Should you be concerned about the implications of using Your FLOCK.

Posted May 24, 2020

In Blog, Company Culture, Employee Engagement, FAQs

You could argue that Your FLOCK – our team engagement platform works in the sector known as HR tech. Short for human resources technology. As our platform helps team leaders keep their team together for longer.

It does so using values. And allows people to give their team leaders the employee feedback they need. To make better team decisions. Together. This increases happiness and engagement. And often productivity which means a win win win. Not just for employee engagement but employee happiness and company culture.

HR TECH IS BIG BUSINESS.

The sudden rise in remote work caused more and more human resources departments to begin searching for digital solutions. For recruiting, hiring and managing their staff.

This increased reliance on technology, though originally jump started by the COVID-19 pandemic. Will only continue to grow in 2022, according to Business News Daily.

Couple that with a projected HR spending increase in 2022 and beyond. The conditions are ripe for innovative HR tech companies to experience massive growth.

And this is due to the post-pandemic workplace. Which continues to shift and requires collaboration between remote workers and office workers. Digital transformation has accelerated across every organisation. And customer expectations have shifted. And spending habits are moving away from in-person activities to online. So have employees.

The more things and work – and expectations go online. The more we have to digitally transform. HR is no exception and some might argue it is now at the forefront of this change. And so according to the Fortune Business Insights™

“Human Resource (HR) Technology Market, 2021-2028. The market size for HR tech was USD 22.89 billion in 2020. It is projected to grow from USD 24.04 billion in 2021 to USD 35.68 billion in 2028 at a CAGR of 5.8% in the forecast period.”

This is at a time of slow down for much of the economy. And so we cannot say that technology helping HR people isn’t a BIG business opportunity. It is. And for some that’s a warning signal already. The HRTech sector has over 21K+ startups. That comprises companies providing technology for human resource solutions to enterprises. This includes companies offering services like hiring, managing , engaging , training and supporting employees.

Which is why you could count YourFLOCK in as HR Tech. We think we are more team engagement. Employee experience. Or employee engagement and people analytics – but that’s a different conversation.

The numbers don’t lie.

According to HR Technology 2021: “The Definitive Guide” report” published by Josh Bersin.

More than 12.1 million employers in the U.S. spend over $5 trillion on payroll, benefits, training and other employee programs.

Likewise, the L&D marketplace is worth more than $240 billion per year. And recruitment, advertisement, assessment and interviewing tools account for a $250 billion-plus market. Whilst the market for wellbeing, benefits, insurance, workplace tools, and workplace productivity systems. Is predicted to be just as large.

HRTech is also one of the most active sectors for investors. With an overall funding of USD 51.5B in 5.1K+ companies. It is also interesting to note that half of the funding has been raised in the last 3 years (2018-2020).

So if a lot of investors and money is going into HR tech. Does this proof that worries are unfounded? As with their huge legal teams. Most investors would have already done their due diligence?

WHAT ABOUT FOR THE REST OF US?

Well this depends who you are. Do you work in HR? And if so are you at the cutting edge as Forbes points out:

“HR, by definition, is a people-profession. And it is people who drive businesses, yet this very human, personal industry appears completely at ease with digital transformation. As a new generation of hr tech startups deliver a competitive edge for employers in the battle to attract and retain top talent.”

But this desire to be at the forefront of the competitive edge is a double edged sword. Being first gives you an early adopter advantage but what if this comes with a risk?

The legal points around using technologies like Your FLOCK. Our team engagement platform – are clear. You simply ask your people to be part of it. You cannot enforce it.

You could make it part of your recruitment process. As we do not use AI and any implicit potential biases from our technology. Our machine learning helps people with their own values. And helps highlight their own internal wants and motivations.

From an HR pov – Your FLOCK is much more about before anything becomes an HR issue. We also purposefully do not integrate with other systems to make sure no future legal issue can be made.

We also work in the professional sectors including law and know many law firms and so far. No one has said we might have a future issue. And therefore we believe our customers won’t either. Our customers are also primarily small law firms and legal teams – so if anyone would know it would be them.

However, for a more cut and dry approach. It’s worth knowing where the law is presently in the UK. As you as an employer may choose to monitor your staff for any of the following reasons:

To safeguard their employees or members of the public. For e.g. health and safety reasons, prevent violence and theft of belongings. Trickier to state when people are working from home…
To protect business interests to prevent crime, theft or misconduct. Or misappropriation of intellectual property. Also in regards to business secrets. By employees or members of the public) and ensure that Company policies are not broken
To ensure quality of customer services (which can also highlight training needs for their employees.) And assess and improve productivity
To comply with legal and regulatory obligations
To ensure communications such as e-mails, internet usage and phone calls are only relevant to the business.

We at Your FLOCK as a team engagement platform. Which uses machine learning. To help train your employees around strengthening their own values. And giving feedback to team leaders. We come under the “training needs” part of the above.

However, remote monitoring may range from random spot checks of emails and internet use to installing more invasive software that records laptop screens and calls, and tracks keyboard use.

Under the GDPR and DPA, any processing of personal data must have a specific, explicit and legitimate purpose. A legitimate purpose for monitoring employees may be, for example:

– to safeguard the security of personal data while employees are working remotely,

– to ensure compliance with legal obligations

– to ensure an employee is performing their obligations under an employment contract.

And it’s interesting to note – that this goes even further – as according to legal firm – Gannon’s website, company

“directors can be held to account, if the company fails to monitor employees activities. Directors who fail to properly manage employees face regulatory authorities and shareholders.”

So does this mean companies can use Spyware:

Spyware technology may seem sneaky, but that doesn’t stop it being permissible in UK law.

“Simply put, it is legal for your boss to track your work,” says Boma Adoki, an employment expert at Surrey-based law firm Stevens & Bolton LLP. “However, your boss does not have free rein to track staff as they please. Employee monitoring is a complex area, and there are various legal rules that deal with monitoring staff.”

Luckily for you, using Your FLOCK doesn’t spy on employees. It asks employees for feedback. This helps with employee engagement and helps the happiness of your employees.