The Humanization and Commercialization of HR Software - Making Work More Social

We were at the Motivate Europe Live Conference in April and there were a lot of ideas and talk around how best to improve employee engagement. We believe the answer is about humanizing work with more social tools.

The way we work and the digital tools we use are going to more closely resemble the tools we use in our everyday lives. Let's face it, most platforms and systems in the workplace for communication, administration and Human Resources are nowhere near as elegant, compelling or easy to use as our personal tools or Apps.

This is all changing with the growth of SaaS platforms that humanize work by providing a more commercial user experience. Good design is universal and always appreciated and that translates directly into higher adoption and participation rates. The four areas that are experiencing the most innovation that directly effect HR are in collaboration, casual learning, social recognition and distributed decision making.

HR stands to benefit greatly from these new solutions given the challenges around employee engagement and the changing demographics in the workforce. These new solutions are addressing old problems in more effective and efficient ways with the added benefit of greater accountability and business insights. The social nature of these new tools is what drives their effectiveness by putting more power into the hands of the team to contribute, interact and connect.

We are moving from traditional top-down management methodologies based on collectivism and extrinsic motivation to more dynamic models based on interaction, individualism and intrinsic motivation centred around recognition and personal development. New systems and programs are being designed to empower everyone on the team and remove perceived barriers on how and who we interact with, which is making work more transparent than ever before. These are all good things and will lead to a more engaged team.

At the nexus of this new order is social recognition. Every interaction in these social spaces becomes a recognition opportunity where anyone can acknowledge anyone else's efforts, contributions or accomplishments. By introducing a social systematic recognition tool, organizations can get to systemic engagement that retains and attracts the best and brightest. Seems simple and it can be. It is a brave new social world.

‍