GP Bullhound, the leading technology advisory and investment firm, has released its Technology Predictions 2019 and they make very interesting reading.
Covering the latest trends to be expected in retail technology, cryptocurrency, digital banking and the app economy among others, the report provides valuable insight into the innovations shaping the world around us. It’s compelling reading not just for investors and big businesses as a whole but also for specific roles such as HR, marketing and finance.
The GP Bullhound trend for HR
For HR specifically, there’s a chapter on employee engagement – a big topic that we’ve been talking about for some time now. We feel that if you have an engaged workforce then you can achieve wonders:
- You’ll keep your staff and therefore avoid the costly process of filling vacancies and on-boarding
- You’ll create a more productive and hard-working workforce
- You’ll be less at risk of complaints and reputational damage as employees will be working FOR you rather than AGAINST you.
- Oh and the financial cost of poor employee engagement is pretty convincing too.
Getting back to the GP Bullhound report, its view is that employee engagement is going to get hi-tech. And as a tech provider for employee engagement, we couldn’t agree more. It’s music to our ears.
However, for you the reader that will have created one of two reactions:
1. Isn’t employee engagement hi-tech already? I believe my business is incredibly advanced. What more can be done?
2. Wait? It’s getting more complicated? What happened to the good old days where you just asked people face to face how they were feeling?
If you responded with something similar to the former, then congratulations on embracing employee engagement technology so willingly. Your company should be in a strong position to monitor and maintain employee sentiment and productivity. But remember, businesses are changing. Remote working, higher demands from customers and advances in technology mean employee behaviours change. Therefore, you should always be reviewing the tools you use to make sure they’re fit for purpose. At StaffCircle, we do that for you so you always have the right tools to help your workforce shine.
Did you respond with the latter? Don’t worry. Just because technology is advancing, it doesn’t mean you’re going to be left behind with no chance of catching up. We can set up a solution very quickly and easily to get your business on track. Helping you to monitor employee engagement, drive performance, improve communication and boost brand affiliation. And the beauty of it is that it works just as well with remote workers or non-desk based staff, as it does with office-based teams who have access to a computer all day.
The importance of great employee engagement
We can’t stress enough how important it is to have a good understanding of how every member of your company is feeling and performing. Because without any visibility of how they are day-to-day, you have no idea of whether or not that individual is going to be staying at the company or how hard or well they’re working for the business.
In terms of why Employee Engagement is going hi-tech, we feel there are two trends of particular importance in the GP Bullhound report.
Trend 1: a change to how we find staff
The first is the fact that technology is now making it easier for HR teams to recruit, because let’s face it, finding quality staff is currently a painful process.
Technology will be used to predict when you’re going to be most in need of new staff (which means you can start the search process sooner and have candidates in mind) and which roles are going to be hardest to fill. This will be incredibly beneficial and there are tools out there to help.
We think then that it makes perfect sense to follow the use of technology to help your recruitment, with technology to help your onboarding process. It’s all very well finding someone who’s perfect for your business, but if you don’t get them up to speed quickly and really immerse them in the company with the brand and communication and performance plans, then they won’t be sticking around for long and you’ll have to fill the vacancy all over again.
With StaffCircle, the onboarding process is made simple. The app includes a branding section so all employees can easily learn the company values and behaviours to aspire to. There’s also training in the form of videos, modules, and tests to get new employees up to speed quickly. They can even access them before their first day at work as the StaffCircle training module allows you to give your new starters or part-time employees limited access to training videos through the app.
Plus all the boring administrative bits that come with a new starter – such as gathering P45s and other documentation – can be uploaded via your employee’s phone’s camera and filed on the app.
Trend 2: Employee engagement’s stock is up
Another point that the report raised which was really interesting was the trend of big companies snapping up employee engagement tools because they see them as the big thing of the future. LinkedIn has bought Glint and Workday, which is a competitor of StaffCircle’s but for very large businesses, has acquired Adaptive Insights.
What this tells us is that these companies see employee engagement as something they need to get on top of – not just internally – but as a service provider to other companies. So as a business, the lesson here is that you need to make sure your employee engagement is in top shape. And StaffCircle can help you in this area.
There were other trends in the report and we recommend you read them, but the final point made was that these trends will only come to fruition if the technology being introduced is easy to use. And that largely falls on you, the user.
How do you choose?
It comes down to choosing the right system for your size, spread of workforce and internal and HR capabilities.
StaffCircle for example lets you do internal comms, instant text alerts, line managing, appraisals and more. Does your communications team have the resource to provide content? Is your workforce used to using phone app technology?
With StaffCircle it’s not a problem, we can tweak our service depending on what you need and provide as much training as required. But, there will be some providers out there that don’t do that and you’ll get a one size fits all package, and pay more than you need to.
To sum up, GP Bullhound’s report is incredibly interesting and we recommend you read every section because even if you’re an HR or Internal Comms professional, you work in a business that may be affected by some of the other trends.
We hope you take the employee engagement comments on board and will be in touch with us soon to get your company ready. Or even better, get started with a free demo today!
