In preparation for HRD's annual summits this year, they consulted with over 3,000 HR professionals around the Asia-Pacific region through roundtables, surveys and one-on-one executive interviews about their most pressing challenges. The results of that consultation process resulted in a wealth of insight from respondents across 10 countries. Their findings will form the basis for the topics explored and speakers presenting at this year's HRD Summits. In this HR blog, we're going to explore one of those topics - the top 5 goals of HR tech in 2019.

There is a radical transformation taking place in the public's relationship to the organisations from whom they purchase products and services. As trust levels between the public and large institutions like Government continue to decrease, private sector businesses are being called on to fill the resulting gaps in social responsibility. In Deloitte's 2018 Global Human Capital Trends Report, they make it abundantly clear that organisations are no longer assessed solely on traditional metrics such as financial performance, or the quality of their products or services. Rather, organisations today are increasingly judged on the basis of their relationships with their workers, their customers, and their communities, as well as their impact on society at large, transforming them from business enterprises into social enterprises. Forecasts indicate that this trend will continue to grow and that business would do well to take heed, take stock, and ensure that going forward, there are strategies in place to make the transition to being a social enterprise.

In an environment where it is virtually impossible to get consensus on anything, I think it is fair to say that people on all sides of the equation can unite on this: no one likes to fill in or process forms. Not only that, another truism that you could add to the certainty of death and taxes is the fact that there is no getting around the high number of forms new employees have to complete when they commence employment. From employment requisition and authorisation to hire, through to requirements like tax and super declarations, Onboarding new employees requires A LOT of forms. If you're still using paper to record and process this type of information, then you're still victim to manual double (or more) handling. This is an extremely inefficient way to operate in today's business environment, not to mention an expensive one. If you're ready for change, but you're not quite sure where to begin your digital transformation, digitising your forms is an easy place to start. It also gives you big wins, quickly, with minimal impact on your budget.

Next year, Subscribe-HR celebrates 10 years in business! For us, the last decade has been a journey of the road less travelled in tech. We've consciously made many choices that were different to the status quo for a tech startup in the SaaS space. Taking the road less travelled has not been without its challenges, however, we know they were the correct choices. They've resulted in Subscribe-HR being one of the only profitable HR Software businesses in the country. We did that by implementing a sustainable business model and built an independent, service and customer-driven business - all without tapping VCs, selling shares, or going public. Many HR Software businesses are built on massive amounts of debt, little to no equity and more often than not, generate zero profit. We're proud to say that we're now ten years strong and our business model is the exact opposite of that. AND. We're also proud to add a bronze medal for Cloud HR Software in the HRD Service Provider Awards 2018 to our cap. 

The way we work is in constant flux. Old assumptions about the best way to work are being questioned. New ways of doing business are being tested against productivity measures, return on investment and benefit to employees. A hot topic at the moment is the four day work week, but will it work for everyone? The reality is that absenteeism is a major ongoing problem in Australia. The rate of absenteeism across the country continues to rise, with as much as 5% of the Australian workforce calls in sick on any given day. To put it another way, this means that in a company with 20 employees, there will be one absence every single day. An unexpected employee absence can cost a business as much as $340 a day, while the annual cost to the Australian economy of lost productivity through absenteeism is a staggering $33 billion, with a total of 92 million working days being lost through unexpected absences. Whether it is a sign of entitlement or burnout, the impact these levels of absenteeism have on business are significant and some businesses are trying different ways of working in an effort to transform this challenge.

Every year, EthicalJobs hosts the Not For Profit People Conference in its home town of Melbourne; the biggest event of its kind in Australia. The conference provides an opportunity for NFPs, social enterprise and local councils to explore best practice in attracting, managing, training and retaining people in these sectors. The EthicalJobs platform was created almost ten years ago to promote businesses and jobs that contribute to a more equitable, more just or more sustainable world. With the rise of public awareness about the ethics (or lack thereof) in certain market segments, a shift to more purpose and values driven economic choices is underway. Every year, more businesses are transitioning to (or being started with) the mission of creating a more equitable, just and sustainable future. We've witnessed an increase in these types of businesses here at Subscribe-HR. In fact, an increasing proportion of our customers operate in the NFP, social enterprise or local council segments, and we recognise the importance of supporting these businesses. That's why we've signed on to support the Not For Profit People Conference this year.

With the mass adoption of cloud-based solutions, systems and apps, businesses need an easy, effective and secure way to provide access to the increasing number of tools being used by employees. Not only that, from a user experience (UX) perspective, making it easier for employees to manage access to workplace systems by reducing the number of user names and passwords, is a smart business decision. According to our Identity-As-A-Service partner OneLogin, the first and most critical step to achieve this, is to enable employees to access their business solutions, systems and Apps using only one username and password. Single Sign-On solutions enable you to layer multiple types of authentication factors for enhanced security, with the added convenience of only having to sign in once. Let's take a look at some best practices for Identity and Access Management (IAM).

A trend emerging inside the workplace, but outside of current HR best practice, is unlimited annual leave. The Guardian recently reported that communications group STW is offering its consultants unlimited paid annual leave, stirring interest in the business community, although it’s not the first company to do so. Consulting firm CEB Global estimates that about 9% of companies around the world offer similar arrangements. Netflix does it and so does LinkedIn. And Virgin Management, the parent company of Virgin’s worldwide operations, has offered its top layer of management in the US and the UK extended paid leave since 2014. So how does an unlimited annual leave policy look in practice?