What do ADP, Paylocity, Paycom, and Zenefits have in common?
Companies are leveraging these Tactical HR software (HRIS) to bring immense value and time-savings in tracking employee data and benefits. They manage the tactical side of human resources: payroll, employee benefits programs, and compliance. These responsibilities are required to run a business.
These software solutions, and many others like them, led to the technology disruption in the tactical HR space in the early 2000s. Most companies with over 20 employees now use software to execute their tactical HR responsibilities.
If you’re in HR or a small to medium-sized business (SMB) leader, these companies are likely familiar. You might even use one, but the industry lacks a complete set of tools for all the strategic HR activities. And mastering Strategic HR is how companies are winning the battle for talent.
So what are you doing for your Strategic HR?
Strategic HR includes all the activities to build and retain high-performance leaders and teams. These include creating Talent Plans for each team/department, Individual Development Plans, retention plans, and succession plans.
Recently I was in conversations with a leader about using Strategic HR software to grow their people and business. He responded that they were already using software for their talent. He further clarified that the HRIS software that his leadership team was using had only a couple of strategic HR modules.
So, I elaborated on the significant differences between Tactical vs. Strategic Human Resources and how the software he was using (who shall remain anonymous 😊) was not bringing all the Strategic HR tools needed to win the battle for talent.
Tactical HR is necessary to run a business, but Strategic HR is how your business wins.
Since the technology disruption in the tactical HR space happened 15+ years ago and is now happening in the Strategic HR space, it creates a conundrum for leaders.
How do I, as a leader, ensure we win the battle for talent?
- Can we win using the limited strategic HR capabilities offered by our HRIS system?
- Can our organization win through a cobbled-together strategic HR solution? (Google docs, SharePoint, Word & Excel files)
- Or, to ensure we win the battle for talent, do we need to research and move towards a strategic HR software?
Anytime an industry goes through a technology disruption, it creates many challenges and opportunities. One of the opportunities is to further separate your company from your competitors by winning the battle for talent. Companies are doing this by defining their technology strategy for their tactical and strategic human resource needs. What do you want your HR/Talent technology and strategy to look like three years from now, and what are the action plans/strategies to get us there?
As the technology disruption unfolds, you will see more HRIS systems add Strategic HR capabilities and more Strategic HR software introduced. This shift forces leaders to reevaluate their technology stack consistently to ensure they excel at the Strategic HR responsibilities. Because if you are winning the battle for talent, your talent will take care of everything else.
The technology disruption in the Strategic HR space is happening now. It is not a question of if but when it will start holding your organization back. Maybe it already has.
Technology is impacting our professional and personal life every day. However, the technology disruption in the strategic HR space affects the most significant asset in your organization – your people. And if there was ever a technology disruption you want to get ahead of – this is it.
Those Who Talent Plan – Profit!
