The HR industry has grown exponentially in the previous decade. With the rise of Artificial Intelligence enabled solutions, the industry is witnessing the expansion of the gig economy and the escalating drive for more diversity. The COVID-19 pandemic has also played a vital role in this change. The disruption it caused has significantly redefined the traditional methods of work. The industry has switched to non-traditional HR solutions that provide ease of customized configurations and flexibility to the evolving HR process and policies.
Elena Correas the Chief Growth Officer of BizMerlinHR aims to capitalize on this rising demand of the industry. She is responsible for developing the company’s culture, modeling values, forming the senior management team, and devising a strategy and direction. Along with that, Elena also supervises the functions of executive leaders, including directors, vice presidents, and presidents. Her diligence and inspirational leadership skills have truly maximized the strategic value of human capital management.
In an intriguing conversation with Mirror Review, Elena shared insights into the role of leadership in the success of BizMerlinHR along with the effects of the pandemic on the future of the industry. Here are some highlights.
What makes BizMerlinHR unique?
BizMerlinHR was established in 2013, since then we have seen prolific growth. We offer a robust and comprehensive solution covering the entire life cycle of the employee, from the search and selection process to retirement. Our software platform consists of a variety of code-free configurable advanced features, including support for seamless drag-and-drop integrations. Our unique solutions enable easy hiring, onboarding, performance guiding, and training.
Our software platform provides flexible and customizable centralized employee records that can be accessed anytime in multiple languages and locales. The configurable 360-degree feedback system fostered by us promotes a healthy work environment and brings the employees closer. Our recruiting systems help evaluate applicant information and hire the best candidate. The clients can equip their team with better candidates, by using a simple intuitive interface.
Additionally, our software also supports Google Workspace, Microsoft 365, Salesforce, Slack, Jira, Hubspot, and Zoom with homegrown out-of-the-box connectors. BizMerlinHR has an open API, so our team continues to add more features to it over time. It can deliver an agile and scalable framework of apps tailored to each customer’s individual needs without costly integrations and custom extensions.
What is the role of leadership in your company?
At BizMerlinHR, we focus our leadership on the development of careers by providing ample opportunities to our employees to lead themselves. Starting with curiosity about the person, we gradually lead to the product, the customer, and then the industry. As a company, we cherish creative solutions while facing challenges. We encourage solutions that start with ‘what if.’
Our teams work together to devise unique solutions and leverage the collective mind for a common purpose. That is the kind of leadership we try to promote. We certainly see this requires things to move fast, have a strong sense of ownership, and a pang of hunger for ‘always better’.
How has the role of the leader changed over the years?
One of the most important changes I’ve seen recently is the willingness of leaders to acknowledge social issues within their organizations. I’m referring to movements like #MeToo, Black Lives Matter, LGBTQ+, and many others. Companies are a microcosm of the larger societies we live in. Thinking we don’t need to look inside our organizations, means not understanding our influence. There is a long way to go, but things are bound to change.
Enlist the notable achievements and highlights of your journey.
BizMerlinHR was recently named the “Cool Vendors in Human Capital Management: Technology Innovations to Support the Future of Work” by Magic Quadrant author Gartner. Our company is deemed cool as it provides organizations with choices apart from the usual, one-size-doesn’t-fit-all model.
Earlier in 2017, we claimed multiple awards, including Best Company Culture, Best CEO, Best Company for Women, Best Company for Diversity, Best Companies in DC, Best Company Leadership, Best Company Managers, Best Teams, and Best Company Outlook. Our efforts were highly praised as we were also ranked within the 20 Promising Cloud-Based Solutions.
Additionally, over the past years, Amrinder Arora, the CEO of BizMerlinHR was rated as one of the ‘Top 10 CEOs of 2020.’ The IndiaWest featured him together with Google’s Sundar Pichai and Microsoft’s Satya Nadella as a part of the top 50 best CEOs for Diversity.
In your opinion, how has COVID-19 influenced the industry?
Organizations have impulsively begun to ‘shop’ for talent in external talent markets to address unanticipated short-term requirements. Inversely, many organizations overlook the internal workforce’s availability, potential, and desire to satisfy these demands. The fundamental requirements to enable new methods of working are changing rapidly and the need for configurable, agile, and scalable HR systems is on the rise.
Initially, remote and hybrid workforce initiatives drew a lot of attention, and it sparked a lot of fascination for the future of work. However, it also acted as a reminder to the enterprises to upgrade their HR applications to respond to these dynamic upheavals.
What does the future of the company hold for the industry and the customers?
We are currently working to expand BizMerlinHRs’ customer experience by introducing support for AI and NLP. Within the human capital management space, the company will offer sub-solutions and continue to play an important role. It will focus on its relationship with payroll management systems and others. Because of the increasing synergy, we are continuously working to enhance and streamline our integrations and partnerships in the ecosystem.
BizMerlinHR will constantly work on enhancing its propositions so that the clients can focus on their efficiency. We aim to offer an effortless HR experience. It should be invisible until intended while playing a viable cross-functional role appropriately.
Elena Recommends: Books and podcasts by Brene Brown—the author of ‘Daring Greatly’ and the host of ‘Dare to Lead.”
Read full issue: The 10 Pioneering Business Leaders, 2021
