The findings of Paychex‘s eighth Pulse of HR Report were recently made public. Paychex is a major provider of comprehensive human capital management software solutions for human resources, payroll, benefits, and insurance services. In the coming year, more than 75% of HR leaders at businesses with 20+ people and just over half (51%) at businesses with 5–19 employees expect to use artificial intelligence (AI), according to the annual poll, which strives to understand the current and future state of the HR landscape. Larger respondents (those with 20+ employees) anticipate using AI primarily for application tracking (30%), followed by employee satisfaction assessment (29%).

According to a survey of American business and HR professionals at organisations with five or more employees, investments in HR technology are anticipated to assist boost employee productivity and enhance the working environment.

According to Jeff Williams, vice president of enterprise and HR solutions at Paychex, “We think it’s a great time for employers to get back to basics, but with a modern approach. Employers should ground employees in the company’s vision and the purpose of their work; fund benefits and retirement options that allow workers to feel secure and be present; cultivate and develop talent so they want to stay and thrive; and build leadership routines, operating systems, and human connections that meet people where they are today.”

According to the study, the following employee issues pose significant difficulties for managers at organisations with 20 or more employees:

• Burnout among workers (32%
• Quitting quietly (27%)
• Full-time employees with a second full-time job (25%).
• Workers on the boomerang (23%).
•  Polywork (23%)
• Employees working two part-time jobs simultaneously (20%)

Businesses with 20 or more employees intend to provide benefits in the upcoming 12 months that promote employees’ general wellbeing, such as Employee Assistance Programmes (30%), a shorter work week (28%), and childcare cost assistance (28%). They also revealed that increasing customer service (80%), efficiency (78%), and employee engagement or retention (78%), are their top goals for the remainder of the year.

In more depth, the paper also covers:

How HR executives intend to use cutting-edge technology:

• Increasing staff productivity (43%), improving employee experiences (42%), boosting training and skill-building (39%), and assisting with employee retention (38%) or engagement (37%) were the top HR technology priorities for organisations with 20+ employees.

How employers hope to enhance the experiences of employees:

• In order to better serve employees, 80% of leaders at businesses with 20+ employees and 65% of those with 5–19 employees already use or plan to use new employee pay methods, like pay-on-demand, paycards, or shorter payroll cycles, for enhanced salary access.
• Presently, over half (47%) of companies with 20 or more employees permit employees to work a hybrid schedule, and productivity (50%), well-being (44%), and retention (43%) are the main drivers of these practises.

There are additional difficulties in the labour market today:

• The most effective recruitment strategies can vary depending on the targeted generation. For example, larger businesses (20+ employees) use training as the most effective strategy to recruit Gen Z workers (18–26), while appealing to Millennials (27–42), Gen X (43–58), and Baby Boomers (59–77) uses communicating the company mission.
• Many leaders in the field claim they will concentrate on strategy and communication while utilising technology to increase productivity, signalling a change in the function of HR in the workplace. However, the majority of organisations handle the majority of HR-related operations internally, either manually or using software.

Source: HRTech News Desk