Less than half of UK employees were ‘moderately satisfied’ with the digital HR tools that their company provides.
New research by SD Worx, a HR and payroll services provider, shows that UK employees are shifting towards wanting more digital options when handling HR-related areas.
When asked to rate the digital HR tools that their company gives to employees, only under half of workers (45.5 per cent) are “moderately satisfied”.
Currently, research finds that only between a fifth and a quarter of employees (19-24 cent) can state confidently that they are able to find answers to HR questions instantly through the digital solutions that they have. This means that questions linked to annual leave, sick leave expenses and pay slips are largely not answered through digital means for the majority of workers.
This means that, for over one fifth of employees (21.6 per cent), it is impossible to request sick leave using digital services. Ultimately, this has led over a third (34.4 per cent of employees) to have to consult the HR department themselves in order to receive access to working times and schedules.
However, this conflicts with what around half of workers actually want – to see their HR queries handled by digital solutions.
In response to this, almost two-thirds (62.3 per cent) of employers have stated they do have short-term plans to improve their HR service delivery to employees. Furthermore, a similar number of employers stated (61.7 per cent) that employee experience is a priority and that they are in the process, or soon will be, of improving the day to day work life of employees.
Cathy Geerts, Chief HR Officer at SDWorx, said:
In this day and age it’s shocking that a majority of staff still have to pass by or call on the HR department to get their simple queries answered – all amid difficulty accessing digital HR solutions, or because those tools aren’t user-friendly enough.
At times like these, this can put fresh pressure on HR teams that are already overwhelmed with new tasks of having to keep people safe, support their physical and mental wellbeing and to keep staff productive, motivated and engaged. Now is the critical time to invest in user-friendly HR tools to not only boost productivity, but ultimately to take the overall employee experience to the next level.
Monica Sharma is an English Literature graduate from the University of Warwick. As Editor for HRreview, her particular interests in HR include issues concerning diversity, employment law and wellbeing in the workplace. Alongside this, she has written for student publications in both England and Canada. Monica has also presented her academic work concerning the relationship between legal systems, sexual harassment and racism at a university conference at the University of Western Ontario, Canada.
