HR 2021 – Trends and digitalization
18 Jun 21
HerbertNathan & co will within short release a new market analysis covering the landscape of HCM systems for the Scandinavian market. In line with previous years, the number of HCM systems is growing and the concept of HCM and HCM systems is breaking new ground where the boundaries between social media, collaboration, communities, learning management, resource management and payroll information flow together.
HCM is one of the areas that today attracts most research and innovation. Both as result of new market conditions within trade, services and industry and as result of changing mindset regarding business management, corporate culture and people culture. And not least as result of the ongoing digitalization that questions existing norms and at the same time creates new opportunities to communicate with, and support, the employee in their career and development.
The consequence of these changes is that new and modern HCM systems are required. The old-fashioned personnel system, which was only a complement to the payroll system, is now a thing of the past. Instead, we see the emergence of a completely new landscape of systems based on the needs of the employee and his/her coaches/mentors and not primarily based on the needs from the payroll department or human resources manager.
We could already note these trends 10 years ago, but where the pace of change has moved slowly until Covid-19 made its entrance. As a result of the pandemic, we have seen a faster change in the approach of HCM and the role that HCM actually plays in digitizing the business. As the business is digitized, changes in leadership, work roles and responsibilities follow. And where current hierarchies within management and responsibility change or are supplemented with new roles and working models. And in all of this, new tools and systems are needed to plan, lead and coordinate the maintenance and development of the organization’s resources.
After talking of HCM systems for a while, we are now starting to talk more and more about “people platforms” with the meaning that we see an emergence of platforms and portals where you gather all staff information and support for leaders, managers, mentors, consultants and employees to be able to collaborate. To some extent, this can be compared to the term “ERP System” which we have used for many years to describe the financial administrative systems that hold the organizations business relations and business transactions together. But now instead with the employee in the center with all the information needed for the employee to be able to perform their work and be able to develop in their work.
This change also goes hand in hand with the phenomenon of Gig-economy, where we see greater mobility in the field of work and where many people today work more in project and assignment form for a limited time instead of long-term employment. And where the comfort of life must be created within the project and the assignment instead of within the traditional form of employment and leadership. And again, it will be the “people platform” that holds the information together regardless of the ongoing assignment and form of employment.
The transition to “cloud” has also had a major effect on the area of HCM and the tools used. Most of the now leading HCM systems and HCM tools have been developed as native cloud applications and are based on a technical architecture that supports today’s models for communication and exchange of information between different platforms and data sources. And where these interfaces are also the basis for being able to start exploiting the opportunities that arise in machine learning and digital assistants.
Based on the market now fully accepting the cloud concept, HCM has been given the opportunity to stand on its own two feet without being dependent on conditions based on payroll systems. This situation has benefited the development of strong and modern stand-alone HCM applications. And it has opened up opportunities for the HR department to be able to plan and develop their own routines and best practices without having to be limited by the payroll systems and the internal IT department’s restrictions based on older and locally installed systems.
In our upcoming market analysis, we report and explain the changes that are taking place within HCM and how these changes affect the market for HCM systems. And we will present all leading and active suppliers and their offers within HCM. Hold on – the report will be available for purchase shortly after the summer.