Human resources trends are equally substantive to you whether you require digitalization of your HR department or are considering your next startup related to human resource software products. Having created software solutions since 2009, MobiDev experts are always up to date with the latest developments in the industries in which we operate, including the human resources domain. Moreover, we’ve built our own custom people management system for our company called MD People, so this HR trends guide is based on our practical expertise and clients’ case studies.
8 Key Factors That Drive Human Resources Innovations in 2024
HR innovations are constantly in the spotlight, as they are crucial for finding responses to the needs and challenges of the human resources industry. So it’s no surprise that the global HR technology market is forecast to grow at a CAGR of 7.5%, from $23.98 billion in 2022, to $39.90 billion by 2029. In the picture below, you can see the key drivers of HR innovation.
Key Drivers of Innovations in Human Resources
When reviewing HR technology trends, we will constantly turn to artificial intelligence technologies, whose impact on the human resources industry is constantly growing. According to Gartner, 76% of CHROs and HR leaders believe their companies will lag in organizational success if they don’t adopt and implement AI solutions, such as generative AI, in 2024-2025.
Keeping this in mind, let’s get right into the key human resource technology trends you can rely on to build your software products.
Trend #1. Data-Driven Hiring Process
Usually, HR departments have a lot of data about candidates and employees, which can potentially bring additional business benefits and simplify daily operations. Advanced data analytics can help recruiters and HR managers plan and perform hiring processes more effectively as well.
CASE STUDY: BUILDING HIRING SOFTWARE SOLUTION
A few years ago, we worked on just such a hiring software solution. The client, a Belgian company called Resolved, aimed to build a product for structured, smooth, evidence-based hiring. In this project, as in all others, our team put at the forefront the business’ goals and the client’s priorities. MobiDev experts proposed the project’s tech stack, evaluating its elements in terms of how well they fit the product vision. This approach makes it possible to achieve long-term goals set by the client and bring to the market an innovative HR platform that meets user expectations.
The result of three years of cooperation is RQRY, a web-based SaaS solution that helps medium and large organizations enhance their hiring processes with evidence-based decision-making workflows and advanced analytics. Service users can analyze and match applicants and vacancies with the help of complex, accurate calculations. In addition to the core functionality, the platform has extra features to support product growth. These include skill services integration, a reporting service, and a separate vacancy simulations module that can be integrated with other software systems.
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View the caseAUTOMATED SUPPORT OF DEIB INITIATIVES
Compliance with the principles of diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging (DEIB) is becoming mandatory in organizations. Unfortunately, hiring decision-makers may overlook or reject candidates from underrepresented groups due to their unconscious or conscious biases. That’s where AI models can more fairly consider and evaluate applicant information and make DEIB strategies more effective.
However, we must remember that for this to happen, the training data itself must be free of bias. Therefore, it’s crucial to ensure that AI systems are developed and deployed with careful consideration of ethical guidelines and regular monitoring for bias and fairness. Engaging experienced data engineers is key here.
Furthermore, we must remember that AI should be seen as a tool to support and enhance DEIB initiatives, but not to replace human decision-making and responsibility.
HR CHATBOTS AND VIRTUAL ASSISTANTS
Chatbots and virtual assistants are just a godsend for companies that want their employees to be able to ask questions and get answers instantly. Such a digital tool can handle plenty of questions and do it faster and more accurately than a human.
Here are the areas where chatbots can support human resources specialists:
- Assessment of job candidates
- Improvement of onboarding
- Employee training and engagement, etc.
An example of an advanced conversational bot for hiring might be Humanly. Among other things, it has an AI-pilot that joins interviews in Zoom, Teams and Google Meeting, takes notes, generates follow-up emails, and synchronizes all information.
However, when building such solutions we should remember that chatbot’s potential can be limited by technology capabilities. Tech consulting services that we offer to clients will help you determine the feasibility of your ideas, choose the best tech stack, identify risks and develop a plan to mitigate them, so you can optimize budgets and create your product with confidence.
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With the help of machine learning algorithms, intelligent recommender systems enable fast data filtering to generate candidate recommendations most suitable for a specific role.There are many examples of how recommender systems enhance hiring. Here are a few of them:
- Ranking candidates based on CV analysis and interviews, selecting candidates most relevant to the job profile
- Search for vacancies suitable for a job seeker
- Assisting in employee upskilling with regard to creating personalized training programs based on previous user requests, industry trends, standards, etc.
Here’s an example of how AI-driven recommendations for job search matching can look. Using one of the NLP-based recommendation approaches, we can extract and analyze text from the content and provide recruiters with suitable candidates based on the skills and experience requirements.
Building such recommender systems can require solid data science expertise to analyze the requirements of your existing infrastructure, prepare the data, and apply NLP techniques. However, our engineers can offer an alternative option such as GPT models, if this meets your needs.
Trend #2. Digital Transformation of People Management
In addition to hiring, digital HR tools can significantly improve onboarding, measuring and analyzing the productivity of individual employees and teams.
AUTOMATED ONBOARDING
Employee onboarding is an example of when the digitalization of even a single work process can have a significant positive impact on the company. Onboarding software can help speed up the integration of new employees into the team. For example, as a rule, newcomers have to get acquainted with a significant amount of complex documentation. In such cases, the use of Optical character recognition (OCR) technology makes onboarding easier. OCR software is intended for image-to-text conversion and allows HR managers to upload and automatically process scanned documents.
Even though there are sufficient solutions available on the market for automating the onboarding process, there remain obstacles that can significantly impact the success of new products. These include security concerns, substantial expenses associated with installation and maintenance, as well as poor compatibility with other existing systems. Addressing these challenges can provide your product with additional competitive advantages.
IMPROVED EMPLOYEE MONITORING
Another dynamically growing area is the global market for employee monitoring solutions, which is expected to reach $20.46 billion in 2032. Large businesses leverage software solutions of this kind, both autonomous and integrated, to increase productivity and transparency in workflows.
There are two main tech trends in this area. The first one involves the adoption of cloud-based software solutions, which provide enhanced scalability and cost-effectiveness for organizations.
The second trend revolves around the integration of artificial intelligence. This enables not only the monitoring of employee performance but also the detection of anomalies and identification of potential risks, thereby fostering a proactive approach to employee management.
AI-POWERED HUMAN RESOURCE INFORMATION SYSTEMS (HRIS)
HRIS (Human Resources Information System) is a kind of digital warehouse of employee data. With the help of such software, HR teams can automate their day-to-day tasks, for example, attendance tracking and benefits administration. AI features can take the effectiveness of HRIS even further.
Here are some examples:
- Identifying trends and patterns in employee feedback, contributing to data-driven decisions to solve problems and improve employee experiences
- Predicting and mitigating employee attrition risks and implementing retention strategies based on analysis of historical data on staff turnover.
- Automated evaluation of the performance of employees, identifying their strengths and weaknesses and areas of development
- Personalized development and learning programs based on the needs and preferences of each employee
MD People: Custom People Management Platform Built by MobiDev
More than ten years ago, in parallel with the development of HR solutions for our clients, we started building an in-house people management system. What began as a small internal skill-up project, has grown into a multi-functional complex product that today facilitates the work of HR, finance, PR, office management, PM, and administrative departments.
MD People combines the functionality of a digital people management platform and a corporate social network. The initial project goal was to create an intra-corporate communication system that provides up-to-date information about the structure of the company and each employee, displays current work schedules, and enables staff to issue vacations, sick leave, business trips, etc. Over the years, we added new functionality to meet the needs of different departments working with the product.
Here are some core features MobiDev engineers implemented into the system to address the needs of our HR department:
- Interactive visualization of a company structure with easy navigation. Each employee profile contains data about the employee’s skill set, contact info, working hours, and projects, as well as including a CV and personal development plan. Having all the info in this single system, HR managers can easily understand the workload of each employee and use it to plan one-on-one meetings or other activities.
MD People has a complex system of user roles with different types of available functionality: Employee, HR Manager, Resource Manager, Project Manager, Team Leader, and more. This enables users to access information within their designated responsibilities based on their respective roles and protects employees’ sensitive data from unauthorized access.
- Automated calculations of vacation days, holidays, days off, working and overtime hours allow for optimizing the work of the HR and administrative departments. The system sends automated email notifications to team managers when employees take vacations or remote workdays and leave. The system is also integrated with Jira for automated logging of paid day offs.
- Simplified people analytics. HR managers have the opportunity to download available data on employees for further analysis and statistics collection. For example, this may include tenure, analyzing the percentage of employees at different seniority levels, etc.
When planning the development of such a multifunctional product as a people management system, you first need to create a clear product development strategy. This enables you to prioritize features, understand what modules the system will have in the future, and choose a technology stack that allows you to both meet current requirements and lay down capabilities for scaling. Collaboration with software architects and business analysts is crucial here.
Achievements and plans:
Today, MD People is the main source of employee data, which simplifies the work of all departments of the company. The product team is constantly improving the functionality of the system in response to growing needs and workloads.
Trend #3. The Rise of Technologies to Support Hybrid Work Models
The spread of remote and hybrid work has become a sign of the times in many industries. HR and software professionals are jointly looking for ways to respond to the challenges of personnel work in changing conditions. A centralized platform for connecting various apps used by employees, options for adding multimedia content like videos and images to intra-corporate communication, and office space management systems with reservation of meeting rooms and workplaces – these are examples of solutions to support performance during remote and hybrid work.
COLLABORATION AND COMMUNICATION TOOLS
With remote or hybrid formats, teams have to make efforts to maintain effective communication. The use of augmented and virtual reality helps teammates working in different environments to be on the same page.
The capabilities of augmented and virtual reality can be seen in various metaverse-related projects, like Meta’s Horizon Workrooms. Linking an agent, that is, an auxiliary app, to your computer allows streaming its screen to a virtual reality headset. Thus, you can work in a virtual environment and invite colleagues to join a virtual room where you may collaborate with your devices and share screens.
The possibility of building apps for Apple Vision Pro gave a new impetus to the development of remote collaboration tools. Apple Vision Pro scans the user’s face through front-facing cameras and creates a three-dimensional digital representation of the user due to ML algorithms. Real-life expressions move into the virtual realm with special sensors detecting and replicating the movements of the user’s face on the digital persona.
As you can see, using augmented and virtual reality can enrich your HR software products with features for working together in a shared virtual space.
LEARNING MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS (LMS)
Corporate learning also greatly benefits from engaging the potential of augmented reality. In-house learning management systems (LMS) ensure acquiring and improving professional knowledge and skills in conditions that match real-world work environments. You can use the capabilities of spatial designs in AR-based apps to simulate the necessary environments for effective training.
Here are some examples of when AR comes in handy for learning:
- Safety training during which employees hone skills that help avoid accidents in real life
- Diversity and inclusion training where AR allows staff to better understand the needs of other people
- Delivering training content in 3D format, which makes learning exciting and learners motivated and engaged
Trend #4. Corporate Wellness Software
The adoption of employee corporate health programs has become a prevalent practice, driving the emergence of new tech solutions in the fitness & wellness industry. Comprehensive wellness apps cover a wide range of factors that affect people’s health and well-being, including nutrition, physical activity, daily routine control, stress management, etc. We are pleased to share MobiDev’s experience in the field of corporate wellness software.
Our project team has developed and maintained PepTalk, a software product for a client that provides mid-sized and large companies with a corporate solution that leverages workplace well-being to increase employee engagement, retention, and productivity. The result of 5+ years of our cooperation is a multifunctional tool that supports corporate employees through mobile gamification, online team challenges and more to contribute to employees’ well-being.
In 2022, PepTalk was ranked 19th in The Deloitte 2022 Technology Fast 50 Awards.
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View the caseTrend #5. Focus on Improved Corporate Security
Organizations’ security strategies cover all areas of their activities, and HR is no exception. Here are some examples of technologies that can be used to enhance security in the process of interaction between workers and companies.
BIOMETRICS IN THE WORKPLACE
When protecting data, it’s important not to cross the fine line beyond which security measures noticeably slow down work processes. Technological solutions that allow combining a high level of security with the convenience and speed of access procedures are all the more valuable. Biometric authentication systems are just like that. The multimodal approach, when two or even more biometric methods are used in combination, is well-proven in data protection.
Edge biometrics for workplace security enables software deployment and data storage directly on devices. Therefore, such systems operate without data transmission via the Internet, which means they are more secure and autonomous. By the way, we launched and tested the security system with edge biometrics in one of our offices, and it was highly appreciated by all our teammates.
CORPORATE MOBILE DEVICE MANAGEMENT (MDM)
Protecting mobile devices is even more difficult than other kinds of technologies . The portability makes them more vulnerable to loss or theft, and connecting via public Wi-Fi networks increases the risk of data breaches. The solution is to protect corporate-owned smartphones and tablets through Mobile Device Management (MDM) software.
Corporate MDM systems encompass the deployment, integration, monitoring, control, and security of a network of mobile devices issued to employees for work. Granting of permissions, distribution of software packages and data, protection of communication channels, management of device functionality, etc., can be done through such systems. This type of information security solution is becoming increasingly popular. The global mobile device management market is expected to grow from $9.38 billion in 2023 to $58.38 billion by 2030.
Move Towards the Future of HR Technologies with MobiDev
Automation will continue to determine the immediate future of the economy. At the same time, and this corresponds to the values of our company, automation should be aimed not only at increasing work performance but also at caring for well-being and revealing the creative potential of employees. HR innovative solutions should contribute to the engagement and psychological comfort of staff and effective intra-corporate communications.
Undoubtedly, such a technological transition requires thorough preparation, during which it is necessary to determine the feasibility of ideas for new software products, the compliance of their functionality with the expectations of the target audience, and much more. MobiDev`s software consultants and engineers will help to analyze possible options and find optimal solutions, comprehensively considering business and technical requirements.
We are focused on long-term cooperation with clients to create сompetitive software products that meet user expectations and promising HR technology trends. Contact us to discuss the challenges you face and find out how we can help you.
