Tips for Spring Cleaning Your HR Tech Stack

2022 is set to be a transformative year for human resources and HR technologies. As the dust appears to be settling around the prolonged pandemic, companies are left wondering how to engage, analyze, and retain their people. 

According to a survey from PwC, HR leaders named analytics and data insights as their top challenge for the year, with modernizing systems and the cloud transformation close behind. These priorities were more pressing in the eyes of HR leaders than compensation, employee retention, and even transitioning to hybrid work. 

Clearly, technology is playing an integral role in staff engagement and people management.

With such an emphasis on using the right HR tools to access the best insights, it’s evident that businesses need a lean, powerful HR tech stack at their disposal. 

Decluttering your tech stack 

In the spirit of spring cleaning, what better time than now to take a closer look at your current HR systems and see if they’re still meeting your needs? 

Here are three reasons why it’s time to set your company up for success with some HR tool spring cleaning. In the process, you might find it’s worth moving over to a cohesive workplace management system to simplify your tech stack and ensure you’re equipped with seamless and powerful HR technology. 

1. Declutter the software surplus

When the iPhone first came out, hearing “there’s an app for that” inspired excitement and possibility. 

However, employees who hear that on the job today can quickly feel overwhelmed. 

According to SHRM, having too many platforms in the workplace can create a negative experience for employees. It takes time to learn where to manage simple tasks and time to learn how to use the software. 

Plus, since these systems are often incongruent and lack integrations with each other, it’s difficult for managers and HR teams to keep track of which tools should be used for which purpose, and what is happening across a wide variety of platforms.

The first step in auditing your tech stack should be taking stock of whether or not you are simply using too many tools, and if you are actually getting value out of all the tools you use. Do your tools have overlapping functionality? Are you paying for tools with low adoption across relevant teams? Is some of your tech creating issues because it does not integrate well with your preferred, essential tools?

You may find that eliminating some tools altogether makes the most sense, or this might mean shopping around for a new tool that accomplishes multiple functions at once (more on that in tip 3). Keep in mind that it's best to choose HR tools that include key integrations with your other tools, like Slack, Teams, and Google Suite. These integrations make it easier for you to link up various tools so that they "talk to each other," while making data analysis, automation, and software management simpler. 

2. Raise your standards

The HR tech ecosystem is inundated with thousands of HR tools, not all of which are created equal. 

Efficiency is an important goal here, and if platforms are creating extra steps for your team rather than saving them time, they should not be part of your company’s HR tech stack. 

Some questions you may want to ask about your HR software might include:

1. Is the sole task I’m using specific software for able to be done as well—if not better—by another vendor in my tech stack?
2. What percentage of eligible team members are using this software compared to other tools, and why?
3. Do employees find the benefits of this software outweighs the work required to learn and navigate it?

Finally, make sure you’re only using software with a strong rating on G2 Crowd or other review sites. Referencing reviews can expose the biggest opportunity gaps your team is facing by using outdated HR technology, thus allowing you to identify better, affordable, and more efficient tools. 

3. Slim down to fewer vendors

Why get room reservation software from one vendor, desk booking from another, and facilities management from yet another?

For employees, this contributes to switching software apps more than 1,100 times throughout the day on average. For HR managers, it means multiple bills each month, more accounts and logins to manage, more tools to monitor, and fewer connections between these systems. Vendor management is an arduous process, and the more vendors you have, the more work it is—not to mention the employee training and software updates that also take up time. 

It also separates the analytics that various providers offer and makes it harder to draw conclusions on office behaviors and preferences. 

Once you've taken time to evaluate all the tools you are using, look into whether your preferred software solution can do what your least favorites currently handle. This approach alleviates software overload in the HR space and offers multiple products hosted in one platform. For example, Eden Workplace’s software includes tools for desk booking, visitor management, room scheduling, internal HR and IT ticketing, and more. 

Finally, consolidating your software suite behind fewer vendors also allows for easier access to and analysis of key HR metrics. Being able to easily view desk booking, office attendance, and facilities usage by individual and team can help HR structure the company’s workspace and hybrid model to better reflect the needs of those who rely on the office more than others. 

Keeping things clean

A full HR tech stack might seem like one where you have a vast list of tools and a different tool for everything.

But in reality, this overload can create “tech burnout” on your team and a disconnect between systems. 

Ultimately, employees need to be able to use tools that meet their needs efficiently, and leadership needs tools that reduce administrative overhead and offer visibility into actionable metrics. Regularly auditing your HR tech stack will help ensure that your tools are working for you—rather than adding an unnecessary layer of complication.