Does Your Technology Power Decision-Making?

By Aaron Smith, senior vice president of global product management and user experience at ADP

Business is challenging enough without having to navigate frustrating and dated technology. Professionals have come to expect the same ease of use from their work solutions as they experience in their personal lives. It’s an expectation only driven by consumer-friendly tech that’s intuitive and deeply integrated into the flow of life – and constantly evolving as life does. Why should work be different? The best technology creates a user experience – or UX – that is smooth and intuitive and uses data to drive product innovation that continues to make the user’s work life easier. 

People-first User Experiences

We’ve all encountered websites that were so frustrating to use that it was easier to just leave. The goal of superlative UX design is to prevent just this kind of experience, and to instead build more intuitive people-first user experiences. This means starting with the user’s goals and abilities in mind first and foremost, and not relying on training and support to get novice users to an expert level. The UX should be so simple to use that the level of “expert” becomes obsolete. To put it simply – while you might think you’re building the perfect path forward, if you’re not putting the users first during the development process, they will create their own shortcuts. Aim to be the shortcut.

Unfortunately, HR software hasn’t always delivered a positive user experience. Most HCM tools have typically been created to deliver distinct key functionalities, such as payroll processing, time tracking, and benefits management. However, these familiar functions are often paired with unintuitive interfaces and cumbersome controls that don’t allow for an integrated, unified experience. There’s a benefits section, a talent area, and a payroll function, for instance, but the software doesn’t communicate well behind the scenes. The result is often a frustrating user experience.

The reality is that from a user's perspective, talent, time, pay, and benefits are all intertwined. This applies to employees as well as HR professionals. Employees don’t want to struggle with confusing software, trying to see if their hours are correct, or enter PTO dates, or sign up for new benefits. They want to complete tasks, get answers to their questions and get back to work. Simplicity and self-service are paramount in today’s digitally enabled environment. Think of it this way: your goal should be to make your product so action-oriented, that the product itself starts to be referenced as a verb. When the name of your product is synonymous with the action it enables, you’ve nailed it.

Data Drives Intuitive HCM Technology

Too often, software design can happen in a vacuum. But the key to designing a positive UX starts with understanding what the user wants. Are they encountering challenges with the current design (like an unstable cell connection that can’t load a complicated interface)? Do they have new ideas for features that aren’t currently there? That’s why good UX design runs on real-life data like product utilization, adoption rates, drop-offs, and changes in the competitive landscape. With this information, developers can identify ways to improve the user experience.

Let’s look at a common HR service problem – the missed time punch. This simple mistake can initiate a cascade of complicated steps to correct. It often doesn’t even surface until the employee sees a problem in their pay. What if the technology recognized this before it became a major hassle? So, when an employee missed a punch, the system would immediately identify it, then alert the employee to correct it with a few quick steps. If it were caught and fixed early, any extra steps for HR could be avoided and the employee wouldn’t need to wait weeks for corrective pay. HCM technology needs to understand the user and what interrupts their daily work, to then provide an easy, user-friendly fix.

For another example, let’s look at something a little more complicated. In late summer 2021, some surprising labor data began to emerge. Workers were leaving their jobs in droves.

At ADP, we collect a tremendous amount of data on recruiting and hiring patterns – in fact, 50 million people have used ADP technology to apply for jobs with our clients. With more than 990,000 clients, and 90 million unique employees paid over the last 10 years, we’ve had a unique lens into the shifting workforce. As the U.S. experienced the impact of the pandemic, we watched job postings fall dramatically between March and April 2020. In the following months, job postings began to gradually move upward.

But at the beginning of February 2021, weekly job postings hit an all-time pre-pandemic high and kept climbing. Through data, we recognized the early emergence of a trend. To adapt, ADP set about creating technology that would support recruiters in a competitive hiring environment. The goal was to optimize recruiters’ productivity and enable them to focus their time on the highest value-add activities and automate everything else.

Data is a powerful driver of innovation and should be central to UX design. It’s about understanding the data and drawing useful insights to develop intuitive tools that can help users act in more efficient and informed ways.

What Does Intuitive HR Software Look Like?

With all the challenges organizations are facing today, many HR professionals are re-evaluating their technology. A good UX experience may seem like a luxury, but it’s really at the heart of the equation. If it’s hard to use the technology, then it won’t be used.

When it comes to UX design, consider the following key principles:

• Intuitive – The experience should be designed to help the user get things done faster, in fewer steps.
• Insightful – Experiences should be infused with data-driven insights for more informed decision-making.
• Personal – The experience should include only what the user needs and then seamlessly adapt to the way they grow in their job.
• Proactive – The experience should continuously learn and identify ways to remove tasks from the user’s plate.

To frame those principles within the context of your organization’s people needs, ask the following questions:

• Will the technology grow with you? HR software is often designed to work best with certain size organizations. But as the company grows, the user experience can dramatically change, transitioning you to a new product and user interface. The best HCM technology should move seamlessly as you grow and add functionality.
• Does the product match the way you want to work? The right tool will map intuitively to the way you work and think, not force you to change to fit its internal logic.
• Do you have the data you need to be effective? Managing people requires understanding them. Solutions that can serve up insights within the flow of work can help you achieve greater productivity and drive better decision-making. 

Ultimately, HCM technology should provide a user experience that gets the job done efficiently and effectively so you can spend your time and energy on the big picture.

The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.

Other Topics

Innovation