HR must be a strategic partner in a recession

A recession is on the horizon – but it hasn’t stopped the sky-high resignation rates (dubbed the ‘Great Resignation’) in its tracks.

In this context, businesses are laser focused on retaining their top talent – and the key to doing this is dialing up their employee experience (EX). Engaged employees are more productive and committed.

Success in this area requires HR to be a strategic partner to the business – the good news is, after two years of COVID-19 disruption to the world of work, HR teams are already playing this role.

A survey of 200 HR leaders by Applaud found that 61% said HR was a strategic partner to the business.

Talking about the findings, Applaud co-founder and CEO Ivan Harding tells UNLEASH: “86% of HR leaders agreed that digital transformation is a strategic priority for their departments and businesses.

“This is a clear demonstration that with the current economic crisis, companies are again relying on HR to help keep employees happy while increasing productivity and keeping costs low.“

The need for employee-first tech

Of course, dialing up EX, and driving efficiencies at work, requires HR tech tools.

HR has been having some success to date – 53% of leaders told Applaud that HR tech has positively transformed how the workforce views the company, and there has been a 12% increase (to 27%) of EX strategies meeting the objectives of the business (and particularly the C-Suite).

But further progress needs to be made to automate and personalize the tools – HR tech needs to move away from serving the needs of HR administratively and operationally, and instead focus on making employees lives easier.

Applaud’s study found that while 59% of organizations had digitized HR processes, there was still lots of manual work involved.

50% improved the levels of personalization in their EX tools in 2022 – the next stage is consolidating all the tools in one place to make them seamless and easy-to-use for employees.

Harding added: “For many HR leaders, the next challenge for 2023 will be about leveraging technology to plug some of the gaps that have been created through remote/dispersed working over the past few years and keeping employees engaged and motivated through what looks to be a tough economic climate.

“With the right tools and strategies, HR leaders will be able to create meaningful connections with their teams.”

The International Festival of HR is back! Discover amazing speakers at UNLEASH America on 26-27 April 2023.