USING TECHNOLOGY SOLUTIONS TO ADDRESS KEY HR OPPORTUNITIES IN 2025 AND BEYOND

As small and medium-size businesses (SMBs) prepare for 2025, they face a host of HR-related opportunities to strengthen their operations and bottom line. These include hiring and retaining employees, managing higher operating costs such as wages and benefits, determining how to incorporate artificial intelligence and other aspects of an accelerated digital transformation, navigating an uncertain regulatory, compliance, and tax environment most effectively in a post-election year, and more.

The right solution for supporting the HR needs of SMBs combines innovative technology with real intelligence from HR experts. In this article, we’ll explore how bringing together the right HR technology and professionals can help to streamline recruitment and improve retention efforts, optimize operational efficiency, and make strategic, data-driven decisions.

STREAMLINING HIRING

Recruitment and retention issues remain a primary area of focus for many employers. According to SHRM’s 2024 Talent Trends report, 3 in 4 organizations reported difficulty recruiting for full-time regular positions in the last 12 months. This trend likely will continue in the year ahead.

Factors contributing to this challenging labor market include a smaller applicant pool following the COVID-19 pandemic and ensuing “Great Resignation,” generational changes in the workforce, the growth of remote work, and evolving needs of employers for specific skills. As a result, employees’ attitudes and expectations have shifted in recent years. Employees are becoming more selective in their job searches, prioritizing flexibility, well-being, and work-life balance.

One tool that PEOs can use to address the hiring hurdle, an applicant tracking system (ATS), can enhance the recruitment process in many ways, from job posting through hiring.

Using an ATS, SMBs can create customized career portals that reflect their unique brand identity and integrate with other major job boards such as LinkedIn. An ATS enables hiring professionals to easily stay in touch with candidates via email or SMS text messaging to keep them engaged throughout the hiring process. The system also provides an alert when clients open a new job or fill a position. Streamlining hiring can improve the candidate experience while contributing to building a positive brand sentiment with those new employees.

IMPROVING RETENTION

In addition to recruiting the right employees, today’s businesses also must prioritize retaining these employees. SHRM indicates that nearly half of organizations reported difficulty retaining employees in the last 12 months, with pay being the largest reason for employees’ departures.

Beyond that, improving the employee experience can play a significant role in boosting retention rates. Technology tools can help efficiently manage employee engagement and performance activities, and associated workflows, through one system. It begins with a module for quickly and easily onboarding employees electronically. Other capabilities of performance management software should include providing coaching for managers and employees, setting and tracking employee, team, and company goals to ensure alignment, creating custom templates for employee reviews, and using data to monitor an employee’s progress against their performance goals. Keeping a close connection with employees helps with their engagement and satisfaction, ultimately improving retention rates.

ENHANCING OPERATIONAL EFFICIENCY

With operating costs at high levels, achieving efficiency remains essential for businesses in 2025. One way to control HR costs is through effectively scheduling and managing employees’ time. A robust workforce management platform automates time management functions by producing automatic scheduling recommendations, identifying scheduling conflicts, monitoring employee hours to prevent unauthorized overtime, and enabling scheduling compliance automations to ensure alignment with regulations. These automated solutions reduce risk and improve efficiency by reducing resources spent on manual tasks such as scheduling, time entry, and more.

REFINING STRATEGY THROUGH REAL-TIME REPORTS

Perhaps the aspect of an effective HR program that most reflects the importance of combining the right technology with the right people is the strategic and consistent use of data. Accurate, real-time data and metrics provide a new level of insightful analytics for making more informed business decisions.

Intuitive reporting software that aggregates and integrates a variety of HR and business data enables users to easily create customizable dashboards via drag-and-drop functionality in seconds. Data reporting technology also makes it easy to transform raw data into actionable insights delivered via easy-to-understand visualizations and dynamic dashboards. Other important features include the ability to define and refine datasets that support unique business needs and support pivoting data that organizes and analyzes multidimensional data to uncover deeper workforce patterns.

Executive performance dashboards can also provide insight into revenue trends, gross profits, and number of work site employees, helping PEOs gain real-time insight into client performance, identify which clients need additional support, and understand the financial impact of trends across their client base.

As SMBs navigate increasingly complex, evolving business and HR challenges, technology will play an even greater role in driving HR success. Technology-driven solutions like applicant tracking systems, workforce management platforms, and real-time reporting software offer a clear path to overcoming recruitment hurdles, optimizing operational efficiencies, and making data-driven decisions. By embracing these solutions, PEO and HR leaders will be well-equipped to meet the needs of both their stakeholders today and the evolving broader market in the months and years to come.