Unlocking the full potential of HR Technology: Ujjwal Gupta, COO, BenchPrep

What is the true potential of HR and how can technology help us to achieve it?

In this installment of our Tech Founders series, Ujjwal Gupta, Chief Operating Officer & Cofounder at BenchPrep discusses the centrality of HR technology in driving business success.

What is Benchprep?

They are all about life-long learning and democratizing learning so that it is accessible for people on the go. They have partnered with many institutions and pioneers in each specific field to help create and transform learning through and personalized and gamified approach. They work with education training companies and professional verticals to deliver a professional learning platform for learners upskilling people in the future workforce.

Why was it necessary to create Benchprep?

In 2009, Ashish had called me and asked me: “ Why isn’t there a better way to study?” He was finding it difficult to study for his GMAT while working for a full time job and felt forces to lug around these heavy test-prep textbooks everywhere he went to take advantage of any free time. We then went on to develop a mobile app for GMAT prep which was the first type of test prep app where more than 1,000 people had purchased in the first month. We quickly realized that there were many more people who could benefit from an interactive, personalized learning experience on the mobile devices. Therefore Benchprep quickly evolved in order to help organisations digitally transform their approach to learning and training to align their methods and systems to today’s learner in order to drive impact in their organisations.

Why is HR technology crucial to the success of a business?

Businesses are successful because of their people. People in companies thrive when they see growth and personal development and an environment which creates life-long learning. HR technologies enable this, as they help busy professionals to access, digest and accelerate learning. HR technologies can also be curated and personalized to individuals and although traditional methods of learning are still useful, technology helps busy  people access resources wherever they are and on the go. As a result this helps employees to grow and develop, creating an engaging employee experience and ensuring that employees are happy and thrive in their roles and in their organisations.

What are some of the biggest challenges and opportunities HR and organisations are facing today?

How businesses worked today and how they worked 20 years ago are so different. Things are changing so frequently and HR is no longer just about payroll, benefits and considered a cost centre. They are the most important function to instill culture and the driving function in an organisation who comprehensively understand what their employees want creating impactful solutions to ensure the employee experience is a positive one. 

One of the biggest challenges HR and organisations face today are creating a great employee experience and managing talent as the people within an organisation are the key ingredients for success. By creating a life-long learning culture in the organisation and a culture of growth, talent will stay and therefore by investing in it’s people will help the performance of any organisation.

How can an organization most effectively implement new HR technology?

The most important thing is getting buy in from the leadership teams within the company in order to effectively implement new HR technology. There needs to be an understanding of the current state of the organisation and what they want to move towards and how the new HR technology will help with the transformation of the company from its current state to what it wants to move towards. After this all members in the leadership must understand the value the new HR technology has and therefore must work collaboratively with the HR technology providers to understand the best way of implementation and making sure people are using it, technology is only one part but adoption, execution and real understanding of the value the technology has is key. If a company wants to move towards a learning environment, then the leadership team really need to be open and adapt to change and know that the change is good for the company, that way learning technologies can be better implemented and adopted.

Which emerging technologies do you think will transform HR in the future?

In today’s organisations, people value experience and therefore creating a positive employee experience is integral to an organisation. Many studies have also shown that life-long learning is the single most demanded requirement that employees want from their employers. Therefore technologies which help enable life-long learning for employees will really help shape the experience an employee has in the organisation, strengthening the bond between the employee and the employer. This way both employer and employee can create a mutually beneficial relationship with each other, where continuous growth between the two will help transform the organisations of the future.

HRD Connect Curators of the New Business Landscape. HRD Connect produces industry-recognized content for senior HR leaders. Through articles, case studies, Q&As, podcasts, events, and more, we offer truly progressive and cutting-edge insights designed to help people leaders address core HR challenges and add greater value to their business.

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