HR Technology For 2019: HR In The Flow of Work

The HR technology marketplace is fascinating. With more than 12 million companies in the US alone (employing more than 160 million people), the payroll market alone is over $1.7 trillion in spending. Expanded around the world, these numbers are approximately four times higher, and in emerging countries like China and India the HR needs are explosive.

I’ve been studying this market for close to 20 years and it is now more confusing than ever. Not only do we have an exploding number of core cloud-based HCM systems (payroll, HRMS, core HR transaction processing), there are billions of dollars now being invested in new tools for recruitment, performance management, engagement, training, inclusion, analytics, and well-begin. New solutions for agile pay, AI-based coaching and development planning, employee feedback and engagement, video learning and interviewing, intelligent chatbots, and smarter analytics are hitting the market every week, and their user experience, design, and intelligence is moving faster than ever.

Where is this all going?  From my perspective, we’re moving into a new era. One where HR technology is no longer a forms automation system, but is now becoming a true “system of productivity.” The theme I’m now using is what I call “HR in the Flow of Work.” What does this mean?  All these wonderful HR apps should be natural, easy, and integrated into our work environment – we should be able to chat, click, or swipe and the HR tools we use should be as integrated into our lives as email, text messaging, or our favorite mobile app.

For vendors, this is a challenging shift. Vendors have to build a more open architecture solution, spend more time integrating with platforms like Office, Workplace by Facebook, Slack, or G-Suite. AI and analytics needs to be invisible and intelligent, and the interfaces should “talk to us” in our own native language, so we can use the systems without wasting our time.

I”m now working on a major study of the market, in a project we call HR Technology Market 2019. If you are a vendor, we would like you to join us by taking this short survey (results are confidential) and you will be featured in the report when it comes out later this year. This will be a detailed study of the 37 market segments we’ve defined, with information on trends, growth rate, and market dynamics for each. I will be discussing it at the HR Technology Conference in Vegas, and then doing much more later in the year.

I know the market is confusing, but I hope this research helps us all sort it out. If you’re a small, medium, or large vendor please join us – I will personally share the insights with you as we prepare the final study. In the meantime come to my presentation at the HR Technology Conference in Vegas, where I talk about the big shift in HR:  moving to HR in the Flow of Work.

Stay tuned for more.

If you’re a vendor, Click Here to join the study.

Click here to register to make sure you get access to the results.