Technology has been a pioneer in bringing the waves of change in several industries. With the introduction of AI and ML, it has unleashed numerous opportunities for the automated world. However, when it comes to Human Resources the technology is yet to be adopted in a widespread fashion. The emphasis on research on employee behavior or employee development plans etc is significant but when it comes to the adoption of technology in the HRMS, it is still somewhat lagging. The main emphasis while developing BizMerlinHR was to ensure that it comes with the latest technology trends and be a leader in HRMS space. BizMerlinHR is the most advanced Human Resources Management Software that is based on the strong foundation of Artificial Intelligence and Natural Language Processing. BizMerlinHR has paved a way for others to follow, as we have the most advanced and comprehensive software that understands the language the users speak – more so “type-in”. The software will calculate and tell you the days of vacation left if the user asks “What is my PTO balance?” or “What is my vacation balance?” With a motivation to provide the best AI-powered Human Capital Management System as a software solution to unlock the best in people, Dr. Amrinder Arora (Co-founder and CEO) founded BizMerlinHR.
“An HCM solution cannot be called “modern” if it cannot give you insights that you never knew could be extracted,” says Dr. Arora. Prior to co-founding BizMerlinHR, he had extensive experience in consulting engagements. Over the years, he has managed to integrate his experience and talent to build numerous products. Currently, 8 Million plus people have been using his envisioned and designed products daily.
In conversation with Dr. Amrinder Arora, we explored his unique POV towards the HR industry and how he with his team is building HR products for the modern world. He has also highlighted the response of BizMerlinHR towards the chaos caused by COVID-19. Here are the snippets,
What are your views on the current havoc of the COVID-19 situation?
The COVID-19 situation is unprecedented, and all of us are simply trying to deal with it to the best of our abilities. On a personal front, I’m optimistic about the situation. While it presents numerous challenges, it also presents an opportunity for businesses to rethink the dynamics of the work environment, given the remote working forced upon by social distancing norms of COVID-19. And while many would want for things to return back to pre-COVID times after an effective vaccine is available, things are unlikely to go back to the same old way of doing things. Rather I expect an efficient compromise between office and remote working. The Covid situation also taught us that for an organization to stay afloat and working, it has to depend on the strong HR software that would ensure compliance at all levels of employee journey in the organization. And if the organization is not up-to-date with the technology, the current times might warrant investment in the right HR technologies that will allow them to stay ahead of changing workplace dynamics and evolving HR policies that is bound to impact all aspects of HR from hiring to onboarding of new employees to conducting performance management to talent management
In regards to COVID-19, how have you innovated or leveraged the solutions of BizMerlinHR?
BizMerlinHR offers a distinctive bouquet of innovative products that inhabit unique features. Our goal has always been to maintain productivity, and especially in such unprecedented times, we leveraged some key features like,
1. Send Announcements to Keep Everyone in the Loop
As the COVID-19 situation evolves with each day, you will find yourself making announcements to update your employees with your organization’s plans and policies. It is often more appropriate to make announcements for a group rather than sending out an email.
2. Sick Leaves
Falling sick is never fun, but getting pulled down by the novel coronavirus has its implications. The federal government has requested employers to provide paid sick leave benefits to all employees calling-in sick because of COVID-19. We allow you to track sick leaves related to the coronavirus – you can create a new leave type and policy.
3. Integration with Zoom for ease of interviewing candidates – This is a life saver and time saver for the talent acquisition team as they schedule the online interviews to select the right talent for the open positions.
4. Check-Ins to allow for online coaching of employees
5. Custom Reports
With the changing needs of your organization due to COVID-19, you can document and create custom reports for the information that is most relevant to you.
Have you and your team of BizMerlinHR adapted to the “new normal”?
We are committed to providing support and assistance throughout the major milestones of our employees’ life. We all have a very healthy relationship with each other where we trust each other on getting the work done. Changing policies and needs, arising from the unprecedented scenario created by the COVID-19 pandemic, demanded a special approach to function. We have always kept our team members’ health as a top priority. Even with remote working, our teammates were swift to transit to the “new normal” without losing productivity.
Did you undertake any special measures to ensure productivity?
BizMerlinHR team is structured on ownership and responsibility of their work. Each team member is responsible for their line of work and their delivery schedules. Obviously such great autonomous structure comes with a lot of trust and respect for each other. But nonetheless, remote working has raised the need for innovative tech solutions to ensure the smooth transition of work. Consequently, as most of the employees were working from home we needed a system to track remote working hours. This Time Tracking approach has helped us to keep track of the working hours. Apart from Time Tracking, we have inbuilt integrations with Jira, which makes project management easier, especially with remote workforces.
Furthermore, we also scheduled regular check-ins. These check-ins make remote work much easier and more effective. Having a 1-1 session with the managers, ease some of the anxieties that have arisen because of this unpredictable situation.
Despite the uncertainties and problems surrounding you, how did you keep yourself motivated?
I derive my strength from my customers. For example, this big multinational company extended the usage of BizMerlinHR in their other subsidiaries in different countries. It is satisfying to see satisfied and happy customers. The biggest complement was when they told us the NLP search not only worked perfectly in English but also in their native language. That is when I knew we had created a beautiful product and this motivates me and the team to develop such productive and time saving features that take the user experience to the next realm.
Has the outbreak affected the set goals for the year?
The focus of our product development team has always been to offer a solution that has a strong foundation in technology and stays versatile enough to adapt to the latest technology trends. By far we have been successful in offering our customers the best in-store—despite the crisis— and we aim to continue to do so.
Is there any outlined roadmap for 2021?
Yes, for the year 2020 and 2021 we are aiming to strengthen the customer experience by developing on AI and NLP. For now, BizMerlinHR remains entirely focused on human capital management solutions. However, within this solution space, there are numerous sub solutions where you will continue to see BizMerlinHR play increasingly substantial roles.
Further, due to increased synergy between our partners and BizMerlinHR HCM, we will be strengthening and streamlining our integrations with Microsoft, Amazon, and Atlassian.
Lastly, is there any advice you have for aspiring business leaders?
If you believe in your vision, you must accept setbacks and challenges even if at that moment they look insurmountable. As you grow, the challenges always grow with you, and you are then able to laugh away the challenges of yesterday and are ready to take on the bigger challenges of today.
