The HR Technology Landscape Is Evolving: Trends To Look For In 2023 Many organizations are joining the bandwagon of adopting cutting-edge technology to match the pace with the evolving HR trends

The transitioning of the world into the post-Covid era has led to a substantial increase in remote and hybrid working opportunities. Organisations are becoming more fleet-footed. From making the onboarding process seamless to tracking moonlighting among employees, conducting checks at periodic intervals for continuous compliance to deploying robust screening systems for the extended workforce, more and more organisations are joining the bandwagon of adopting cutting-edge technology to match the pace with the evolving trends.

Here are some HR Trends to look for in 2023:

Moonlighting Checks Are The Mainstream

The rising cases of dual employment, said to be attributed to hybrid work set-ups and flexible-working hours, have brought moonlighting checks to the fore. Companies, especially in the IT sector, are already struggling with a limited pool of qualified candidates. As the competition to attract top talent heats up, they have no qualms about shelling out money to hire good resources. It's a candidate-driven market and one candidate in multiple employment discussions might avail of more than one offer. Amidst recruiting challenges, uncovered moonlighting instances can make hiring decisions go wrong. For a substantial growth rate, the moonlighting phenomenon should be tracked right at the initial stages to leave no room for unforeseen repercussions such as the risk of data breaches, knowledge drain, conflict of interest, and productivity loss.

With moonlighting checks, employers can uncover a candidate's multiple parallel employments and ensure continuous supervision to mitigate violation of the ethical construct of organizations' laws and culture. Even companies who want to enable 'unconflicted moonlighting' can leverage moonlighting checks to make watertight contracts, exclusivity agreements, and set a seal on zero overlapping of time and professional commitments between the sources of employment or side gigs.

Continuous Verification & Due Diligence

Ensuring continuous verification and due diligence is complex but imperative for organisations. Whether you are onboarding candidates, blue-collar staff, or third parties, one-time verification is never enough to safeguard your business from unforeseen risks and threats. There is always a need to monitor the risk level throughout their lifecycle so that even if there are no red flags in the last audit, organisations can detect discrepancies in the future.

The profiles should be continuously scanned against a variety of data points so that risky profiles can be eliminated proactively. This makes continuous verification another prominent trend in 2023. With continuous monitoring and due diligence, businesses can stay aligned with the compliance requirements, and achieve a sustainable bottom line in the upcoming years.

Liveness Checks During Video Interviews

The era of remote interviews and hybrid-work arrangements is making companies invest in technologies that are agile, intuitive, and time-saving. Companies are leveraging tools and interactive platforms to ensure the authenticity of the candidates' interviews in real-time during remote interviews. The AI-based face verification technology performs a liveness check, ensuring that they are the same person they claim to be, and records data for further interrogation. Authentication during video interviews ensures the person interviewed is the one who is ultimately hired.

The emerging trend will grab more eyeballs in the upcoming years as it facilitates the ulterior verification of a candidate's identity by validating it with the documents submitted as a part of the onboarding process with video recordings during the interview.

Social Media Checks/Advanced Media Web Checks

Not only job seekers are leveraging social media to find lucrative career options but employers today are screening the social media of prospective candidates to re-verify information and evaluate the online personality/behavior before hiring. A report by Robert Walters Group says that 25% of employers evaluate candidates' professional social networks at the interview stage to assess testimonials or career achievements. Social media profiles also provide a useful illustration of candidates' online behavior which is adding value to the recruitment process.

At present and in the future, there is a pressing need for social media and advanced web checks to identify toxic or inappropriate behaviors, otherwise, it can be crippling for organizations. Anything can happen within a blink of an eye. An employee can post a controversial tweet on social platforms, making your company face serious repercussions. Or post something that might hurt religious or political sentiments. For any organisation, reputation is the biggest asset, and focusing on it is as crucial as focusing on financials and ROI.

Leveraging background screening platforms for 360-degree profiling of the candidates and getting insights based on these checks will enable organizations to create a safe environment free of harassment, discrimination, and other behaviors.

Extended Workforce Solutions

As per a study by Intuit, it is found that more than 80% of large businesses are hiring contingent workers on a large scale in the coming years. Rising flexible working opportunities have made organizations extend their workforce beyond permanent employees and enable a diverse talent mix with freelancers, contract workers, vendors, merchants, etc. As the extended workforce is growing faster than ever, it is strenuous for organisations to manage all the critical processes, from internal hiring to compliance, under the same umbrella and also maintain visibility into the entire system.

Tieing up with third-party onboarding and verification partners for ensuring robust checks and balances, real-time visibility, and meeting robust background screening standards is going to be indispensable for organisations. Enabling hiring, onboarding, and post-onboarding compliance with cutting-edge technologies will help you add strategic value with diversity and mitigate risks associated with the extended workforce. An oversight across your network will give you confidence in your contingent workforce and ensure that nothing goes wrong within a talent ecosystem.