Next-Gen Workforce Management and Frontline Worker Employee Experience Technology Are High Priorities

Keeping up with the latest in employee experience technology (EXTech) is a high priority for any enterprise looking to invest in solutions to better support their teams in their roles. Gartner® has released their latest 2022 Hype Cycle™ for Human Capital Management Technology, which “informs application leaders who are supporting HCM technology transformations about the latest technological innovations on the market. It will help them prioritize investments by providing insights into the maturity of key applications and technologies.” This Hype Cycle report notes, “By the end of 2025, 35% of large enterprise organizations will have a dedicated budget for HCM technology innovation, up from 10% today.”

Application leaders, therefore—along with assessing integration and interoperability with existing solutions—need to evaluate both their current and expected future capabilities when considering which technologies to deploy.

Here are some of our key learnings from the 2022 Gartner Hype Cycle Report that would be most helpful to businesses looking for workforce management transformations:

Companies Are Dedicating More Funds to Investment

It wasn’t that long ago that companies performed their workforce management functions manually, with pen and paper or cards stamped by a time clock. Even as the advantages of digitalized operations and smart factory initiatives have become obvious, many organizations remained hesitant to apply the same lessons to workforce management. Now, most leaders understand that embracing digital transformation is a strategic investment in the future of their organization’s success.

Many organizations are now factoring these investments into their annual finances. As seen from the quote above, Gartner believes that by the end of 2025, 35% of large enterprise organizations will have a dedicated budget for HCM technology innovation. This is up from the current rate of only 10% for large enterprises. This figure is only expected to grow as enterprises continue to align their workplaces with the mass digitization of the world at large.

A New Outlook on Employee Experience Is Driving the Boom in Workforce Management Tools

Prior to the pandemic, many organizations employed management techniques that were less than considerate towards the needs of their employees. In some industries (particularly retail), there was a “churn and burn” mentality, where some made little investment to retain a dedicated long-term staff, with management instead presuming near constant turnover and a perpetual hiring cycle. Even in less extreme examples, there was a lack of emphasis on employee satisfaction because their position and paycheck were considered sufficient.

The pandemic radically changed this approach as an increase in better opportunities diminished the available pool of deskless shift workers. Facing labor shortages and increased supply chain disruptions, organizations around the world refocused their efforts on employee satisfaction in hopes of retaining and optimizing the workers that hadn’t yet left. The numerous benefits that modern workforce management provided to workers—in the form of accessibility, enhanced scheduling, and work/life balance—has led to the increased importance in employee support technologies we see today.

In 2022, the distinction is clearer between applications that can help organizations orchestrate their multiple fragmented systems (EXTech orchestrators and overlays) and applications that aim to enhance employee experience for frontline employees. Gartner notes, “Human-centric work design is the organizational response to the requirements for more flexible and productive work in both remote/hybrid and on-site settings. This emerging approach necessitates technology investments in areas that help organizations understand the needs of their employees and take action to address them. These include workforce diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI); employee productivity monitoring; employee well-being; and flexible earned-wage access.”

The Security Failure of Legacy Technologies Is Increasing the Need for Upgraded Systems

The effects of the December 2021 outage of Kronos Private Cloud (KPC) services caused by a ransomware attack are still being felt by customers nearly a year later. In analyzing what went wrong, many pointed toward KPC’s use of outdated on-site intranet systems (as opposed to a true cloud). These older systems were not designed to handle the highly connected world of today, and vulnerabilities arose as years went on.

These multiple connections allowed more and more access to these on-site systems through each individual connection. The difficulty and costs of securing on-site intranets have led many organizations to accelerate their migration of services onto the cloud, with its increased security, functions that are accessible from around the world, and—perhaps most important—decreased cost of implementation and maintenance.

Access to the latest information and trends in the workforce management market keeps potential clients informed and confident in their investments and aware of new innovations in technology. The latest 2022 Gartner Hype Cycle Report will tell you all the latest updates and transformations occurring as you decide which solution is best for you!

As you research workforce management solutions, we’d love to talk with you to understand your needs and show you how we can help (we’ve been ranked #1 four years in a row! by Info-Tech SoftwareReviews!). While you’re gathering information, please take a look at our report showing the differences between workforce management solutions bundled with HCMs, and the reported benefits of standalone Best-of-Breed options.

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