December 18, 2024
Marketeer
December 18, 2024
This article has been published in Dutch by PW Net on December 16, 2024.
Do you think it’s already moving fast with all the technological developments? Buckle up, because digitization and robotization are really picking up steam now. In the world of HR too, where work will become more fun and valuable.
For the coming years, Pim van den Brule, co-founder and managing director at Consultday, specialist in HR Technology & HR Services, expects a huge change in the field of HR tech. “HR departments may not notice much of the flight that AI is taking right now, but hopefully that won’t last long.”
As an HR IT consulting firm, Consultday supports companies, healthcare, and government organizations (many with more than a thousand employees) to optimize HR processes with innovative HR tech solutions. “We help companies in their search for the right HR software and in the implementation of that software and the HR services around it,” Van den Brule explains. “The latter always together with the client, where we then take on the role of, for example, program manager, project manager or business analyst as a trusted advisor. Important to mention is that we really are a partner for our customers, because we work completely independently. We have no commercial agreements with suppliers of the well-known HR and payroll software packages.”
Data is another pillar of Consultday’s services. Van den Brule: “We see that many organizations are not yet using their HR data optimally. We can help them get that foundation in order and boost data maturity within HR. And let them take that important step towards predictive analytics. Meanwhile, we can also “just” take on data migration and support organizations as they move from one software package to another. In other words, we can cover the whole spectrum around implementation.”
As one of the main players in the field of HR IT, this company also has a good idea of what is going on in the market and what is in store for us at the intersection of HR and technology. “These days, naturally everyone is the first to ask about applications of AI. What I expect a lot from in that area, and what we are also working on ourselves, is a solution for answering questions that HR employees currently still have to respond to themselves; these are largely the same kinds of questions, for example about the collective bargaining agreement, certain regulations or leave. Questions that an AI chatbot can take care of, if fed with all company-relevant information. I expect a turnaround in that. The same goes for insight into data; the time of all kinds of reports manually pieced together will soon be over thanks to AI.”
Van den Brule has high expectations anyway of further digitization for HR work and the use of robotization. “Of course, we have been seeing this trend for years, but it will accelerate even more. Especially the repetitive actions on the administrative side of HR work will be increasingly reduced in the coming years. For example, I expect and hope that the manual handling of transactions in a system, or checks in payroll, will become completely automated. That means a clear shift from executive work to more control and analysis. There really are still big steps to be made in that at many HR departments as well.”
According to Van den Brule, HR staff need not fear that they will be superfluous because of all the lightning-fast developments soon. On the contrary. “Certain tasks will certainly become redundant, but the work that remains will become different, a lot more fun especially. The big advantage is precisely that employees will be able to shift their attention from relatively operational tasks to really adding value for the organization. Moreover, the shortage in the labor market will not ease in the coming years, so I do not expect employees to lose their jobs because of robotization. The biggest change is that repetitive work will fall away, and challenging work will remain. Work that is meant for people. This is also completely in line with our vision ‘Take the robot out of the human’.”
Van den Brule also foresees another big change in the “user experience” and “user interface” of HR software. “Many people still find certain applications quite complicated to use. I also think that on many platforms, things could be much better. For example, that employees or managers do not have to go through a whole form and fill in all kinds of fields with their question or adjustment, but can handle their affairs in a kind of WhatsApp, or Chat-GPT-like Interface.”
Among his clients, he detects a great curiosity about what the technological developments discussed could mean for their HR services. “They are really open to taking steps in that regard. And I must honestly say that I myself am also looking forward to these big changes, because in the past eight years not a whole lot has really changed at the systems level. There hasn’t been a huge turnaround in how things work or look. But that change is going to come.”
Consultday supports clients (from HR and IT directors to managers of a Shared Service Center) not only in optimizing their HR processes, but also by sharing knowledge. “We identify trends and organize round tables in which we take clients through technological developments. Furthermore, we also publish more and more articles about them, to inform and inspire our entire network. To make it clear that organizations can make plenty of gains in various areas to make their work easier and more enjoyable.”
Finally, Van den Brule expresses the hope that HR will especially benefit from AI in the future. “And frankly, I do expect that. My advice to everyone is: don’t make it too big and just start with it. Don’t make it complicated, we don’t do that ourselves. Our strength is bringing things back to the core. What is it really about? What are you trying to achieve? For a reason, our slogan is ‘HR Tech made easy’.”
