HR Software – Western European businesses spent a vast €2.5 billion on it

Technology is something that HR needs to embrace, given current HR tech adoption rates.

According to consultancy Towers Watson, western European businesses spent a vast €2.5 billion on HR software systems last year, with the market showing a compound annual growth rate of 7%.

This figure is expected to stay stable for the next five years, too, so this growth in technology investment is no flash in the pan.

Mature areas show slower adoption rates at more like 2%, while the trend for replacement is fuelling growth in core human capital management systems, at around 6%.

Organisations are … looking for ‘softer’ HR applications that can provide more information to managers, support communications and help them in their search for talent” – Peter Cools

Peter Cools, head of HR technology for Europe, the Middle East and Africa at Towers Watson, explains that some areas are growing even faster.

Learning and development, performance management and recruitment, for example, should show growth rates of more like 8% each.

Compensation and reward management are likely to fare even better, hitting the heady heights of 9%, while packages to do with analytics and social media should outflank them all at 10%.

Cools says: “Organisations are starting to build out from their core HR systems. Most have got the foundations in place now so they’re looking for ‘softer’ HR applications that can provide more information to managers, support communications and help them in their search for talent.”

Yet despite this growth, there are virtually no formal tech training paths for HR professionals who fancy finding out a bit more about the basics without getting bogged down in techie details – as can certainly be the case if you go down the vendor seminar route.

But one trend that could herald easier access and greater understanding is cloud computing, which enables you to access systems from a browser for a monthly fee.

Chosen excerpts by Job Market Monitor. Read the whole story at HR Tech Talk: Learning to love HR software | Personnel Today.