Last week we shared an article about selecting multiple or a single vendor for the HR Technology you use. Here is an article breaking down the different parts of your companies HR Technology stack.
What is an HR Tech Stack?
A standard Tech Stack is the collection of technology used to maintain an application. An HR Tech Stack is the collection of technologies your HR team uses to complete their work. There are various tools out there and some cross over multiple functions and complete multiple needs. Below is a breakdown of some of the different functions and what types of technology an HR team might use.
Recruiting
Applicant Tracking System (ATS)
An Applicant Tracking System is the Recruiting equivalent of an HRIS system. This is where the Recruiting team stores their candidate data and creates Job Requisitions for hiring new employees. Some examples we have seen are Greenhouse and Jobvite.
Job Sites / Job Boards
While this could probably be argued is not technically part of your “stack”, many recruiters live in sites like LinkedIn, Indeed, or occupation-specific Job Boards to look for candidates for their roles. You might be paying for accounts in some of these sites and your team spends a significant amount of time in them so we figured it would be important to include.
Onboarding
This tool is the bridge for your new hires between being a candidate and being an employee. An Onboarding tool is the first place your new hire may learn more about your company, the team they are joining, and begin to complete the tasks required for being new hire (acknowledging and signing documents, completing personal information, adding an emergency contact, etc.).
An example tool I have seen is Sapling but many HRIS systems (see below) include this as part of their ecosystem.
HR Information System
This is a system that you use to store your core employee data. This system includes data about your active employees, termed employees, job titles, compensation, etc. Many HRIS systems also provide some (if not all) of the other HR Tech stack functionality as well. For example, you might use ADP Workforcenow as an HRIS and also use it for Payroll purposes. Or you might use Workday which can include various other modules that provide the most of other functionality listed on this blog.
Performance Management System
A Performance Management System is used for Performance reviews. This is the process to provide feedback on how an employee is performing at a company. This may be done annually (or more frequently) and allows Managers, Individual Contributors, and Peers to provide feedback on specific performance expectations set by the company.
Many times we have seen these tools be included in the HRIS system. For example, Workday and Namely.
Goal Setting / OKRs
It is important to have a tool at your company for tracking your goals. Some systems might follow a trickle-down approach where leaders set the company goals and teams tie their individual and team goals to the company goals. This may be connected to a Performance Management system if you are determining successful performance based on the goals that you set. Some companies may use them in the performance process but are not strictly tied to those goals.
We have soon tools like Workday which provide goal-setting functionality, but also use more basic tools like Excel or Google Docs to track and record goal performance.
Learning and Development (LMS)
A Learning Management System is used to store training for a company. This can include compliance training like Sexual Harassment training, 3rd party training courses from places like LinkedIn Learning or Opensesame, or homegrown training videos and documentation. Companies may use this technology to build courses and journeys to help lead their employees through coursework that they need to complete to be promoted in their career or start gaining manager-level roles.
Recognition and Rewards
Recognition and Reward programs help to call out employees for doing great work or for specific days like Birthdays or Work Anniversaries. Some of these tools can provide monetary rewards and others just a public shout-out to recognize the employee for their great work.
An example of an employee recognition tool is Achievers.
Compensation System
While usually part of the HRIS as well this is the tool you used to track your companies and employees’ salary/hourly rate, bonuses, stock/equity, conduct annual merit or compensation increases, and more.
Engagement / Survey Tool
An Engagement Survey tool is another very common technology that HR teams use. Engagement surveys are used to keep a pulse on what a company may be doing that is engaging or disengaging. This tool may provide other surveys as well for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, and other HR topics. Or these types of questions may just be baked into the engagement survey. Example Engagement Survey tools are CultureAmp and Peakon.
If a companies Engagement Survey vendor does not provide these resources may also get a separate tool for other surveys. Depending on the companies size they might use a vendor like SurveyMonkey or even Google Forms.
Reporting / Analytics
Many tools listed here may have their own reporting functionality. As your company grows though you may wish to consolidate all of your Reporting and Analytics into one place. Many different tools can be used for this purpose. You may want to use an internal SQL database to store all of your people data. You may also just pull reports and manually create reports and visuals using Excel. Some companies also use Business Intelligence tools like Tableau or Power Bi or Looker.
Payroll
Depending on your company structure this may not fall under HR. In some companies Payroll falls under HR, other times it might fall under another department like Finance. This is the tool that helps with your Payroll processing.
One of the most common examples is ADP. Workday also has a Payroll module but you need to use a 3rd party to process the payroll.
Project Management / Ticketing System
This is another piece of technology that while not truly HR focused is crucial for an HR Technology team. It is important to have a Project Management and Ticketing system in place to track the work that is being completed. The ticket system is used for tracking issues, enhancements, and requests. The Project Management tool is used for tracking Sprints and Projects that your team is working on. Both are important for record/auditing proposes along will providing a tool to manage all of the work that a team is managing.
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