HR technology underused: Gartner

Only 24 percent of human resources leaders are maximising the full potential of HR technology and business value, according to a Gartner survey.  

This is despite many believing HR technology is important and impactful for staff and organisations, the Gartner findings revealed.

The February survey reached over 80 HR professionals with only 35 percent marking themselves as confident their current approach to HR technology is helping to achieve business objectives.

While two out of three stated they believe if no action is taken to boost HR’s approach to technology, their role’s effectiveness will decrease.

Senior director of advisory in Gartner’s HR Practice Robin Boomer, said, “Given the Australian regulatory environment, legislative changes and high instances of needing to manage employees across multiple employment agreements, HR leaders are susceptible to the vicious cycle of trying to get the foundations right.  

“This makes it vitally important to set a vision for their HR technology roadmap and strategy to avoid the endless loop of ‘getting the basics right’ at the expense of making progress on the overall transformation. This is where the right technology strategy can be a key enabler in Australia,” Boomer said.

The report, Augmented HR: Unlocking HR’s Business Impact Through Technology, also noted that from the 1200 employees surveyed by Gartner in February 2024, 69 percent reported facing at least one barrier when interacting with HR technology over the past year.

The report listed adopting new viewpoints on the technology plus pushing further than standard training to gain a full view of potential benefits.

Mark Whittle, vice president of advisory in the Gartner HR practice, also added, “While HR leaders believe that HR technology is important and impactful, they continue to struggle with how to gain the most value.”

“The goal isn’t to maximise technology’s value to HR alone, but to maximise the business value the technology can bring to the entire organisation.”

Whittle said, “HR staff are concerned about how evolving technology will impact their jobs and careers.”

“Nearly half of the HR employees we surveyed agree that HR technology has removed parts of their job they liked and nearly one-quarter of wider employees think AI could replace jobs in the next five years,” Whittle said.

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