that case, your attendance system would need to seamlessly adapt to that requirement so your productivity computation can be accurate.  

Conclusion 

People are always at the heart of any business. Monitoring their performance is crucial to the success of your organization. After all, they execute critical tasks to keep the business running. Rewarding them, giving them appropriate feedback, and looking after their welfare are all possible with the help of an efficient time and new attendance system.

Author Bio

Cameron Humphrey is an human resources consultant, heading up an agency that helps small businesses with leadership resources. He is also a writer and resource speaker. When he’s not working, you can find Cameron and his wife at the farmers market, selling her homemade hot sauce.

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In 2022, hourly workers are finding themselves in very high demand. Staff shortages in a variety of sectors and turnover rates of 150% — an increase of 68% since 2017– mean businesses that once took their ability to attract and retain staff for granted are now encountering strong resistance to their favorite strategies. There were 800,000 fewer fast food workers in the U.S. in October 2021, for instance, than there were in February of 2020.

So how does an HR department attract the hourly workers a business needs for its best chance at success? It’s important to understand that, contrary to popular belief, hourly workers come from a variety of demographics: in fact, most hourly workers are over 25 years old, and a third of them are over 45.

One thing they have in common is that they all rely on technology to find jobs. That may be why, in addition to increasing wages, improving benefit packages, and taking a more compassionate approach to employee needs, HR professionals are finding that state-of-the-art tech is a boon to recruitment, allowing them to draw job applicants and quickly respond to their concerns.

Make the most of social media

In their search for hourly workers, HR professionals are not getting a lot of traction advertising on the professional network LinkedIn. It might be time to switch over to the world these potential hires prefer. Using social media to find hourly employees has won over 84% of employers because that’s where some 86%of job seekers now look for work — they’re most likely to comb Facebook or Twitter, with Snapchat, Instagram and Pinterest being other major contenders. It’s not just a one-way street, either — according to Glassdoor, some 13% of social media users say information they’ve posted on social media helped them get a job.

Similarly, one essential aspect of successful recruitment is corresponding with potential hires in ways they prefer. This usually means SMS and messaging apps, rather than “old school” email — some people rarely check messages left there, perhaps because their inboxes are often swamped with spam. These other messaging methods allow speedy real-time communication, including booking interviews and answering candidates’ questions, and can even allow video conversations that give the hiring party a good idea of the candidate’s suitability to the job.

Create a brisk application process

Once they’ve spotted a job they’re interested in, hourly workers appreciate a mobile application process. That’s because it’s most likely to enable an accelerated response and a more convenient hiring exercise overall. That’s a plus at both ends of the transaction — 37% of hourly workers say being hired quickly is the crucial factor in determining which job they choose, and companies in need of hourly workers typically need them as soon as possible.

Prioritize employee referrals

Around 80% of hourly workers work within five miles of their home. This means that each of a business’s hourly employees likely has friends or family members in the neighborhood who might be looking for a job that doesn’t require a long commute. Employee referrals are valuable sources of reliable and efficient new employees, and they’re easiest when the company has established an automated referral system.

Businesses can get creative when providing employees with incentives for using the referral system, such as turning the process into a game where successful referrals earn them points that they can use in some manner later. An automated system will also enable employers to track how successfully this method attracts new employees, including how many referrals result in new hires.

Automate the interview process

Arranging interviews can be a lengthy undertaking — fortunately, the task lends itself well to automation. There are apps available that allow for near-instant responses, because they not only integrate with the potential interviewee’s choice of email, text or messaging apps, they also connect with calendar apps. This creates a definite record at both ends of the interview arrangement, registering the date and time of the interview, details like whether it’s a phone call, a Zoom or a Teams meeting, who’s calling whom, who will be at the meeting, and any other pertinent details. Chatbots can also be used to deal with common questions applicants might pose, like, “How many positions are being filled?”

Customer-relations management systems (CRMs) are another valuable tool, allowing resumes that have been received and approved to be stored on a database that’s available to everyone in the company who hires hourly workers. The same goes for talent acquisition software (TAS), which organizes and screens such information and can be used to interview, hire and train the winning candidates.

Capitalize on AI

Artificial Intelligence (AI) can not only screen potential candidates for required skills and answer questions they might have, recording the interaction for employer review, but also administer personality and skills tests, do background checks, and even conduct and record initial interviews to determine a candidate’s suitability.

HR teams can pre-record specific questions for the video, giving every candidate the same set of queries to create a level playing field. AI can also determine the applicant’s fitness for the role in terms of their language skills or customer service mindset. Once the new hire is secured, AI integrates with learning management systems (LMS) to facilitate onboarding and organize any required training.

These kinds of efficiencies are clearly a boon for hardworking managers and HR professionals. In a rapidly changing world, it’s clearly time to mark old-fashioned, time-consuming hiring procedures as spam and instead embrace the expediting force of technology.

About the Author: Steve Anevski

Steve Anevski is the CEO and Co-Founder of Upshift, an industry-leading staffing platform that connects businesses with pre-vetted W2 employees. Backed by Recruit Holdings Inc., Upshift has a success rate over double the industry standard.

Related Podcast Content

The post Five Timely Tech Tools to Tempt Those Vital Hourly Workers appeared first on The HR Gazette and HRchat Podcast.

High-Growth SaaS People Benchmark Report 2022

HR technology company intelliHR, in partnership with MaRS, is seeking your input to formulate a global report on the people and talent insights of high-growth startup SaaS businesses!

Why Participate?

1. Discover how other industry leaders are tackling productivity, retention, and DE&I
2. Benchmark your organization against, as well as learn from other fast-growing companies
3. All participants will receive an advance copy of the “High Growth SaaS People Benchmark Report”

Take the 7-minute survey here.

Related HRchat Content

The post Talent Metrics For High-Growth SaaS Companies appeared first on The HR Gazette and HRchat Podcast.

How to Ramp Up Candidate Engagement Efforts with Artificial Intelligence

It has never been harder to find and engage candidates. So how can your employer brand stand out while keeping your budget in check? When it comes to your recruitment sourcing strategy and finding the right candidate, there are several factors to consider.

Helping me to get to the heart of how to mix AI with other approaches to candidate sourcing is the charismatic Terry Baker, CEO & President at PandoLogic, an AI-enabled recruiting platform.

Hear Terry Answers to These Questions:

• The Great Resignation is projected to be with us for a long time. What have employers learned from this experience so far that’s helping them prepare for what’s next?
• How do you see technology fitting into this narrative? What’s the role AI will play in continuing to help drive outcomes?
• What are the risks with fully automated/AI-driven processes? Can great candidates be missed in a process where humans are removed from the early-stage screening process? Can checks be put in place?
• One of the biggest challenges facing recruiters today is the sheer number of online job boards that exist. Can you share some stats around job boards (#s of boards, collective reach, engagement rates, etc).
• Before one can even get to the candidate sourcing stage of the recruitment process, it’s vital to tackle an important task: perfecting the job listing and requirements listed. What tips can you share?
• Specificity is good for candidate sourcing, but sometimes an overly specific list of requirements can be just as dissuading to a candidate as a job listing stuffed with vague terms. What’s the correct middle ground approach?
• Knowing the value data provides, how can we measure success going forward?

More About Terry Baker

Terry brings 20+ years of managing high-growth companies to his role at PandoLogic. Prior to joining PandoLogic, Terry was the founder and CEO of Amped Market Place Inc. a strategic partner to online media companies by providing services to amplify traffic, audience, and revenue. His career in online recruitment and online media has included helping companies reach critical mass and global coverage through business development, direct sales and channel development, M&A, marketing, and product management including executive leadership roles with Adicio Inc., Advanced Recruiting Technology Inc., and Hire.com.

Terry is a frequent speaker in the U.S. and internationally, and has presented at conferences hosted by NAA, OnRec, Editor & Publisher, Folio, ICMA and IAEWS. He earned an MBA in Marketing and a B.S. in Information Systems from San Diego State University.

Related HRchat Content

The post HRchat Interview with Terry Baker: AI-Fuelled Recruitment Strategies appeared first on The HR Gazette and HRchat Podcast.

Conquering 2022 and Beyond: Utilizing the Human Resources Department

Over the course of the last two years, the COVID-19 pandemic has continued to challenge our conventional perception of normal. Overnight, business as usual became anything but – companies were suddenly forced to adapt and reinvent themselves: to intensify their adoption toward digital solutions and transform the way they work long before they felt ready to.

If that wasn`t enough, companies also faced supply-chain issues, labor shortages and a mass-exodus known as The Great Resignation – or The Great Reshuffle – truly giving companies a run for their money.

But when the going gets tough, HR departments get going. Using their leadership to manage decentralized teams, ensure working conditions align with confusing health restrictions and everchanging regulations, all in the name of overall wellness.

According to a recent study from TrustRadius, 74% of HR professionals feel challenged after a full year of constant adaptation to suit this pandemic, with 38% indicating exhaustion. Its no secret that the pandemic has increased the importance of the HR department tenfold.

The State of the Workforce in 2022, HR Technology and How It Addresses the Labor Shortage

According to a recent survey conducted by Fidelity Investments, approximately 40% of workers in the US and Canada alone are looking for new employment in 2022– with many respondents citing values-based reasoning for their departures. People want meaning and purpose in their work.

As this new, empowered workforce finds more value in flexibility, purpose and career growth, HR departments have relied heavily on HR tech solutions to provide real-time data analytics to directly address this trend. According to research conducted by TrustRadius many professionals in Human Resources (55%) are spending more on HR technology solutions – with 45% either upgrading their current tech stack and 38% purchasing completely new technology altogether.

Given all the above, HR departments are facing two distinct problems: retaining the talent they have and recruiting new top talent with the new skills required. With the right HR tech solution in place, HR professionals can recruit more effectively and without bias (according to 49% of HR professionals with a tech solution already deployed) and put your existing talent in the driver`s seat of their career.

When it comes to recruitment, HR tech solutions can revolutionize the onboarding process, offering the possibility of a unique, personalized onboarding experience. As engagement is a key component for success, bringing new hires up to speed with the company culture, policies, necessary training modules and even share useful links or documentation.

Alternatively, regarding employee retention, HR tech solutions help promote a more open management style, allowing managers understand what skills make their employees perform and how to discuss and revise goals and expectations with continuous conversations. Since HR tech uses AI to build and track metrics, all data is actionable and recorded in real-time – helping streamline processes when it comes to training, development, and career growth.

2022: A Time for A New Mindset

As the ever-evolving state of the workforce, and the continued adoption of remote and hybrid workforces, companies are relying more heavily on HR departments to continue to build and conserve their ecosystems for tomorrow.

If 2021 was any indication of where the labor market is heading, 2022 should be a time for change and new approaches. If a company cannot succeed without its employees, then HR departments should be key strategic partners: keeping employees connected and engaged to build stronger, more collaborative teams and leveraging HR tech solutions to help put their people back at the forefront of their organizations.

To learn more about how to rethink the work experience for a sustainable performance visit https://www.cegid.com/en/human-resource-management/

Authored by Lya Gutierrez P. Marketing Manager North America, Cegid. 

Related HRchat Content

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Data released by the US-based National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) discovered that nearly two-thirds of typical computer users show signs of security fatigue, which the Institute explains as “a weariness or reluctance to deal with computer security.” If you have noticed your staff becoming sloppy with their security protocol compliance – ignoring software update alerts, opening suspicious emails, not following password best practices, etc – you may rightly be worried.

What’s more, we can’t just put the blame squarely on the shoulders of end-users who may not be aware of the significance of their (in)action. A recent IT security survey showed that a third of IT security professionals routinely ignore alerts because so many of them are false positives. The main explanation given is the sheer volume of security alerts that have more than doubled in the last 5 years and increased again during the pandemic. “While it may be tempting to disregard alert sources with high false-positive ratios, this could also create significant security blind spots,” warns one cybersecurity blog.

In case it isn’t abundantly clear already, let us take a moment to state the obvious: Poor decision-making by just one team member in any department puts your company at increased risk from an intrusion, exposure of sensitive data, loss of reputation, and financial harm.

According to this article published in October, the number of data breaches in 2021 has already overtaken last year’s total. While the media are quick to report on the latest hacking news affecting our organizations, computer users are flooded with important advice on how to protect sensitive information in more complex and ever-changing iterations that can be hard to keep up with. And with people getting tired of following the protocol, it is surely only a matter of time until your IT security is breached.

Here are 5 typical examples and how to deal with them:

1. Password apathy

The number of passwords required has increased sharply in recent years. The average person now has about 100 passwords that need to be changed periodically. Little wonder, then, that reusing the same password across different online accounts and platforms is a widespread practice, and that pet names, a simple string of numbers, or the name of a favorite TV show are often used – all of which are easily guessed by hackers.

Installing a password manager is the best way to generate strong passwords and store them in a safe location. Best of all, the user only needs to remember one set of master credentials.

2. Phishing prey

Phishing is the most successful and dangerous of all cybersecurity attacks, and over 90% of successful data breaches start with phishing emails. It’s a deceptively simple technique that delivers a high return on investment for hackers. Today’s phishing attacks are highly targeted, sophisticated, and increasingly difficult to spot, even for expert users. Untold damage can inadvertently be done simply by opening an email, downloading an attachment, or clicking on a link.

Education and culture are the watchwords for successfully tackling this behavior. Companies that build an inclusive cybersecurity culture, backed up by effective and ongoing IT security awareness training for key employees within the company. Encourage and empower each technology user to take personal responsibility for their role in protecting against cybercrime. Culture comes from the top of the organization, which means solid leadership, clear rules and expectations, and continual monitoring.

3. Insecure connections

Hybrid working practices have been on the rise for some years, and the pandemic has intensified the shift towards working remotely. In many cases, working from home has become part of the ‘new normal’. But using a personal laptop or other devices at home, in a coffee shop, or elsewhere that isn’t a company-controlled environment often means connecting over unsecured WiFi on an unsecured device.

For IT departments, safeguarding the security of portable devices and providing a safe, easy-to-use VPN connection can be a real headache. In addition to controlling the devices used by employees, the solution may be as simple as putting a reminder on start-up screens, setting electronic reminders, or making log-in procedures more user-friendly.

4. Old software versions

No one is doubting that updating devices, their operating systems, and software installations are key to providing the best security protection. However, in a busy work environment, pop-ups inviting the user to install updates can be disruptive and irritating. Postponing software updates time and again is a user behavior that is all too common.

A more reliable solution would be for internal IT departments to take control of updating devices and software as necessary. This includes installing patches, downloading malware databases and various other tasks to reduce cyber risks.

5. Lack of reporting of suspicious activities

No one wants to get caught out by hackers, so it is perhaps not surprising that many employees who realize they’ve been successfully tricked by a phishing scam may choose not to report the incident. Whether it’s shame or embarrassment, or the fear of being blamed or disciplined for non-compliance by their employer, not addressing the data breach can have more serious consequences.

Companies that rule by fear and discipline are at a clear disadvantage here. Staff should be encouraged to report any suspicious activity immediately, including human error, without the risk of a punitive response. Workplaces with a positive employee culture will reframe human-error incidents as an opportunity for everyone to learn from their mistakes, educating IT users in effective security protocol.

Interestingly, an effective way to achieve behavioral change among IT users to combat cybersecurity fatigue is to use an approach that doesn’t necessarily have technology at its core. Instead, user education and building a positive security culture should be prioritized. “By breaking down the threats, targets, and actions, cybersecurity specialists can help people understand their individual roles and the cybersecurity risks involved in their jobs and interactions with others,” explains this blog on the psychology of cybersecurity. “The ability to improve cybersecurity posture and avoid the slow decay of concern seems to lie in making cybersecurity a digestible, positive experience. If nothing else, individuals and organizations should consider how they think about cybersecurity and about how those thoughts translate into their everyday actions.”

About the Author

Mike James is an independent writer based in the UK, Mike writes content for the B2B market. He covers a broad range of topics including technology, cybersecurity, HR, marketing, design, co-working, and business start-ups.

The post Five Ways to Fix Security Compliance Fatigue in Your Workplace appeared first on The HR Gazette and HRchat Podcast.

Five Effective Ways to Make Businesses Pay Faster

Whether you’re a solopreneur or a small business, you likely face many challenges in the average working week. Some of those challenges may relate to daily operations, but many can also involve your financial position.

Anyone struggling with late payers and non-payers may wonder if there’s a way to make their clients pay quicker. While there are never any guarantees, doing some of the following things may improve your chances of receiving payments faster.

Use Invoicing Software

Whether you invoice a business as an individual or as a small business, you deserve to be paid on time, every time. However, if you’re not using invoicing software to send out payment requests, your demands for payment may not be seen by the right people.

Many sole traders believe they can’t use invoicing software because they aren’t a business, but there are many digital invoicing tools online that allow you to have virtual companies and send invoices from anywhere in the world.

With invoices being sent directly from your software or tool to the client’s inbox, you may stand a better chance of having your payment request seen for prompt payment.

Send Digital Invoices

Paper invoices sent by post still have their place, but they are becoming less common for many reasons. Sometimes, there can be a delay in the time it takes for the invoice to arrive, and businesses may not check their mailboxes as often as their email inboxes.

Send digital invoices to potentially reduce the risk of your invoice being missed or, worse, lost. You may also be able to save money on paper, ink, and postage in the process.

Offer Multiple Payment Methods

Sometimes, businesses are slow to pay people they work with because the available payment methods aren’t convenient. The more payment methods you offer, the more likely you may be to provide one that suits your client’s needs the best.

Offer various options like direct debit, credit cards, and cash, and you may just find that businesses pay you faster.

Send Invoices Promptly

If you want prompt payment, offer prompt invoices. When your product or service is fresh on the business’s mind, they may be more likely to pay for it in a timely manner. In contrast, if you wait several days, weeks, or even months to send an invoice, it may eventually slip from their mind, leading to a possible delay in the payment window.

Set Up Reminders

When you use innovative invoice tools and software, you generally get to benefit from a wide range of useful functions. One such function is reminders. We can’t remember everything, and some businesses may simply forget to pay your invoice.

Sending reminders can be a helpful way to ensure they don’t forget. Once the invoice is overdue, you can set reminders to go out at your set frequency. You then don’t need to worry about chasing up a business yourself unless all email reminders have been ignored.

You may never be able to make all your clients pay your invoices on time, but that doesn’t mean you have to put up with continuous late payers. By trying any of these tips above, you may notice a difference in how quickly you can be paid for your goods and services.

Authored by Martin William, Kamil Web Solutions

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How to Use a PDF Converter—With Specific Examples for HR Professionals

As our world becomes busier, businesses are looking for quick and easy ways to convert documents into their desired file formats. With the help of data conversion services, anyone can transfer most text and images into PNGs., JPEGs, GIFs, Word documents, or PDFs. 

The Portable Document Format (PDF) is one of the most popular formats due to its wide variety of unique features. It’s an essential tool for attorneys, publishers, and HR managers and has become the standard digital format for business documents, printed or otherwise.

If you’re an HR professional who wants to take advantage of this format, keep reading.

How to Download and Use a PDF Converter Tool

After you choose the software you want, you can either download it or use a browser extension. Most PDF converter tools use similar conversion methods. 

One of the easiest tools to use is PDFSimpli.com because you only have to insert your document into the website to edit and convert it. PDF Simpli also lets you convert backward. If you need a Word document, you can convert a PDF to make it usable on MS Word.

If you’re downloading software, find the download folder to run and install it to your computer. Once installed, you can insert your files by uploading them or dragging them into the program.

Why Convert Word to PDF?

While PDF converters can convert almost any file to a PDF, the most common file format professionals choose to convert are Word documents. As one of the most popular word processors around, you’ll almost certainly need to work with Word files.

Word documents can be altered, which makes sending certain information, like bills or documents that require a signature, a dangerous venture. HR professionals must ensure they stay compliant with their federal and state laws by locking document customization with a PDF.

There are several other reasons why you’d want to convert a Word file to a PDF:

• Word documents don’t keep their formatting. When you open a Word document on a different computer, the formatting will be lost, but PDFs look the same on any device.
• References, like page numbers, become mismatched. Authors who use a table of contents or page numbers will use PDFs because their references won’t change.
• Word is just one of many word processors. Your clients may not have Word installed on their computer, making the file inaccessible. PDFs are a universal file extension.
• Word has several versions, whereas the format of PDF files stays the same. PDF allows its users to access .pdf files regardless of version, as PDFs stay consistent.
• PDFs are mobile-friendly. More people are shifting to smartphones. Most people convert word documents to PDFs because of their accessibility and free-to-use apps.

Hr professionals will get a lot of use out of a PDF converter, especially if they work with images.

Why Convert Excel to a PDF?

As the second most popular program in the Microsoft Office suite, Excel is often used by HR professionals to draft spreadsheets for payroll. Since spreadsheets are the best way to record various types of data and reports, offices and businesses see Excel as their go-to tool.

However, there may be times when you don’t want your team members editing your documents or inserting characters that mess up your calculations. That’s where a PDF converter comes in.

Here are a few reasons why you’d want to convert an Excel document to a PDF: 

• PDFs keep your data unedited and secure;
• PDFs make formulas and formatting permanent;
• PDFs encrypt your data with passwords;
• PDFs present your data in a professional way;
• PDFs consolidate your files effectively.

Before sending your Excel time-sheet to payroll, use a PDF converter to lock in your data.

Why Convert JPEGs to a PDF?

JPEG, a file type created by the Joint Photographic Expert Group, is an image format that’s used for monochrome, grayscale, and color. While JPEG is accessible, it has some drawbacks:

• JPEGs have no transparency support;
• JPEGs won’t work with textual data or small images;
• JPEGs degrade through subsequent saves;
• JPEGs lose quality when they’re compressed;
• JPEGs can generate a larger file size for small resolution images;

When you convert a JPEG to a PDF, you’ll make the image more customizable. PDF converters also work with PNG. files. If you want to send an image over email, turn it into a PDF.

Authored by Richard Fendler, Author at SnackNation

The post PDF Converter Tips for HR Professionals appeared first on The HR Gazette and HRchat Podcast.

One of the challenges remote workers face today is that they are often not able to attend in-person training sessions. This can lead to a decline in productivity and skills when remote employees are unable to learn new things on the job.

Thankfully, there is an innovative solution for this problem: virtual reality training.

In this blog post, I will discuss three benefits of implementing VR employee training into your remote workforce.

Improved learning performance

The 70/20/10 model for learning and development highlights that people learn the most from job-related experiences. 70 percent of what people learn is experiential, compared with 20% learned from others and 10% through formal learning.

It is more efficient and effective to learn new skills, retain information, and modify behavior by doing compared to learning by reading.

Virtual reality’s greatest strength is its potential for creating a realistic environment in which learners may get hands-on experience on particular work-related activities.

Crucially, a safe virtual environment allows trainees to make mistakes, get instant feedback through performance-related metrics and easily repeat exercises numerous times to quickly improve proficiency. Benefits include;

Highly skilled, technical training

The development of cutting-edge VR platforms allows trainers to create realistic settings and circumstances. This means that complicated technical activities may be readily reproduced, allowing training exercises to more accurately reflect real-world operations.

Learners can repeat these tasks, building muscle memory that aids in learning retention and application during real-world work.

For example, healthcare practitioners may learn and practice complicated, and high-risk procedures in a risk-free environment, resulting in a high chance of success when performing the procedure on a patient.

Process-driven skills

Highly process-driven businesses, like logistics companies or fast food franchises, are flocking to virtual reality in order to enhance efficiencies and staff expertise.

Through gamification of activities like KFC’s food preparation, DHL’s warehouse box loading, and others, employees can problem solve and work smarter while learning in a fun and results-oriented way.

Accessible, standardized training also allows organizations to improve the consistency of working practices across different sites and countries.

Business and soft skills training

VR training for soft skills, such as customer service, giving presentations, and professional social behavior at work, are now being appreciated. VR eliminates the need for uncomfortable and inconvenient role-playing situations with co-workers, which can be counterproductive to learning.

Team collaboration

Virtual reality can help to enhance team performance by creating collaborative training experiences that assist teams in improving their workflows by offering a location for personnel to discuss difficulties with interdependent activities.

Accessibility

The beauty of virtual reality training is that it may be done from almost anywhere in the real world. The requirement to have employees simultaneously in the same physical location for VR is no longer necessary. This makes training more accessible since remote teams can meet in a virtual space and work as a team, even when physically apart.

For businesses that are spread out across several sites nationally or globally, as well as those with an increasing number of remote workers, VR training has a significant influence on travel and accommodation expenses. Additionally, less travel is beneficial for the work/life balance of staff and improves company culture.

Reducing cost

The long-term cost savings of utilizing VR training are beneficial for businesses. The initial outlay in hardware is outweighed by both immediate and indirect savings. Once the VR training course is developed, the expense of distributing it at scale is low, since you no longer need to conduct repeat classes that would traditionally incur trainer fees.

Furthermore, there are several tangible indirect cost savings from reducing downtime, as well as increased productivity by having more educated and skilled workers.

Conclusion

Virtual reality training is becoming more and more commonplace for businesses around the world. And it’s no wonder why—it has definite benefits that are hard to deny, for example, its effectiveness in teaching empathy skills and leadership abilities.

VR also makes your teams much more accessible for remote work, increasing productivity in addition to saving money on travel for employees and the business.

Tim Fleming Author Bio

Tim has worked with graphics and hardware for his whole career, working as a creative in adland and then becoming an animator, delivering promos for a wide range of music artists. Tim co-founded Future Visual in 2015 to focus exclusively on building Virtual and Augmented Reality technology for enterprise training and learning.

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What to Look For in an On-Demand Pay Provider

For decades, most workers have been paid on a semi-monthly or bi-weekly basis. But, with workplace and personal financial needs evolving, more and more employers are considering on-demand pay solutions. By reducing the number of days in traditional pay periods, employers provide employees and gig workers access to earned compensation when they need it. 

According to a 2020 EY study, 70% of U.S. and U.K. employees experience chronic financial stress, with 35% falling financially short between paydays. Additionally, across 37 developed countries, EY found that 60% of households save less than 10% of their monthly wages, don’t save at all, or are in the red. 

75% of respondents reporting financial pressures also indicated a decline in health and wellbeing. With 20% of worker turnover caused by financial pressures, this stress costs U.S. and U.K businesses an estimated $300 billion annually. 

There’s no doubt the workplace is changing. The global pandemic has magnified this evolution over the past 15 months, and alternative pay solutions are one significant way to move forward with this change. 

With increasing part-time and gig employment, stagnating wages and savings growth, rising personal and household debt, later retirement, and automation, on-demand pay offers a “compelling economic case for employers and materially better financial outcomes for employees when compared to the many alternative financing options,” according to EY.

Offering on-demand pay enables workers to better coordinate their income and expenses and build a financial safety net for emergencies while reducing personal and workplace financial stress. For employers, it increases worker loyalty and retention while contributing positively to the well-being of their workers. 

In this article, we’ll highlight what you should consider when looking for an on-demand pay provider. First, though, let’s look at some pros and cons of this growing payroll method.

The Pros and Cons of On-Demand Pay

The overall benefit of on-demand pay is that workers can access their wages as they earn them, helping alleviate financial pressures between paydays. Providing quicker payments to workers and helping them build a safety net eases financial pressures and boosts productivity, engagement, and retention. 

Further, on-demand pay presents a premier upskilling opportunity for workforce management systems and HR tech platforms, delivering a return on investment (ROI) and revenue stream with no risk. 

Now let’s weigh some cons for on-demand pay. On-demand pay fees are typically passed to the employee, not the employer, meaning they pay each time they access their earned wages outside of the traditional payroll period. As employers implement on-demand pay solutions, they should be mindful of this fact, looking to companies that don’t attach fees to wage advances for the employer or employee.

3 Questions to Ask When Considering an On-Demand Pay Provider

As with any workforce management tool, you should weigh the pros and cons and conduct due diligence on the offered solution tailored to your needs and goals. Let’s look at three things to consider when hiring an on-demand pay provider.

What fees do you charge to employees?  

When considering an on-demand pay provider, fees should be a top concern. As referenced above, if fees are passed along to employees, it could cause frustration and friction, potentially limiting use. Look for a provider that genuinely offers free on-demand pay, benefiting both workers and employers.

When understanding the fee schedule, in addition to asking about the wage advance fees, be sure to inquire about costs associated with the following as well: 

• Instant transfer fees
• External transfer fees (such as transfers to other banks)
• Interest fees

Fees tend to add up—sometimes without us even realizing they are. Protect your client’s bottom line and their workers’ wallets by understanding just what you’re getting and how much it costs.

What is your strategy for ensuring state-by-state compliance, especially if you charge fees to consumers? 

When choosing the best on-demand pay solution for your platform, understanding how that provider approaches compliance is mission-critical to future operations. For example, let’s revisit wage advance fees. If providers subtract expenses from on-demand payments, they’ll potentially be subject to varying state laws, regulations, and enforcement, such as California’s stringent wage laws.

Additionally, the withheld fees and the deferred taxes (until the regular payroll hits) may also cause concern among states, requiring changes to payroll processes, procedures, and reporting. Not only is this a headache, but it’s potentially ripe with compliance issues.

When conducting your due diligence, ask about how the on-demand pay solution may impact your compliance — now and in the future. 

What is your implementation and integration process like? 

When implementing and migrating this opportunity onto your platform and app, you’ll want a specific timeline, knowing the fastest way to provide workers with access to on-demand pay. 

You should also understand the integration process, ensuring it’s robust, smooth, and seamless, giving you the option to integrate with numerous modern APIs. By working with a provider that focuses on the top APIs tailored to workforce management providers, you can better incorporate on-demand pay specifically to benefit your customers as well as your organizational goals, giving you much-needed flexibility in today’s evolving workplace.

And don’t forget integration with your mobile app. Using plug-and-play, user-centered apps, you offer additional value-add to workers by giving them an opportunity to view financial snapshots, savings tools, and savings reminders, helping them better their financial wellness. 

Providing on-demand pay solutions is an employee-focused, future-focused approach, helping your customers attract and retain better talent while increasing your clients’ loyalty and retention. 

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