I just leafed through a report on “HR Technology Trends for 2015” that made me laugh so hard. Apparently, everything is going So+Lo+Mo … because we live in an episode of Silicon Valley.
I can’t wait to tell the teacher in Indianapolis or the oil worker in Billings that 2015 will be the year when their employer invests in recruiting, onboarding and talent management platforms that are social, mobile and local. I am sure most American workers would say thanks but no thanks. You can take that capital investment and give me a decent raise, instead.
Let me be the first to pat myself on the back and tell you that I’ve been SoLoMo before it was a thing to parody on HBO, which is why I feel entitled to share my top HR technology trends in 2015.
People will use computers.
Maybe it’s an iPhone. Maybe it’s a tablet that isn’t the big-ass iPhone. You will use a computer at work. HR will use a computer. And those computers will let you check your Facebook.
Those computers will have programs and apps that sit in the cloud.
This crazy “cloud” trend takes over for the pipes-and-tubes trend that has been popular with most HR departments since 2006.
People will get hired with computers.
I could go out on a limb and say that your employee-related documents will be in a computer. Handbooks. Tax forms. Documentation. But that seems a little far-fetched to me.
LinkedIn will replace fax machines as the single spammiest way to overwhelm a recruiter.
This trend was first noticed in 2010.
Fax machines will still be a thing.
Believe me, I dream of hitting a fax machine with a baseball bat. I just thought about planning my 40th birthday party in a junkyard with Louisville Sluggers, old office equipment, and a margarita machine powered by the cigarette lighter in my car. (I still might do this party.) But I just faxed a speaking agreement to an HR technology company — along with a copy of a cancelled check to verify my bank account for direct deposit.
Ugh.
So I guess the biggest trend in HR technology for 2015 is that everything old is still old … but still useful, too.
Don’t throw the baby, or a fax machine, out with the bathwater. There are a lot of predictions for HR technology trends in 2015. The world may be SoLoMo, but HR is not.