Just as with many professions, over the past decade technology has dramatically impacted how modern HR departments do business. Human resources is a vocation that is both integral to the success of any organization and innately tied to human interaction and quality communication. As a result, a recent Watson Wyatt study examines the top technology trends that are improving human resources efficiency today.

Would one or two of these trends help you wring more value out of your organization’s HR interactions?

Web 2.0

Web 2.0 is the focus on making this current, second generation of web programming all about interaction and communication. As a result, social and professional networking, site interactivity and self-serve web-based tools have become hot properties all over the internet. Similarly, HR departments are finding ways to match this trend step by step, using web 2.0 principles and properties to help give their organizations a more interactive and communications oriented look and feel. Employee content is being delivered in blogs and wikis and employee brands are being extended in social networking spaces to aide in both recruitment and retention. As web 2.0 continues to evolve look for forward thinking HR employees to continue finding new ways to use these trends in an HR environment.

Employee Service

Technology is rapidly improving the service levels that HR departments are able to deliver to their workforces. Most benefits and training products are now accessible through web-interfaces, effectively creating 24 hour employee service when it comes to information, registration and management. Best in class HR departments are making sure that they provide as much quality information as possible to their staff through self-served technology and this trend will continue for years to come.

Talent Management

Many of the traditional talent management processes from reviews to succession planning are now joining in on the technology movement. Companies are now using software to revolutionize their employee management systems, make future planning a collaborative process and even adding in assessment technologies for hiring and development. These technology based solutions are not only more dependable, but anonymous, helping reduce bias and clarify direction when it comes to performance feedback.

Specific HR Outsourcing

Several years back, it looked like more companies might be jumping on the bandwagon of total HR outsourcing. Instead, technology has allowed companies to begin thinking about flexible partial outsourcing of low return on investment HR tasks in exchange for focusing their HR staff on higher value functions such as employee interaction. Technology advancement has created effective outsourcing options for everything from background screening to file and data management. This is freeing up HR professionals to spend their time on harder hitting activities that deliver results to the bottom line.

Additional Resources

• Read more articles at HRBrainBank – human resources best practices.
• Available for purchase is Employee Communications 101 that focuses on communication to employees.
• Outsource services include employee benefit statement.
• Check out our CDHP video and educate your employees about consumer driven health insurance.

In today’s volatile economy we have seen most organizations turn a new and more critical eye to company-wide cost controls. While the method with which these cost reductions are made varies from company to company, one thing is common across the board. If an expense isn’t delivering a productive and necessary return, it has a strong chance of getting cut out of the budget. Despite these corporate cuts, many HR professionals have considered themselves less threatened than employees in other professions. After all, companies need a human resources department so it must be incredibly difficult to make the same kinds of cost cuts in HR right? Think again.

Today’s marketplace is full of options. Some are bad and some are good when it comes to reducing, outsourcing or supplementing a traditional internal HR department. If you want to ensure that your corporate leaders see your department as a valuable asset - one they keep off of the chopping block - there is one question you need to focus on. What is my department’s brand reputation?

For HR departments that are seen as collaborative, savvy and supportive, there is little threat that you’ll be asked to overhaul your business or make significant cuts. For departments that are seen as bureaucratic wielders of red tape, the cuts may be fast and deep. If you’re not sure how your brand stacks up throughout your company, here are a few strategies to help you gather data, improve your standing and protect the organization you’ve built.

The best way to understand your reputation is to ask.

Human resources is already a profession with a wide variety of demands. You rarely meet a HR professional who has much extra time on their hands. As a result it’s easy to become out of touch with your reputation throughout the company. Before you can upgrade your HR brand, you need to understand it. Set up times to speak with employees that represent a good cross section of your workforce and ask them to tell you about you. It’s important that these conversations are open and not defensive, or you’ll just end up being told what people think you want to hear. Consider having a third party facilitate the experience or using an anonymous survey tool to ensure you receive good information.

Make it clear that your goal is to please the customers.

In human resources, our customers are usually internal. Once you’ve surveyed the organization as a whole it’s time to meet with the department heads whose teams you support. Ask these leaders what services or information you could provide that would make their lives easier and compile a list of requests. After all, most companies have to refine their offerings frequently to satisfy the market. Why should we be any different?

Build a game plan and make it public.

Once you’ve learned what the organization thinks of you and what your internal clients would like to see from you, it’s time to prioritize. Get your team together and work out a strategy on how to improve your brand reputation and service offerings. Once you have a plan, make it public throughout the company and walk key leaders through the steps you’ll be taking to give them the support they need. If you make your intentions known and follow through on them step by step, you’ll see your internal reputation start to improve quickly. This will provide your organization the stability you need in these trying times.

Additional Resources

• Read more articles at HRBrainBank – best practices in HR.
• Available for purchase is Employee Communications 101 that focuses on internal employee communications.
• Outsource services include benefit and compensation communication
• Check out our CDHP video and educate your employees about a healthcare savings plan