Would Human Resource Turn More Resourceful?

The market for startups in human resource (HR) technology space is finally beginning to find backing from companies and investors. But would it be able to turnaround some big success stories?

- Sandeep Soni

HR function has expanded its scope significantly in the past few years. From hiring people, retaining outgoing employees and managing payroll to strategic functions like

learning and development, organizational design and talent management that includes competency management, performance management, succession planning, leadership development etc. There are many startups like CoCubes, SutraHR etc., that serve each of these sub-functions through technology ever since the likes of Flipkarts and Zomatos came into existence around 2007.

TRANSACTIONAL VS TRANSFORMATIONAL

In more than a decade, however, there have been few takers for the opportunity that this sector offers as most of the startups have been lured by other markets disrupted by technology like e-commerce, food, transportation, logistics etc. Nonetheless, the past 12-24 months have seen some green shoot investments driving the market sentiments up to create a large enterprise. The market size, on the other hand, varies from $34 billion to $400 billion as per various reports by Gartner and Deloitte Consulting.

One of the reasons which can be attributed to this shiftis that many companies’ attitude towards the technology impact in HR functions has changed. A recent survey of HR managers by jobs site TimesJobs found 75 percent respondents are using technology to boost their HR practices such as centralized processes, better data management and improved productivity. While, the remaining 25 percent are still reluctant to adopt technology — a possible reason being the return on investments (ROI).