Top 5 Technology Trends in CRM for Employee Management
Employees form the backbone of any entity, irrespective of the industry or vertical. Given the cut-throat completion in the current business landscape, employee engagement has been observed to result in enhanced productivity, reduced staff turnover, improved customer retention and increased revenue earnings. It is, therefore, the onus of any organization to manage and cater to the requirements of its own workforce. But, in today’s ever-evolving work culture, monetary compensations or a high employee-manager ratio are no longer considered testaments for an efficient employee management ecosystem.
So where does CRM come in here? Contrary to popular belief, a CRM system can be used as an ideal employee management tool. Providing a greater sense of control to senior leaders and HR professionals, CRM is touted as a key ingredient of success of an organization on a whole. Here are the top 5 technology trends in the CRM world for employee management.
Complete digitalisation for alignment of operations
Employee activities are not always recorded in the system, which may later cause a discrepancy in workforce management. This explains the need for digitalisation of CRM to ensure organizations are harnessing the potential of employees across locations, thereby keeping the productivity high. This can be a differentiating factor for businesses considering today’s evolving job landscape where it’s becoming increasingly common for employees to work remotely.
Integration with mobile devices for employee tracking
In this age of digitalisation, organizations across industries are turning to a host of emerging technologies to achieve scalable growth. At the same time, CRM systems are constantly being updated to keep up with this explosive business growth. Unlike traditional CRM technology, the modern work culture calls for CRM integration with smartphones to enable businesses to keep a track on employees, transact, authenticate as well as report the business activities. This new approach allows companies to have access to real-time data, thus bringing a higher level of transparency.
Harnessing the power of AI for better employee performance
AI-driven CRM activities are expected to boost global business revenues by $1.1 trillion and create 800,000 net-new jobs by 2021, reveals IDC White Paper, commissioned by Salesforce. The fact that an increasing number of companies are opting for AI-powered CRM tools further indicates a growing adoption of this trend. Whether by facilitating customer interactions through AI-based chatbots or by offering valuable insights into consumer behaviour, artificial intelligence will augment the performance of employees. For example, SugarCRM has introduced an AI-powered tool named Hint that helps sales professionals to find leads and relevant contact-related information. More significantly, AI could automate and accelerate repetitive tasks, such as accumulating and analyzing consumer data, tracking buying patterns, making reports, among others. This, in turn, will allow employees to focus on other tasks which require human expertise and insights.
IoT for creating an unbiased ecosystem
As predicted by Gartner, “CRM will be at the heart of digital initiatives in coming years as enterprises look to create more targeted interactions in a multichannel environment.” The research firm also billed Internet of Things as the fifth driver of CRM in the “The Nexus of Forces”. The explosive growth of connected devices in recent years can be contributed to the rising interest towards IoT. Experts believe that IoT can open the door to a whole new world of opportunities for CRM. When it comes to employee management, the influx of IoT can allow companies to monitor effectiveness, measure productivity and evaluate the performance of employees in a seamless and fair manner.
Applications with multiple user interfaces (UI)
Companies are now taking an all-encompassing approach to CRM. However, they are also realizing the importance of segregating their employees into different groups as per their roles and responsibilities. With technology’s invasion in industries, the USP of modern CRM lies in its ability to offer role-based interfaces that allow employees to manage their business activities and workload more efficiently. This role-based interface can be of particular importance when the projects are large and the stakes are high.
